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A coastal cave in Knysna, South Africa, holds clues to early man.
Anthropologist Naomi Cleghorn and a team of researchers have uncovered never-before-seen evidence of early human evolution in the dirt near Knysna, South Africa.
The site is located inside in a coastal cave that overlooked a large, coastal plain 20,000 years ago, when sea levels were much lower. Dr. Cleghorn believes the spot dates to a rarely represented time period, between 18,000 and 44,000 years ago.
“There has been a lot of work done on sites dating back from 50,000 to 120,000 years ago, as well as plenty of research at sites from less than 18,000 years ago,” the assistant professor says. “However, there are only a few South African coastal sites dating between those time periods. The population in the region leading up to that era was one of the largest on Earth compared to other groups around the globe. But there’s a drop-off in sites dating between 18,000 to 44,000 years ago, and this needs an explanation. We got very lucky and found a site right in the sweet spot.”
Cleghorn’s work is part of a larger, international paleoscape project that brings together experts in climate modeling, archeology, agent-based modeling, and anthropology.
Her team includes researchers from South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and Canada, as well as current UT Arlington student Sara Watson, 2015 master’s degree graduates Erin Nichols and Christopher Shelton, and alumni Daniel Peart and Hannah Keller. The project was funded by a grant from the prestigious Leakey Foundation, which supports projects that examine the origins of early humans.
Cleghorn’s research promises to extend the conversation about what happened to humans living in South Africa so many millennia ago.
“The goal is to figure out what the population was doing during that time,” she says. “Was there really a de-population event, like some believe? Looking at it genetically, it doesn’t seem so. Others argue that a climate downturn may have had an impact on the population—we’ll be able to test that.”
Photograph by Hoberman Collection/Corbis
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