The oldest recognized artifacts at the Swartkrans cave hominid-bearing site in South Africa have long been known to occur in the Lower Bank of Member 1, now dated with the cosmogenic nuclide burial method to ca. 1.8-2.19 Ma. However, the affinities of this industry have been debated due to small sample size. In this paper we present newly excavated material from the Lower Bank retrieved since 2005 in the Swartkrans Paleoanthropological Research Project. The sample is now large enough to confirm its affinity with the Oldowan industrial complex. The assemblage is highly expedient and core reduction strategies are largely casual. Although freehand flaking is present, the bipolar technique is most significant, even in non-quartz raw materials. The Swartkrans assemblage shows some significant contrasts with the Sterkfontein Oldowan, ca. 2.18 Ma, which can be explained by its closer proximity to raw material sources, its somewhat different geographic context, and its more expedient nature. The Swartkrans Oldowan now provides us with the first good indication of Oldowan variability in southern Africa, where only two sizeable assemblages have thus far been discovered. Comparisons are made with other sites across Africa that help to place this variability within our overall understanding of the Old-owan industrial complex. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sizable assemblages of Early Pleistocene stone tools are very rare from Cradle of Humankind sites. Renewed excavations at Cooper's D have resulted in the recovery of 49 stone artefacts. We report on the newly-recovered stone tools from Cooper's and make comparisons with the Early Pleistocene assemblages from the two major Cradle sites, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans. This new assemblage expands the record of Early Pleistocene stone tools in South Africa and also provides insight into the variability that exists among these early artefact-bearing hominin sites. In contrast with the large site accumulations found at Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, the Cooper's assemblage reflects a more limited use of the site, with hominids predominantly accessing raw material from nearby outcrops. This pattern contrasts with Sterkfontein and Swartkrans where long-term accumulations are well represented. The small size of the Cooper's assemblage is due to the vagaries of site preservation in a karst cavern setting, where only more regular occupations near gravels used for raw material resulted in larger accumulations.

We describe 14 hominin teeth and tooth fragments excavated recently from Swartkrans Cave (South Africa). The fossils derive from Members 1 (Lower Bank) and 3, from the Member 2/3 interface and from two deposits not yet assigned to member (the “Talus Cone Deposit” and the “Underground North Excavation” [UNE]) of the Swartkrans Formation, and include the first hominin fossil from the UNE, the two smallest Paranthropus robustus deciduous maxillary second molars in the entire hominin fossil record, and one of the smallest P. robustus permanent maxillary second molars from Swartkrans. The small permanent molar is accompanied by another tooth from a different individual but from the same stratigraphic level of the Swartkrans Formation; this second tooth is among, if not, the largest P. robustus permanent maxillary first molars known from anywhere—lending credence to assertions that degrees of body size sexual dimorphism previously ascribed to this species may be underestimated. It is more equivocal whether this evidence also supports hypotheses proposing that P. robustus assemblages from Swartkrans (as well as those from other South African cave sites) formed through the taphonomically biasing actions of large carnivores.

Based on the cosmogenic nuclide burial dating technique, we present new radiometric age estimates of 2.19 +/- 0.08 and 1.80 +/- 0.09 million-years-old (Ma) for Member 1, and 0.96 +/- 0.09 Ma for Member 3 of the Swartkrans Formation in South Africa. Our data are consistent with, and expand upon, results from previous radiometric dating techniques used at the site. The burial ages of Member 1 are consistent with the uranium-lead (U-Pb) age provided by bracketing flowstones (Pickering et al., 2011), while the age of Member 3 is significantly more precise than the large age bracket provided by U-Pb dating of tooth enamel (Baiter et al., 2008) and recently re-evaluated electron spin resonance data (Herries and Adams, 2013). These new dates provide the complete age range for the extinct hominin, Paranthropus robustus, as well as indicate the first appearance of the genus Homo in southern Africa. Our results also indicate: the first, as well as the last, manufacture and use of bone digging tools in South Africa; some of the earliest evidence of stone tool use and large animal butchery in South Africa; and one of the earliest archaeological indications of the domestication of fire in the world. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Member 1 of the Swartkrans Formation is comprised of two sedimentary infills, the Lower Bank (LB) and the Hanging Remnant (HR). Together, the LB and HR preserve fossils of early Homo and Paranthropus robustus, Earlier Stone Age lithic artifacts, purported bone digging tools and butchered animal bones. Collectively, this evidence was the first to establish the co-existence of two early Pleistocene hominid species and also led to inferences of plant root harvesting and meat-eating by one or both of those species. P. robustus is the more abundant of the two hominids at Swartrkrans, represented in Member 1 by hundreds of fossils that derive from at least 99 individuals. Thus, Swartkrans Member 1 stands as the world's single largest repository of that extinct species. Here we add to the Member 1 sample of hominid fossils with descriptions of 14 newly discovered specimens.

Review(s) of: The rise of homo sapiens. The evolution of modern thinking, by Coolidge, Frederick L. and Wynn, Thomas, 2009, Chichester, West Sussex, Wiley-Blackwell, 320 pp., ISBN 978-1-4051- 5254-9 (paperback), Price 17.99 pounds.

We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000+/-1,980 years old, the first tightly constrained, geochronological date available for the site. Recovered fauna from the two underlying deposits-including, prominently, the dental remains of Paranthropus (Australopithecus) robustus from the uppermost layer (Talus Cone Deposit)-indicate a significantly older, late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age for these units. The lowest unit (LB East Extension) is inferred to be an eastward extension of the well-known Lower Bank of Member 1, the earliest surviving infill represented at the site. The date acquired from the speleothem also sets the maximum age of a rich Middle Stone Age lithic assemblage.

The oldest archaeological sites currently known in northernmost South Africa are found in the Mapungubwe National Park (formerly known as the Vhembe-Dongola National Park) and neighbouring farms, where there is a widespread distribution of open-air sites in deflated contexts. They are sealed by Holocene sands, which at some of the sites contain Later Stone Age (LSA) artefacts. The industry to which the older assemblages are most comparable is final Earlier Stone Age (ESA) in character, with parallels to the Sangoan Industry, or what has locally been proposed as the Charaman from Zimbabwe. A developed phase of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) with segments and retouched points is also represented on one landscape. Rockshelter sites are being investigated to locate stratified deposits to which the open sites may be compared. In the interim, the material provides a form of 'archaeological signature' that can contribute to the overall evaluation of Stone Age occupations in northernmost South Africa. Large-scale climatic fluctuations during the course of the Pleistocene have influenced occupations across southern Africa. The archaeology of the Mapungubwe area appears to have more in common with developments north of the Limpopo than it does with the South African sequence.