South Africa: Point of Human Origins

What a shock – it was raining when we woke this morning – proper rain, well more a drizzle – but still unexpected! We had arranged a tour of the caves at Pinnacle Point where evidence had been excavated has revealed occupation by middle stone age people between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago. But first, we had to get our breakfast and pack the car.

It was a 15-minute drive from the Santos Express to Pinnacle Point. We had been worried about leaving our car full of our possessions, but we need not have been as the area above the caves is now a complex, complete with a championship golf course (apparently the best course in South Africa and there was a pro-tournament going on at the time) and many high-end houses and rental properties. One house even had a full-sized light aircraft encased inside a glass-panelled room on display! Of course, security was tight as a drum – I even had to give them my driver’s license on entry, which they took a picture of, so they could match me to the vehicle I was driving on entry and exit!

We met our guide Christopher, who was a delightful young man, outside the golf course clubhouse. From here we proceed down through a 50-metre long tunnel which was decorated with mosaic panels with scenes of South Africa, the Garden Route and Mossel Bay. The project started in August 2022 so there was still some way to go before completion. There was a middle-aged gentleman who was kneeling on the ground working on one of the panels as we walked through.

On the far side of the tunnel, there is a display panel talking about the flora and fauna of the area and the history of the archaeological sites in the caves below.

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 (Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, UoW), Israel, and France. The work started excavating the cave in the year 2000, but locals had known about these sites many years earlier.

After debating for decades, paleoanthropologists now agree there is enough genetic and fossil evidence to suggest that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa c. 200,000 – c. 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, palaeontologist Curtis Marean analysed geologic formations, sea currents, and climate data to pinpoint likely archaeological sites; one such was Pinnacle Point.

The cave where the most artefacts were uncovered is cutely named 13b (there are around 15 significant caves that were highlighted during the excavations.) At 13b the evidence for symbolic behaviour came in the form of scraped and ground ochre (usually referred to as limonite-bearing powders) that may have been used to form a pigment for body painting.) These discoveries contradict the classical hypothesis that modern behaviour emerged only 40,000 years ago and was reached through a “large cultural leap”. 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, whales, and seals.

In December 2012, the provincial heritage resources authority Heritage Western Cape declared Pinnacle Point a provincial heritage site. In 2015, the South African government submitted a proposal to add the cave to the list of World Heritage Sites and it has been placed on the UNESCO list of tentative sites as a potential future ‘serial nomination’ together with Blombos Cave, Sibudu Cave, Klasies River Caves, Border Cave, and Diepkloof Rock Shelter.