Cave and rock shelter sediments of southern Africa: a review of the chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental record from Marine Isotope Stage 6 to 1

Abstract

Caves and rock shelters contribute important records to local, regional and sub-continental reconstructions of environment and climate change through the southern African Quaternary. Against a backdrop of pronounced climate change, the archaeological record of the Marine Isotope Stage 6 to 1 period in southern Africa documents a remarkable time in the behavioural and technological evolution of anatomically modern humans. Significant evidence of this evolution is represented in diverse components of the sedimentary record in caves and rock shelters in the region. We present a catalogue of published caves and rock shelters in southern Africa that preserve temporally-relevant clastic and chemical palaeoclimatic proxies in order to: (1) facilitate the integration of cave and rock shelter sedimentary data into broader, regional chronostratigraphically-correlated palaeoclimatic sequences; and (2) identify possible areas and proxies that require focused research in the future. To demonstrate the complexity of the Marine Isotope Stage 6 to 1 stratigraphic record and use of palaeoenvironmental proxies, we present three case studies representing interior and coastal contexts: Border Cave, Klasies River Mouth and Pinnacle Point. These examples aptly demonstrate the challenges of these contexts, but also the opportunities for palaeoenvironmental research in southern Africa when conducted through integrated, multidisciplinary approaches. Published records of palaeoenvironmental research from cave and rock shelter sequences in southern Africa are heavily biased to the South African coastal areas and the record is temporally and spatially fragmented. However, there are interesting patterns in the chronostratigraphic record and in the distribution of sites within the context of the geology and vegetation ecology of southern Africa that require further exploration. There are also promising techniques in stable isotope analysis that can be applied to abundant sedimentary components found in the region’s caves and rock shelters, and in its museums.