Wonderwerk Cave

Wonderwerk

South Africa · Northern Cape

CaveIntermittent excavation
Approximate periodEarlier, Middle and Later Stone Age See on the map ↓

In brief

Wonderwerk, in the Kuruman Hills, is a cave excavation preserving a very long sequence of human activity. Burnt bone and ash remains in the cave's interior show that fire was present inside the cave approximately one million years ago.

What was found?

  • 1Oldowan stone tools

    Sharp flakes and chopping tools represent early stone technology in the cave. Dating research shows that tools were produced here 1.8 million years ago.

  • 2Acheulean handaxes

    Early handaxes document the technological change that followed the older Oldowan tools. Researchers date this transition to more than one million years ago.

  • 3Burnt bone fragments

    Microscopic and infrared analyses confirmed that the bones had been exposed to heat. They are among the main pieces of evidence for burning events inside the cave.

  • 4Plant ash remains

    Plant ashes preserved in the sediments were found alongside burnt bones. According to researchers, their state of preservation shows that they burned where they were found rather than being transported from outside.

What does it point to?

The cave indicates that early human communities produced tools and used fire in an enclosed space. According to researchers, the ash and burnt bones inside document burning events associated with human activities approximately one million years ago; these alone do not explain the method of fire-making.

What did it teach us?

  1. It showed that use of the cave extends back 1.8 million years.
  2. It documented the transition from Oldowan tools to early handaxes in the layers of the same cave.
  3. It provided strong evidence that burning occurred inside the cave approximately one million years ago.

Latest news / selected archive

New dating results announced in 2021 placed human activity involving Oldowan tools inside the cave at approximately 1.8 million years ago.

Record

Culture
Oldowan, Acheulean and later stone tool traditions
Team / historical
Michael Chazan ve Liora Kolska Horwitz; Toronto Üniversitesi, Kudüs İbrani Üniversitesi ve McGregor Müzesi
Coordinates
-27.8458°, 23.5553°

Sources

  1. en.huji.ac.il
  2. cris.iucc.ac.il
  3. doi.org
  4. sahris-bucket.s3.af-south-1.amazonaws.com
  5. PNAS — ateş kalıntıları araştırması, PMC

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