Heritage Cases

We are requesting permission to export prepared sediment samples for micromorphological analysis relevant to an archaeological project. This analysis is part of current archaeological work at Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (KEH Cave 1), under permit case number 130701TS06 from Heritage Western Cape. This site preserves a deposit dating from 44,000 to 19,000 years ago, a poorly known period in the southern Cape Floral Region, and a temporally unique site for this part of the South African coast. KEH Cave 1 provides a rare opportunity to examine the period of transition between the Middle and Later Stone Age in the context of a shifting Pleistocene shoreline. Test excavations at the site in 2014 exposed about 2 meters of stratigraphy. In 2015, we extended this section in order to better understand depositional context. Micromorphological analysis will provide detailed evidence of depositional processes and disturbance, and will thus be critical to our goal. Micromorphology is the microscopic analysis of sediments in their undisturbed position taken directly from an archaeological context. Dr. Ximena Villagran, Assistant Professor (Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil) collected samples from KEH-1 in August of 2015 in preparation for the analysis of these samples in Brazil. Dr. Villagran has done similar work at sites in Brazil and Argentina, and has published extensively on her work (Villagran, 2011, 2014; Villagran et al., 2011a, 2011b, 2011c; Estévez et al., 2014; Villagran and Giannini, 2014). Six samples were collected, including four from hearth features, and two from key sedimentary transitions within the KEH-1 stratigraphy. Each sample was less than 15 cm x 12 cm x 10 cm. The blocks were recorded extensively using photography and total station while in situ. They were encased in plaster for stability and removed from the section. Small holes were drilled in the surrounding plaster, and the samples were impregnated with polystyrene resin and hardened over a period of several weeks. The resin blocks, currently housed at the Diaz Museum in Mossel Bay, South Africa, are now fully dry and stable for shipping. The sample blocks will be shipped to Spectrum Petrographics in the United States. This firm will prepare petrographic thin sections from the resin blocks. These thin sections will then be sent to Dr. Villagran in Brazil for microscopic analysis. Following analysis, Dr. Villagran will return a representative sample of the thin sections and high resolution photos of all analytical samples to South Africa, to be archived with other finds from KEH-1.