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AMS Radiocarbon Dating and Isotopic Analysis of Charcoal & Coprolite Materials from Equus Cave and Black Earth Cave, Taung World Heritage Site, South Africa

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On-going excavations at the Taung World Heritage site, Northwest Province has renewed research at Equus Cave (EQC) and Black Earth Cave (BEC). Research at these locations are critical for re-interpreting the chronology of Taung, beyond the well-known Australopithecus-bearing site. These lesser known sites preserve deposits potentially dating from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, which suggests the timing of Taung localities could stretch from the Pliocene to the Holocene. This would make the Taung World Heritage Sites preserves one of the longest chronological sequences in Southern Africa. However, there have been numerous challenges in developing a chronology for EQC and BEC. In 2012 and 2014, charcoal and coprolite materials were collected from these sites, which can be used for accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating and extracting date from pollen samples. Prof. Andy I.R. Herries has received funding through the Australian Research Council (ARC) to conduct such testing on this material to help clarify the chronology of EQC and BEC. As such, it is requested that charcoal and coprolite samples from EQC and BEC be shipped to La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia so advanced dating techniques can be carried out. The motivation to send these samples out of South Africa is that the majority of our funding to conduct post-excavation analyses on the EQC and BEC materials is funded through the ARC, and the facilities to conduct advanced dating on charcoal and pollen samples is available through LaTrobe University.

Expanded_Motivation: 

EQC is a problematic sites due to a lack of consistent dating for its stratigraphic layers (1A-2B). Vogel et al. (1986) provided the first dating scheme for the site, however they returned inconsistent results. Despite further attempts, Johnson et al. (1997) provided a stratigraphic sequence with associated dating samples, which highlights this issue. Thus the timing of infills at EQC remain unknown, which obscures interpretations of its human and animal occupation. This site contains an extensive fossil and archaeological assemblage, and the former represents the largest collection of late Pleistocene-early Holocene fauna in southern Africa. Nonetheless, understanding how these accumulations were formed remains elusive due to a lack of chronological context. It has been proposed that the site was largely a carnivore den with minimal human occupation (Klein et al., 1991), although our recent excavations may dispute this claim. Currently, the only two reliable dating sources have come from the uppermost stratigraphic unit (Layer 1A), which were charcoal samples taken from hearths and produced through radiocarbon dating (Vogel et al., 1986). Our 2012 excavations of a remnant talus slope unearthed an abundance of charcoal remains in conjuncture with archaeological material. As such, dating charcoal remains is critical for developing a chronology of this deposit. The sediments of the talus slope resemble those of the three lowest layers (1B-2B), in which charcoal remains were never reported. If this is the case, it could have important implications for EQC in terms of its occupational history. If the abundance of charcoal were to produce dates that are older than those known from Vogel et al.’s (1986) dates from this layer, then it might suggest a more complex history of human and animal occupation at EQC. BEC was first excavated as a part of the U.C. Berkeley-South African expedition of Taung led by Frank Peabody in the 1940’s (Peabody, 1954). Fossil and archaeological remains were recovered, along with two Homo remains. While we have identified three deposits (A-C) previously described by Peabody, and our excavations of BEC1 (corresponding to Gallery A) (see Peabody 1945) unearthed articulated faunal remains that provides evidence for the cave’s occupational history. Moreover, a large basal flowstone was identified at the site in 2012, and preliminary uranium-thorium (248U/230Th) analysis suggests it is older than 500 kya. Palaeomagnetic analysis returned that it could be younger than 780 kya (or possibly as old as 990 – 1.7 Ma), although further analysis is under way to resolve it chronology. In conjuncture with developing the dating scheme for BEC, charcoal remains were discovered in the BEC1 excavations in 2014. Thus, 14C-dating this material will aid in understanding the timing of these deposits in terms of the infill material were currently working in.

ApplicationDate: 

Monday, December 12, 2016 - 09:23

CaseID: 

10504

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