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Includes bibliographical references. / No detailed investigation has been previously made of the legal status, administration, history, management, finances, and conservation status of a show cave in South Africa. This study, using archival sources and field work, makes a thorough assessment of Cango Cave, a well-known show cave in the Swartberg foothills north of Oudtshoorn in the Cape Province of South Africa. Repeated field trips to Cange Cave and to other caves in the area have confirmed the environmental deterioration of Cango Cave and its surroundings. This study has shown that such deterioration has been caused by human pressures on a non-renewable resource. Reading of the extensive Government and other archives, supplemented by newspaper and other published material, has for the first time enabled the scientific, administrative and financial history of the Cave to be available in one document. Analysis of this assembled evidence, augmented by reading between the lines where the evidence is occasionally missing, has shown the reasons for the failure of successive Cave managements during the past two centuries to operate on a conservation basis. This failure to conserve Cango Cave has occurred despite the avowed policy of every political master of the Cape since 1820 that the Cave is a national asset which shall be conserved. The thesis commences with a description of the location and topography of Cango Cave, followed by a review of cave conservation literature and a summary of the published information on the Cave. There follows a detailed account of the discovery and development of the Cave from 1780 until 1992, and an assessment of its financial status. The impact of humans on the Cave, and its conservation status, are examined in detail. The above data are then discussed at length, and the reasons for the present unsatisfactory management structure identified. Having demonstrated the past and present management failures at Cango Cave, recommendations are made for better management structures and for the necessary applied research. Such research will provide the information which is essential for the future management of Cango Cave on a conservation basis.

This study set out to identify and interpret botanical remains from Historic Cave, Balerno Main Shelter and Balerno Shelter 2 in the Limpopo Province. Botanical remains were identified through comparative collections, and quantified through a raw count and presence analysis. They were interpreted through literature on plant uses in southern Africa. Over 12 500 remains were recovered from Historic Cave, almost 1 500 from Balerno Main Shelter and only five from Balerno Shelter 2. Remains from Historic Cave fell into food, water, storage and muti categories of use. Balerno Main Shelter revealed plants in the water and muti categories. Balerno Shelter 2 had too few remains. The study demonstrated that plant remains can shed light on why cave sites were occupied, as the assemblages reflect different plant uses. The remains from Historic Cave describe a society living and taking refuge in a cave under siege. Balerno Main Shelter may have been used for ritual purposes.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the higher degree of Doctor of Philosophy. July, 2016. / Fossil primates are some of the most well represented fauna in South Africa’s fossil Plio-Pleistocene cave sites. Sterkfontein preserves the largest number of fossil primates and a large portion of these are cercopithecoid remains. This research project provides a taxonomic analysis of the abundant fossil cercopithecoid post-cranial limb elements discovered at the site. One thousand five hundred fourteen identifiable fossil cercopithecoid postcrania from the Sterkfontein caves are analysed. From these, five genera are identified from morphologically diagnostic postcranial elements; these are Papio, Parapapio, Theropithecus, Cercopithecoides and Cercopithecus. Theropithecus is identified in Member 4, earlier than previously known. It is established that size, form and function are important factors in taxonomic studies. They play a major role in taxonomic examinations; however, they cannot be treated as disconnected facets of a taxonomic exercise. Each plays an essential role in taxonomic analyses. The study confirms that the Member 4 environment, which illustrates the turn from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene and the most mosaic of all the Plio-Pleistocene sites of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, samples the most faunal variability in the Sterkfontein Cave deposits. This research supports the hypothesis that carnivores were not the main accumulating agent for the cercopithecoid fossil remains within the caves. The carnivores, however, impacted the fossil cercopithecoid assemblage. Leopards and hyaenas are identified as some of the carnivores which accumulated the fossil cercopithecoids within the Sterkfontein caves. The research has opened a new scope for taxonomic analysis of isolated fossil cercopithecoid postcrania in the southern African fossil cave sites. / LG2017

Thesis (M.A.(Geography & Environmental Studies)) -- University of the Witwatersrand, Arts Faculty, 1973 / The Sterkfontein Cave System is a karst cave developed on the dolomites of the Transvaal system, fifty kilometres north-west of Johannesburg in South Africa. It lies beneath a small hill and was first exploited as a source of lime. Later it became a tourist and scientific attraction of world renown when some of the first australopithecine remains were recovered from a deposit within it. [Abbreviated abstract. Open document to view full version] / WS2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, November 2014. / My analysis of the lithics, shellfish and tortoise recovered from layers dating to between 11.8 and 9.7 ka at Klipdrift Cave (KDC), De Hoop Nature Reserve, southern Cape, provides new information on the Oakhurst technocomplex. A re-analysis of a sample of lithic artefacts from Matjes River Rock Shelter (MRS) indicates many technological similarities, but also unexpected differences, highlighting the need for detailed contextualised studies that could reveal the complexity of the Oakhurst Industry. The lithic artefacts were analysed following a typo-technological approach. The KDC Oakhurst shares many characteristics typical of this technocomplex from the southern Cape, for example in the dominance of quartzite, irregular and unstandardized flakes, the occurrence of irregular cores and typical large side and end scrapers. It differs from most coastal Oakhurst sites in the more intensive exploitation of quartz, and the presence of a morphological blade component, especially in the lowermost layers. Shellfish remains were identified to species level in terms of minimum number of individuals (MNI) and weight. The two main species are Dinoplax gigas, dominating in the lower part of the sequence, between 11.8 and 11.1 ka and Turbo sarmaticus that is more numerous thereafter. These species provide the highest energy yield in terms of kilojoules, estimated at 667 511 kilojoules for both species combined. The species composition at KDC reflects changing environmental conditions that may relate to the effect of the Younger Dryas event, changing from a sheltered sandy bay to a habitat with more exposed rocks and less sand after 11.1 ka. T. sarmaticus opercula, Cymbula oculus shells and tortoise medio-lateral humeri were measured to investigate whether human predation pressure could have affected their size. Although the sizes of T. sarmaticus opercula show some decrease through time suggesting human predation pressure on these molluscs, there is also a possibility that environmental factors may have affected Turbo growth. The tortoise sizes at KDC, and some other Oakhurst sites, are similar to that of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) but the KDC data are iv inconclusive on whether intensive harvesting had an effect on average tortoise size.

Ph.D., Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / Work on Sterkfontein cave deposits has generally focussed on clarifying the life histories of interned hominin remains. Less attention has been paid to the depositional context of the fossils and the specific stratigraphic processes involved in the formation of deposits, and their interaction within the cave system. Also lacking is an understanding of the complex processes influencing the distribution and integrity of the faunal and artefact assemblages. This research applied a broad-spectrum multidisciplinary approach to investigate a previously unexamined area of the caves with a particularly rich depositional history. The underground central deposits represent several infills of important fossil and artefact-bearing sediments. These sediments have accumulated into one of the deepest central areas of the Sterkfontein cave system creating a confluence area with a complex formation history. Three excavations (STK-MH1, STK-MH2 and STK-EC1) uncovered seven deposits. These deposits document a depositional history ranging from the earliest introduction of allogenic sediments (STK-MH1 T4), to the commercial exploitation of the caves through mining and tourism (STK-MH1 T1, STK-MH2). The stratigraphic sequence for the underground central deposits exhibits multiple formation processes including deposition (through numerous processes), erosion, collapse, diagenetic modification, deformation and displacement. The detailed stratigraphic history of these deposits was elucidated utilising sedimentological, fabric, stratigraphic, taphonomic and taxonomic analyses. As well as deciphering the complex formation history of this important area, this research attempted to identify the influence of cave sedimentation processes on faunal distribution and assemblage integrity. Faunal assemblages are prone to extensive modification caused by sedimentation and re-sedimentation processes mixing and distributing deposits through the caves. Varying sedimentological properties within fossil-bearing sediment gravity flows can cause the destruction of primary context taphonomic evidence, the concentration of fossils representing multiple stratigraphically distinct facies, and deposit-wide fossil distributions based on element size and shape. In addition to these processes, it was found that different skeletal elements change shape in different ways through breakage, thereby changing the specific mobility of the fossils and their potential distribution through the sediment body. Not identifying or not accounting for these post-depositional processes can lead to non-representative sampling, and to the misinterpretation of taphonomic and taxonomic data.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree or Master of Arts. Johannesburg, February 1995. / This study, based on material excavated at Rose Cottage Cave, presents a new theoretical perspective for our understanding of the southern African archaeological record dated to the Pleistocenel Holocene boundary. Over the past twelve years, : NO contesting models for interpreting the Pleistocene! Holocene boundary have been proposed - it has been described as a period of cultural stasis, on the one hand, or, as exhibiting continuous change, on the other hand. This study departs from the position that this debate is at a theoretical impasse. Through the assumption of a theoretical framework that deals concurrently with cultural representation and social strategy, previously unrecognised aspects of the archaeological record are investigated. t explore the r-ctlve constitutive role of material culture and thus remove the false dichotomy between cultural form and functional expediency. In allowing for the active role of human agency, a model for the interpretation of spatial use is developer, through the incorporation of the informative and constraining role of previous spatial patternings. I recognise that meaning is actively created, and exarnple the spatially and chronolcqlcatlv contingent nature of meaning through the unique perspective that deep sequence archaeological deposit offers. / MT2017

Swartkrans Cave, famous for abundant hominin fossils of P. robustus and the site where the first evidence of the co-existence of two hominin species was recovered, has yielded a wealth of information on early hominin behaviour. In 2005 a new program of research and excavation began at the site, and its results form the central part of this thesis. This study has focused on the early Pleistocene Member 1 deposits which include an Earlier Stone Age industry and the late Pleistocene Member 4 Middle Stone Age deposits. The thesis has four areas of focus. First the new work has resulted in clarification and new interpretations for the formation of the hominin rich Hanging Remnant deposit of Member 1, which lacks stone tools. This extensive calcified conglomerate which spans most of the north wall of the cave is now seen as a non-homogenous unit that represents material entering from at least four avens. However, this study also established that the newly exposed central portion of the Hanging Remnant and the hominin fossil-rich northwest corner infill worked by Robert Broom in the 1940s derived from the same depositional episode. Secondly, the new excavations in the Lower Bank of Member 1 have resulted in an enlargement of the previously ambiguous Earlier Stone Age assemblage. Analysis of this new assemblage, in conjunction with recently released dating results, has now confirmed that the artefacts belong to the Oldowan Industrial Complex. Thirdly, new excavations in the Member 4 deposit have resulted in the recovery of over 3,200 Middle Stone Age (MSA) stone tools and a clearer understanding of their context. The stone tool-bearing deposits of Member 4 are now understood to derive from a surface colluvium, rather than a cave infill. This MSA assemblage consists of a high number of retouched pieces that are dominated by steep-sided scrapers and denticulated scrapers with a near-absence of points. The technology of a variety of core types suggests a superior understanding of raw material flaking qualities by the tool makers. The limited types of formal tools suggest that the site was used for one or more specific activities, rather than for a range of activities by the tool makers. Fourthly, excavation of the deposits underlying the Member 4 colluvium has resulted in the discovery of two previously unknown hominin-bearing deposits. It is now established that what was originally called Member 4 is composed of three distinct deposits. The lowest of these is an east extension of the Member 1 Lower Bank (LB East Extension), which has yielded P. robustus fossils. This is overlain by a large talus cone (TCD), which also has yielded P. robustus fossils. The latter is capped by flowstone dated to ~110,000 years, followed by the MSA-tool bearing colluvium.