Application seeks support for radiocarbon dates to refine the chronology of Melkhoutboom, a key site in the formulation of the southern African Late Pleistocene Later Stone Age sequence. Melhoutboom's long depositional sequence (c. 12 000 years) has also yielded multiple palaeoenvironmental proxy records, which are invaluable archives of environmental change. The utility of these environmental records, which span tens of thousands of years, has been constrained, however, by poor age-control, limiting comparisons with local and global climate records. Thus, an improved chronology for Melkhoutboom has broad implications for Pleistocene research in southern Africa.
