South Africa
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa by Jay T
The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa comprises three sites related to the origins of modern human behaviour.
They are caves and rock shelters, where stone tools, charcoals, ashes, skulls and bones of homo sapiens have been found. Some caves showed evidence of bone tools, arrowheads, marine shell beads, grass bedding and medicinal plants.
Community Perspective: The easiest component to visit is Pinnacle Point in Mossel Bay, as described by Jay and Lauren. Tamas made a surprise visit to Sidubu Cave in 2002.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa (ID: 1723)
- Country
- South Africa
- Status
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Inscribed 2024
Site history
History of The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa
- WHS Type
- Cultural
- Criteria
- iii
- iv
- v
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- cradleofhumanculture.co.za — Diepkloof Rock Shelter
- humanorigin.co.za — Pinnacle Point Complex
Community Information
- Community Category
- Paleontology: Human evolution
Travel Information
Guided Tour Only
Recent Connections
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Name changes
Upon inscription, from "The Emergence o… -
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
"The stratigraphy of the Middle Stone A… -
Ongoing Archaeological digs
Sibhudu Cave: "Ongoing excavations by t…
Connections of The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa
- Geography
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Atlantic Ocean
Pinnacle Point Site Complex buffer zone extends to the coastline and may be extended into the ocean
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- History
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Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
"The stratigraphy of the Middle Stone Age layers at the three component parts together shows that the dated levels reflect a reliable and sequential record of human behaviour through many tens of thousands of years, reaching back as far as 162,000 BP." - "The Diepkloof Rock Shelter component part (...) has the most complete and continuous Middle Stone Age sequences in southern Africa, from pre-Still Bay to post-Howiesons Poort periods (from before 130,000 BP to about 50,000 BP)." - "Sibhudu was occupied during the Middle Stone Age from about 120,000 to 38,000 years ago and presents a complex but clear stratigraphy of more than fifty exceptionally well-preserved Middle Stone Age layers"." (AB Ev) -
"Cave Man" sites
"archaeological component parts located in rock shelters and caves." (AB ev) -
Early Hominid Remains
"Sibhudu is the only one that produced human remains dating as far back as 77,000 years ago" (homo sapiens) (AB ev) -
Historical Food Remains
"Even though Diepkloof has never been on the coast, faunal evidence, such as dolphin vertebrae and seal bones, suggests that the Middle Stone Age groups occupying the rock shelters based their hunting strategies around resources that were available at the coast." (AB ev)
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- Human Activity
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Ongoing Archaeological digs
Sibhudu Cave: "Ongoing excavations by the German University of Tübingen keep producing more material." - "Sibhudu Cave is currently under excavation." (AB Ev - 2024) -
Pictographs
"Diepkloof 2 is recognised for its rock art." (AB ev) (they're paintings, see link)
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- Timeline
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Middle Pleistocene
"the development of modern human behaviour, reaching back as far as 162,000 years" (AB ev)
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- Science and Technology
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Archaeological potential
Diepkloof: "About ten percent of the volume and twenty-five percent of the area of Diepkloof 1 has been excavated to date." - Pinnacle Point: "Even though there is currently no active excavation permit for the site, excavations are planned from 2023 until 2031." (AB ev) -
Recently discovered
Sibudu Cave (1983)
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- Visiting conditions
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Guided Tour Only
"The nominated component parts are fragile and not able to receive large numbers of visitors....For all three sites, visitor groups are limited to twelve to fifteen people per guide"
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- WHS Names
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Name changes
Upon inscription, from "The Emergence of Modern Humans: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa" to "The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa"
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News
No news.
Recent Visitors
Reserved for members.Community Reviews
Show full reviewsLittle Lauren Travels
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites Of South Africa
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa (Inscribed)
I visited one of the three inscribed sites, Pinnacle Point, near Mossel Bay. It was the only one of the inscribed sites that had readily available online information about how to visit, and it’s an easy stop when driving the Garden Route.
Tours are arranged in advance, via WhatsApp, and occur daily at 9, 11, 1, and 3. They arranged a special tour for us at an extra fee, which was so kind, to accommodate other activities in the area. The actual site is a series of caves under the golf course in a gated community. Although locals knew of the caves for some time, the archaeological assessment in connection with building the golf course led to further study. The golf course went ahead, but the caves are preserved and recently opened for visits.
The tour itself lasted around 90 minutes and was one of our highlights of the Garden Route. The guide explained that these caves were important in understanding that humans were more sophisticated than previously thought around 100,000 years ago. Different floor layers from different periods in history have been preserved, showing things like dyes used for decorative paint, much earlier than previously thought
The tour does involve around 200 steps down to the caves and back up. As a bonus, the views of the Indian Ocean and surrounding coast as incredible.
Keep reading 0 commentsJay T
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites Of South Africa
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa (Inscribed)
It took me until my second visit to Mossel Bay, but I was finally able to visit Pinnacle Point, one of the three components of The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa, last week. The Pinnacle Point Complex consists of a number of caves along the Indian Ocean coast that scientists believe were occupied for over 125,000 years. Of these caves, 13B is accessible to the public via a cave tour which can be booked through the Point of Human Origins website.
The first time I visited Mossel Bay, I spent a good part of the morning on a hike along the incredibly scenic St. Blaize trail along the Indian Ocean coast. I'm very happy I did the hike, but it came at the cost of arranging a visit to Pinnacle Point, since I had limited time in town. When I booked a trip to South Africa that included another visit to Mossel Bay this month, I made sure to contact the site in advance to schedule a tour. Originally I was the only person booked for the tour, but after talking with friends I'd made on a trivia team while traveling, they expressed interest in coming along too, and it turned out to be a wonderful day out.
The Pinnacle Point Complex sits midway down sea cliffs along the Indian Ocean, and below a posh country club housing development. We met Christopher, our guide, in front of the clubhouse, and proceeded …
Keep reading 0 commentsSzucs Tamas
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites Of South Africa
The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa (Inscribed)
I've just recently realized that one of the oddest episodes of my 2002 South Africa trip became a WH site. That time somebody from ZA convinced some Central European tour operators, that Durban could be an ideal holiday destination for the middle class of New Europe, who are much less safety sensitive - and much more price sensitive - than the Westerners. A Slovak charter airline - with the least creative name ever: Travel Service - launched a weekly service from Budapest to Durban - with Boeing737s, absolutely incapable of long-haul trips. We had two interim stops - in Aswan and Zanzibar - to refill the plane, during the 12-hour flight in seats designed for the Spanish Inquisition.
For the inauguration flight, a group of Central Europan journalists, tour operators and other experts was invited by the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Board for a two-week field trip. The first week was ok - we visited the must-see destinations of KZN from St Lucia Wetland Park to Drakensberg. Most of the group flew back after this week - only some of us remained. That week we were introduced to tier-two sites, that had - according to our partners - "great potential". Some of these - like Hluhluwe - were really interesting, but some were rather disappointing like sidubu cave, that's now on the list We just stopped once at a place that was said to be sacred for the Zulu people and - we were told - that important archaeological excavations were …
Keep reading 0 comments