Search

We conducted an anthracological analysis of charcoal remains from Border Cave's member 1RGBS to provide environmental context for the site's occupation ca. 74 ka. Charcoal specimens were analyzed to assess their quality and quantity, and identify their tree taxa to reconstruct the vegetation communities available to the site's occupants. Specimens were analyzed using light stereomicroscopy and following standard anthracology methods. We identified the tree taxa that grow predominantly in the savanna, forest, and grassland vegetation communities. Using the current distribution of these communities as a reference, we suggest that the archaeological Border Cave landscape included vegetation types that now grow in southern Africa's interior warm parts. Our data revealed that Tarchonanthus sp. was collected most abundantly at this time, possibly for its medicinal and cosmetic properties. Euphorbia species were also collected, perhaps for their latex before their wood was burned. Furthermore, green wood logs of Tarchonanthus sp. were burned or discarded into the fire; this is evidenced by the high proportion of fragments of this species bearing radial cracks. There may have been unfavorable environmental conditions in the archaeological landscape that resulted in the wood vessel occlusion of many trees. These were likely episodic microclimatic conditions around the cave during some growth phases of the trees. These conditions and their intensity, however, were not fatal to the trees in this dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the Sibudu Cave habitat that is dated to the late Pleistocene using archaeological wood charcoal, in order to reconstruct the environment and the activity of the people who interacted with the landscape. Standard anthracology procedures were applied in this qualitative study to analyse charcoal remains from the cave. A representative subset of charcoal remains was subsampled from a larger assemblage and environmental data, as well as evidence of wood use, are interpreted from 72 charcoal types that include 42 types that we identified taxonomically. We highlight that the environment at Sibudu supported a multi-layered Forest with Savanna vegetation based on the presence of many important taxa of these vegetation communities. The wood of the identified taxa has much rot fungi and was also burrowed by pests; however, it is not possible to infer at this stage if the fungi seen here were pathogenic. The presence of fungi is indicative of an environmental setting with high humidity and warm temperatures, such as is optimal for these types of fungi to flourish. Climatic conditions interpreted here agree with previous interpretations that were made from other environmental proxies. These conditions were only intense enough to disturb the microhabitat at Sibudu and did not change the vegetation near the cave. Also noted during the analysis, is that burning wood logs that were infected with brown rot consistently from c.73 to 72 ka probably produced very warm fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]