The Andrew Phaswana Site: A new locality in the Swartkrans Cave paleoanthropological complex (South Africa)

A new paleoanthropological site, the Andrew Phaswana Site (APS), has been discovered near Swartkrans Cave within South Africa's UNESCO Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. Preliminary analyses reveal a complex formational history where older breccia bodies eroded and collapsed, mixing Pleistocene and Holocene faunal assemblages in the floor sediments. However, cultural materials such as lithics, ostrich eggshell fragments, ochre, and quartz crystals suggest an intact Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblage, rare in this region. APS offers potential insights into later Pleistocene to Holocene human occupation, complementing findings from Members 4 and 5 of the Swartkrans Formation.

Caruana, M., Stratford, D., Egeland, C., Linchamps, P., Sambo, R., Kuman, K., Clarke, R., Bruxelles, L., Heaton, J., & Pickering, T. (2026). The Andrew Phaswana Site: A new locality in the Swartkrans Cave paleoanthropological complex (South Africa). Southern African Field Archaeology, 21. https://doi.org/10.36615/safa.21.5027.2026