Kathu townlands: a high density earlier stone age locality in the interior of South Africa

Walker, Steven J H; Lukich, Vasa; Chazan, Michael

Kathu townlands: a high density earlier stone age locality in the interior of South Africa

Journal Article

2014

Journal Title

PLoS One

Link to Journal

http://journals.plos.org/plosone

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Archaeology

Faculty

Faculty of Science

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Abstract

Kathu Townlands is a high density Earlier Stone Age locality in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Here we present the first detailed information on this locality based on analysis of a sample of lithic material from excavations by P. Beaumont and field observations made in the course of fieldwork in 2013. The results confirm the remarkably high artefact density at Kathu Townlands and do not provide evidence consistent with high energy transport as a mechanism of site formation, suggesting that Kathu Townlands was the site of intensive exploitation of highly siliceous outcroppings of banded iron formation. The results presented here provide a first step towards understanding this complex locality and point to the need for further research and the importance of preserving this locality in the face of intensive and rapid development.