The Edge: More on Fire-Making by about 1.7 Million Years Ago at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa

@article{Beaumont2011TheEM,
  title={The Edge: More on Fire-Making by about 1.7 Million Years Ago at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa},
  author={Peter Beaumont},
  journal={Current Anthropology},
  year={2011},
  volume={52},
  pages={585 - 595}
}
  • P. Beaumont
  • Published 1 August 2011
  • Environmental Science
  • Current Anthropology
Located close to the Kalahari in central South Africa is a large dolomitic cave called Wonderwerk, in the stratified sediments of which there is evidence for fire-making that ranges from the end of the Later Stone Age to the very base of the Acheulean. That discovery is seen to be in accord with findings from four other regional sites, which together provide evidence that can be construed as support for fire-making over almost the same time span. 
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45 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
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Background Citations
17
Methods Citations
2

45 Citations

Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa
TLDR
Micromorphological and Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy analyses of intact sediments at the site of Wonderwerk Cave provide unambiguous evidence—in the form of burned bone and ashed plant remains—that burning took place in the cave during the early Acheulean occupation, approximately 1.0 Ma.
TRACING THE EMERGENCE OF PALAEOART IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
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The Acheulean in South Africa, with announcement of a new site (Penhill Farm) in the lower Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Pleistocene Palaeoart of Africa
This comprehensive review of all currently known Pleistocene rock art of Africa shows that the majority of sites are located in the continent's south, but that the petroglyphs at some of them are of…
Chauvet Cave rock art by ‘Neanderthals’
The attribution of the rock art in Chauvet Cave to the Aurignacian and the challenges to its dating are reviewed. Similarly, the dominant view that the palaeoart of the Early Upper Palaeolithic…
The owl that never left! Taphonomy of Earlier Stone Age small mammal assemblages from Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa)
The Acheulian Site at Rodafnidia, Lisvori, on Lesbos, Greece: 2010–2012
Rodafnidia is an Acheulian site on Lesbos Island, in the north-east Aegean Sea. This chapter presents the model that guided Paleolithic investigations on the island, the history of research, and the…
Pleistocene Micromammals and Their Predators at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa
TLDR
It is concluded from the taphonomic evidence that the main predator responsible for the small mammal assemblages in the two lower-most strata at the site, was a category 1 predator, likely the barn owl Tyto alba.
Thermal alterations in experimentally-flaked stone tools from Olduvai Gorge and their relevance for identification of fire in the Early Stone Age
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References

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Located between Danielskuil and Kuruman in the Northern Cape province of South Africa is Wonderwerk Cave, where excavations from 1978 to 1996 revealed a ~6-m depth of deposits made up of nine…
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