The 1992–1993 Excavations at the Die Kelders Middle and Later Stone Age Cave Site, South Africa

Renewed excavations at Die Kelders Cave 1, South Africa, have confirmed and augmented prior findings. The new excavations focused on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits, but they added seeds, pips, and crayfish to the categories of Later Stone Age (LSA) food debris and artifacts recovered earlier. With respect to the MSA deposits, the principal new findings are: 1) previously unrecognized site formation processes ,including phosphatization by guano, microfaults, and slippage faces, and numerous minor interruptions in sand accumulation that correspond to Short occupation episodes; 2) ESR dates that place the top of the MSA sequence between 80,000 and 60,000 years b.p.; 3) fine-grained rock types, flake-blade sizes and other features that suggest the top of the sequence contains either the Howieson's Poort or a similar silcrete-rich variant of the MSA; 4) a pattern of artifact and bone abundance in newly recognized microstrati-graphic units that suggests that eagle owls (rather than people) accumula...