Pinnacle Point

Pinnacle Point is a small promontory immediately south of Mossel Bay, a town on the southern coast of South Africa. Excavations since the year 2000 of a series of caves at Pinnacle Point have revealed occupation by Middle Stone Age people between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago. The focus of excavations has been at Cave 13B (PP13B), where the earliest evidence for the systematic exploitation of marine resources (shellfish) and symbolic behavior have been documented,[1] and at Pinnacle Point Cave 5-6 (PP5-6), where the oldest evidence for the heat treatment of rock to make stone tools has been documented.[2] The only human remains have been recovered from younger deposits at PP13B which are ≈100,000 years old.[3]

Contents

History of the research

The discoveries at Pinnacle Point have been made by an international team, headed by palaeoanthropologist Curtis Marean from the Institute of Human Origins of the Arizona State University as well as researchers from South Africa (UCT), Australia (UNSW, UoW), Israel, and France.

After debating for decades, paleoanthropologists now agree there is enough genetic and fossil evidence to suggest that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa ca. 200,000–160,000 years ago. At that time, the world was in an ice age, and Africa was dry and arid. As archaeological sites dating to that time period are rare in Africa, paleontologist Curtis Marean analyzed geologic formations, sea currents, and climate data to pinpoint likely archeological sites. One of the destinations was Pinnacle Point.

Pinnacle Point 13B and its implications for modern behaviour

At PP13B the evidence for symbolic behavior comes in the form of scrapped and ground ochre (a naturally occurring bright red rock) that may have been used to form a pigment for body painting. This is similar to more complex ochre utilization known from Blombos Cave slightly further to the west at roughly 70,000 years ago.[4] These discoveries contradicts the classical hypothesis that the modern behaviour emerged only 40,000 years ago and was reached through a "large cultural leap".[1] The harsh climate and reduced food resources may have been why people moved to the shore at Pinnacle Point, where they could eat marine creatures like shellfish, whale, and seal.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Marean, C.W., Bar-Matthews, M, Bernatchez, J., Fisher, E., Goldberg, P., Herries, A.I.R., Jacobs, Z., Jerardino, A., Karkanas, P.., Minichillo, T., Nilssen, P.J., Thompson, E., Watts, I., Williams, H.W., 2007. Early Human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature. 449, 905-908.
  2. ^ Brown, K.S., Marean, C.W., Herries, A.I.R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Braun, D., Roberts, D.L., Meyer, M.C., Bernatchez, J., 2009. Fire as an Engineering Tool of Early Modern Humans. Science. 325, 859-862
  3. ^ Marean, C.W., Nilssen, P.J. Brown, K. Jerardino, A., Stynder, D. 2004. Paleoanthropological investigations of Middle Stone Age sites at Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay (South Africa): Archaeology and hominid remains from the 2000 Field Season. Paleoanthropology. 1, 14-83.
  4. ^ Henshilwood, C.S., d'Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T., Mercier, N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I. and Wintle, A.G. (2002) - Emergence of modern human behavior : Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa, Science, vol. 295, pp. 1278-1280.
  5. ^ Marean, C.W. (2010) - Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Western Cape Province, South Africa) in context: The Cape Floral kingdom, shellfish, and modern human origins, Journal of Human Evolution, 59, pp. 425-443.

See also