Milestones in the development of symbolic behaviour: a case study from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Michael Chazan · Liora Kolska Horwitz

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Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Archaeology and Rock Art Studies Language and cultural evolution

Abstract

Wonderwerk Cave (Northern Cape Province, South Africa) is an example of a natural locality that, in the past as in the present, was imbued with meaning and symbolism. Today, local communities associate the cave with a snake spirit, while rock art adorning the cave walls attests to the special status of the cave during the Later Stone Age. In the terminal Acheulean (over 180,000 years ago), hominins introduced manuports with special sensory properties into the back of the cave, a locality with singular acoustic and visual qualities. Thus, the archaeological record of Wonderwerk Cave serves as a unique and extensive diachronic record of milestones in the development of symbolic behaviour. It provides evidence to support the position that elements of symbolic behaviour emerged long before the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa.

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References

2002The Perception of the Environment 2012The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill 2000The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior 2002Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa 2007Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene 2003The Origin of Modern Human Behavior 2009A phenomenology of landscape 2000An archaeology of natural places

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2015Technological Trends in the Acheulean of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa 2011The Edge: More on Fire-Making by about 1.7 Million Years Ago at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa 2013Using Pyrotechnology: Fire-related Features and Activities with a Focus on the African Middle Stone Age 2018‘Behavioral modernity’ as a process, not an event, in the human niche 2015Past and Present at Wonderwerk Cave (Northern Cape Province, South Africa)

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