Palaeomagnetic analyses of calcified deposits from the Plio-Pleistocene hominid site of Kromdraai, South Africa

Paleomagnetic data are presented for a set of orientated cores from a talus cone at Kromdraai B, a South African cave deposit associated with early Pleistocene fauna including important hominid remains of Paranthropus Australophitecus) robustus. Polarity interpretations of calcified sediments and flowstones suggest that the cave deposits include episodes of deposition that span the Olduvai Event of the Matuyama chron. Results suggest that matrix of the kind associated with the type specimen of robustus (TM 1517) corresponds closely to the beginning of the Olduvai Event, c. 1.9 Myr ago