Sites

The Kathu Cemetery is situated a few kilometres north of the town and lies east of the  N14 main road from Upington to Vryburg (27°40’21”S 023°04’34”E Altitude 1241m). Archaeological investigations by Beaumont between 1982 and 1992 produced an abundance of early Stone Age or Acheulian hand axes, cores and crude blades in and around Kathu. These artefacts were topologically uniform. The site at Uitkoms 463 covers less than 1km² and the excavations produced about 8000 artefacts per m². From these finds, Peter Beaumont estimates that the area could contain the astronomic number of about 10 billion flaked tools (Beaumont 2004:52). The site containing Early Stone Age (ESA) or Acheulian hand axes was discovered during the first visit by the author (1 June 2006) to the farm Hartnolls 458 outside Kathu. An elaborate number of artefacts were found scattered on the surface. The artefacts were well preserved and without any patination or erosion. More
artefacts were collected during a second visit to the site in November 2006 and during a third visit, accompanied by Beaumont in December 2006. The Dreyer site is located east of the cemetery and is designated as Uitkoms 4 by
Beaumont (27°40’18”S. 023°04’51”E Altitude 1261m) (Beaumont 2007). The soil surface slopes up the hill towards the east. Certain areas along the incline contain material and flakes indicating stone tool manufacturing activities in the
region. The artefacts are located at the foot of the slope where it had been covered by red sterile sand. Some municipal authority was removing sand during our second visit, and it is possible that the stone artefacts are exposed by the removal of
the sand.