Heritage Cases

MOTIVATION FOR EXPORT OF 10 OSTRICH EGGSHELL BEADS The excavation at Kaingo Rock Shelter in September, 2021, yielded Later Stone Age cultural remains: microlithic scrapers, backed tools and great numbers of ostrich eggshell beads (>350 from this first excavation) – some extremely small and well made. What is noticeable is the residue on the beads. When beads are worn as part of necklaces, they probably accumulate human skin and oil. In principle, it should be possible to get human DNA from the bead residues. Dr Carina Schlebusch is a human DNA expert in Sweden (we do not have this expertise in South Africa) and has published several high profile papers on DNA of African peoples. Thus, if there is sufficient DNA preserved, she should be able to determine which group of people was wearing the beads by analysing the residues on them. This study is important because three groups of people potentially occupied Kaingo Rock Shelter and all three would have been in the western Waterberg more-or-less contemporaneously. We know that San hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking farmers interacted in the Waterberg and that in the early period of interaction somewhat more than 1000 years ago, there was a symbiotic relationship between the two groups. However, we also think that Khoi herders passed through the area and that they had fat-tailed sheep. There is an unusually large painting of a fat-tailed sheep in the Kaingo Shelter. The painting is not typical farmer ‘late white’ (painted with fingers dipped in paint), but it is also not typical of San art. Thus, one of the challenges at this site is deciding authorship of both the art and the artefacts in the ground. A DNA study might answer the question. Dr Schlebusch has requested ten beads from which she can remove the oily residues. These will be sent by courier to her laboratory: Dr C. Schlebusch Human Evolution Program, Department of Organismal Biology Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University Kåbovägen 4 SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden Mobile number: +46 76 306 3341 Email: cschlebu@gmail.com or carina.schlebusch@ebc.uu.se Webpage: http://www.iob.uu.se/research/human-evolution/schlebusch/ The proveniences of the Kaingo beads are recorded in the attached table. Square Layer Plan Total Station plot Bucket Point E2 Dark Grey 2 123 135 E2 Dark Grey 2 - 135 E2 Dark Greyish Brown 1 1136 1170 E2 Dark Greyish Brown 2 1622 1677 E2 Dark Greyish Brown 2 1623 1677 E2 Dark Greyish Brown 2 1629 1677 E2 Dark Greyish Brown 2 1641 1677 D2 Olive Brown Rocky 1 227 231 D2 Surface 1 28 41 D2 Dark Greyish Brown 3 1408 1481