Heritage Cases

We are applying for an export permit to undertake further cryptotephra dating of samples from Vleesbaai Area C (VBC). We recently identified cryptotephra from the Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT), an eruption dating to 74 ka, at Vleesbaai Area B (VBB) (Smith et al., 2018). With this discovery, we were able to tightly correlate deposits from VBB and Pinnacle Point 5-6, a neighboring site along the coast. The YTT has also been successfully identified at Kathu Pan 6 (KP6), Diepkloof Rock Shelter (DRS), and Klasies River Site (KRS). These results are still in the preliminary stages; however, they demonstrate the widespread nature of YTT throughout South Africa and the potential to use this technique to precisely date and link archaeological sites throughout the region. The Vleesbaai archaeological sites (Area B and C) are especially important because there is little known about open air Middle Stone Age archaeological sites (Oestmo et al., 2014) and VBB is one of the first to have cryptotephra identified. Therefore, our next research goal is to identify cryptotephra at VBC, which is located roughly 1 km east of VBB. Identifying cryptotephra will allow us to date the deposits at VBC to 74 ka and provide a tight correlation to neighboring sites that also contain YTT. OSL samples were collected from a geological trench near the Vleesbaai excavation areas and date the basal deposits to 120 ka and the top sediments to roughly 50 ka. While OSL dating is key to understand the timing of occupation, it can have error ranges up to 10% which makes it essential to have alternative dating methods to test the age model. Identifying cryptotephra at VBC will allow us to further test this age model of the Vleesbaai archaeological sites. Therefore, for this project, we propose to sample VBC for cryptotephra so we can more accurately place it on a reliable and comparable timeline with surrounding sites. Additionally, we will use cryptotephra to test the current age model that has been established using OSL dating. Samples necessary for this project only consist of sediment. No archaeological material was included. All samples were piece-plotted and recorded. Samples will be analyzed by the Sediment and TEphra Preparation (STEP) Laboratory at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Cryptotephra Laboratory for Archaeological and Geological Research (CLAGR) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). We are undertaking this project in collaboration with Dr. Eugene Smith, manager of cryptotephra lab at UNLV.