The Kathu Archaeological Complex is a cluster of significant archaeological, principally Stone Age, exposures situated in and near

Kathu Kathu is a town in South Africa, and the iron ore capital of the Northern Cape province. Its name means "town under the trees", after the Camel Thorn forest it is situated in. The phrase "the town under the trees" was coined by an engineer wo ...

, a mining town in the

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

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 ...

. The sites include a suite of sinkhole exposures, the Kathu Pan sites, north west of the town, the immensely rich spread of artefacts at what is referred to as Kathu Townlands on the eastern side of Kathu (now surrounded by urban development), and surface and subsurface horizons including handaxes on farms further eastward. These are subject to on-going archaeological research.

Kathu Pan

At Kathu Pan, north west of the town, evidence of early hominin occupation has been observed at multiple sinkhole sites within the pan. The locality known as Kathu Pan 1 has Earlier Stone Age deposits (Stratum 4b) characterised by well-made

handaxes A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by kn ...

. Above it, Stratum 4a is dated by a combination of OSL and ESR/U-series dating to circa 500 000 years Before Present. The stone artifact assemblage from Stratum 4a is characterized by a prepared core technology that produced both blades and points, and has been attributed to the Fauresmith industry. In a paper published in ''Science'' in November 2012, Jayne Wilkins and colleagues reveal evidence of 500 000 year-old stone points (excavated by Peter Beaumont in 1979-1982), argued to represent the earliest stone-tipped spears yet found. This conclusion, based partly on experimental comparison of use wear, is taken to indicate that human ancestors used stone-tipped weapons for hunting 200 000 years earlier than previously thought. Wilkins is quoted as saying that "the find does more than simply extend the prehistory of stone-tipped spears – it puts those first spears firmly in the hands of ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of ''Homo'' during the Middle Pleis ...

''. Modern foragers use such tools to take down large game as part of cooperative, strategic hunts. Perhaps our ancestor did so too."First stone-tipped spear thrown earlier than thought
/ref>

References

External links

Oldest examples of hunting weapon uncovered in South Africa (report on findings by Wilkins ''et al.'', 2012)

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826220054/http://museumsnc.co.za/aboutus/depts/archaeology/kathu.html , date=2016-08-26 Archaeological sites in South Africa Archaeology of Southern Africa