By today’s standards it is not upmarket accommodation, but there was a time — about 60,000 years ago — when Klipdrift Shelter along the southern Cape coast was the happening place to be.
In fact it was one of the only places to be, judging by archaeological discoveries, some of which are on display as from last week at De Hoop Nature Reserve.
Visitors can now peer back in time at replicas of ancient artefacts uncovered at Klipdrift, which is considered among the most important archaeological sites worldwide. It was here — and at only a handful of other sites that we know of — where our earliest “modern” ancestors conveniently left behind evidence of typically “human” behaviour — in the form of stone tools and the use of symbols.
“The typical stone tools include small-backed segments of stone that were used to make arrows, and point to the first known use of bone and arrow technology,” said scientist Karen van Niekerk, part of the team working at Klipdrift and related sites.
“Less common at sites dating to this period are engraved ostrich eggshells. There are only two sites with engraved ostrich eggshell from this time period in South Africa, and none have been found in older sites or layers. We have recovered over 100 fragments of engraved ostrich eggshells at Klipdrift Shelter. The other site is on the west coast of SA, Diepkloof rock shelter. The two sites are about 500km apart,” Van Niekerk said. “Intriguingly, two engraved fragments have been found at a site of similar age in Namibia, Apollo 11.”
“These engraved eggshells were likely used as water containers for storage and transport, perhaps also in earlier times, but the tradition of engraving them only appears at this time period.
“The design of the engraved patterns vary between pieces but are all geometric. The purpose of the engravings are most likely symbolic. We see evidence for symbolic behaviour at earlier time periods at other sites, for example ochre engraved with geometric crosshatching at Blombos Cave, and these might be a continuation of that practice,” Van Niekerk said.
The presence of engraved eggshells at Klipdrift Shelter and other sites supported the theory of increased movement during this period, she said.
The De Hoop exhibition, entitled Origins of Early Southern Sapiens Behaviour, is the first tourism private public partnership in the Western Cape. Last week’s launch was attended by several dignitaries from government and civil society, among them Western Cape premier Alan Winde and world-renowned scientist Prof Christopher Henshilwood.
The exhibition first opened in 2018 at Spier Wine Estate and has evolved since then with several subsequent iterations and locations.
The De Hoop iteration highlights the Southern Cape coastline’s archaeological heritage and rich marine environment and showcases the unique archaeological discoveries made at the main Southern Cape sites — namely Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter and Klasies River occupied by early Homo sapiens between 120,000 and 50,000 years ago.
“The exhibition at De Hoop Collection will offer visitors and learners to the De Hoop Nature Reserve the opportunity to enhance their cultural experiences of South Africa. The ‘We Are All One’ message features strongly throughout the exhibition, pointing to the clear genetic evidence that all homo sapiens, people like us, have their origins in Africa,” said the De Hoop Collection in a press statement to mark the exhibition launch.
South Africa is considered one of the world’s archaeological hotspots and a leading candidate for the title of “cradle of civilisation” in light of recent discoveries at multiple sites.
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