Fieldwork in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province
Guilhelm Mauran, Ghilraen Laue, Lyn Wadley, Christine Sievers, Wim Biemond, Doreen Versfeld in Kaingo Rock Shelter.
Earlier this month Ghilraen Laue from the Museum’s Department of Human Sciences joined a team from the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand for fieldwork in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province. Under the leadership of Professor Lyn Wadley the team opened up a 2 x 1 metre trench for excavation, in a rock shelter on the Private Game Reserve, Kaingo. During the two-week excavation season, the team dug the Later Stone Age deposits in the shelter with finds including beautifully crafted stone tools, ostrich eggshell beads, botanical remains including seeds, and Iron Age pottery fragments. Charcoal was recovered for 14C dating. Two pigment samples from the unusual rock paintings were taken for analysis. Publication of the finds and on the pigment samples will follow once analysis is complete.
The excavation trench ready for the finds to be mapped. Note that the shelter floor has been lined with geotextile to minimize dust which can damage the paintings.
One of the stone artefacts found: a tiny scraper.
