Heritage Cases

To whom it may concern I herewith submit my application the get permit to export 18 splintered pieces from the layers AVA and BIB at the MSA site Holley Shelter for the purpose of non-destructive use wear and residue analysis at the Traceolab, Liège. In 2015 I published the archaeological material excavated at the site in the 1950s by Gordon Cramb and now stored at the KZN Museum Pietermaritzburg. I was able to detect 3 different occupational horizons at Holley Shelter, all associated with the Middle Stone Age (MSA). For more detailed information please find the article attached, which was published in 2015 in the Southern African Archaeological Bulletin. Since 2022 I am conducting new excavations at Holley Shelter (Permit ID:3450). Despite the excellent preservation conditions and interesting observations at the archaeological material, until today there are no absolute chronometric ages for Holley Shelter available. In my paper from 2015 I suggested that the site might date to the late Marine Isotope Stage 3 but this was purely based on typological comparison. The new excavations at Holley Shelter aim to get absolute chronometric ages for the different occupational horizons at the site and to investigate human material culture as well as the paleoenvironmental record of the area on a multidisciplinary scale. All artefacts and ecofacts are systematically collected using the Tübingen system of excavation used in the last years at other sites such as Sibhudu and Umbeli Belli. Artifacts larger and particularly significant finds are piece-plotted individually using a Leica Total Station. Features are identified and excavated with great care, and all buckets of sediment are screened through 10 and 1mm mesh in order to document even the smallest finds such as botanic seeds. After the first excavation campaign we can confirm the existence of intact archeological deposits. In the northern section of the site in the squares 12/57, 12/58 and 12/59 deposits are intact from the top. Below a 5-10 cm thick brown surface horizon containing modern plant remains and animal droppings we reached an orange brown (5YR 4/4) layer of sandy silt with several charcoal inclusions. Our layer taxonomy follows the system applied by the Sibhudu team of Nicholas Conard using names from top to bottom in alphabetical order. Due to the musical preference of the excavators we decided to name the layers in honor of our favorite rock and metal bands. Hence, the first layer is called AVA which is the abbreviation for Avantasia. Each layer is typically subdivided in fine subunits of 1-2 cm thickness and all artifacts bigger two cm plus identifiable bone, teeth, ochre etc. are piece plotted. AVA contains several small hearths, typical MSA stone artifacts and substantial amounts of bone, teeth and microfauna. Few of the stone tools are retouched but many of them have faceted platforms. Hornfels is by far the most common raw material but occasionally sandstone artifacts occur. AVA reaches a maximum thickness of 8-10 cm. Below AVA, layer BIB (Beast in Black) continues which is a grey (5YR 5/2) sandy silt. In the southern part (square 12/57) BIB contains a massive hearth expanding almost over the entire square and reaching over ~10 cm thickness so far. BIB is substantially richer in artifacts, including numerous splintered pieces from hornfels similar to the ones identified in the Cramb collection (Bader et al., 2015) lots of blades and points with faceted platforms as well as large amounts of well-preserved bone, teeth, microfauna and big pieces of charcoal. It is worth mentioning, that there seems to be a clear correlation between higher find densities and the hearth features whereas the surrounding areas contain only few artifacts. This correlates well with Cramb’s fieldnotes for this excavation area. BIB reached a thickness of 10-15 cm so far and this is where we stopped at the end of the first campaign. One of the most common tool types found in those layers are splintered pieces. Up until today little is known about the function of those pieces. Previous suggestions imply that they might have been intermediate wedges, woodworking tools or bipolar cores. In order to gain more information on the different aspects of those pieces, we intend to perform a non-invasive use wear and residue analysis on selected pieces from the layers AVA and BIB using high power microscopy. The pieces will be handled only with nitrile gloves and treated with great care. For the purpose of this analysis, we apply for a temporary export permit for 18 pieces (see list below) to the Traceolab in Liège, Belgium. The pieces will be analyzed under the supervision of Dr. Veerle Rots. After completion of the study, the pieces will be transported back to South Africa and curated at the KZN Museum in Pietermaritzburg. This will happen latest with the beginning of the excavation campaign in February 2024.