Burchell’s Shelter is a small rock overhang and archaeological site located in a kloof in the Ghaap Escarpment at Campbell in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. As an archaeological site it has a shallow deposit containing late

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

, mainly nineteenth century remains. Further interest in the shelter derives from the existence of an eyewitness description by the traveller William Burchell of the last

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

s who inhabited the shelter. Hence it presented an opportunity, recognised by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Anthony Humphreys, to examine the occupation of the shelter from both an historical and an archaeological point of view.

History

Strong

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

s near the head of the valley – at what would become the village of Campbell – had been noted by the

Griqua Griqua may refer to: * Griqua people, of South Africa * Griqua language or Xiri language, their endangered Khoi language * Griquas (rugby) Griquas (), known as the Suzuki Griquas for sponsorship reasons, are a South African professional rugby ...

polity based at Klaarwater (Griquatown) in 1805, but it was not before 1811 that they occupied the place, then known as ‘Knovel Valley'. In that year the missionary the Revd Lambert Jansz, in the company of the traveller

William Burchell __NOTOC__ William John Burchell (23 July 1781 – 23 March 1863) was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist, and author. His thousands of plant specimens, as well as field journals from his South African expedition, are held by Kew ...

, took possession of the springs in the name of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

. During this visit Burchell met and described the inhabitants of the rock shelter in the kloof. As they were soon afterwards absorbed into the community, settling at what became Campbell, Burchell's account is a description of people at the very end of the Stone Age hunter-gatherer phase in this area.

References

Archaeological sites in South Africa Caves of South Africa Landforms of the Northern Cape Archaeological sites of Southern Africa {{Africa-archaeology-stub