Early Acheulean tool discovery researched and documented

By Colin Ford

A research article has been published in the South African Archaeological Bulletin detailing the discovery of stone tools at the archaeological excavation at Maropeng. The article, entitled “Acheulean artefacts at Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Gauteng Province, South Africa”, was authored by a group of academics affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies.

“The find was noteworthy as it provided evidence of the first open-air site documenting earlier Acheulean activity in the area,” said Kathy Kuman, one of the authors of the article. “Until now, such artefacts have occurred only in very small numbers within a few of the early hominid underground cave sites, where hominids, fauna and artefacts were washed in from the surface.”

The tools discovered on the site, which include hand-axes and cleavers, were found to have been crafted in the earlier Acheulean period of the Stone Age, making them at least 1-million years old.

The artefacts were unearthed in August 2005 during the construction of the visitors’ centre at Maropeng, when scientists recognised a number of ancient artefacts amongst the rubble generated by bulldozers on the site. Excavations were undertaken between 2005 and 2007, uncovering hundreds of artefacts from the period scattered across the construction site.

Despite the fact that the earthworks compromised the retrieval of the materials, scientists have been able to establish strong similarities between all the tools discovered in the vicinity, strongly suggesting that the area was inhabited by hominids in the early Acheulean period.

Tools of the Acheulean period first appeared in Africa about 1.7-million or 1.6-million years ago. Several of the Cradle of Humankind hominid sites, including Sterkfontein Caves and Swartkrans, have yielded early Acheulean artefacts that archaeologists estimate are between 1.7-million and 1-million years old. Given their size and the level of technology used to make them, the oldest of the Maropeng artefacts are believed to be in the region of 1.5-million years old.

The findings have helped scientists to reconstruct past environments and build a clearer understanding of climatic changes that impacted on hominid occupations in the Cradle of Humankind. Artefacts from the early Acheulean period are on public display at the Maropeng Exhibition Centre.

A copy of the research article may be requested from Kathy Kuman.