Excavations at Sibhudu Cave

Building on Lyn Wadley's important research at Sibhudu Cave from 1998-2011, under the applicant's direction an international team from the University of Tübingen has excavated at the site for thirteen consecutive years (2011-2023). In the next three years, we hope to complete the excavation in the Deep Sounding until the bedrock and to excavate the top of the sequence which features both an Iron Age and a very late MSA. This work will for the first time provide a complete, high-resolution stratigraphic sequence at the site and make Sibhudu one of the longest MSA occupations in South Africa and the continent more broadly. This sequence will allow researchers to answer many questions about the behavioural evolution, lifeways and technological innovations of early humans. Additionally, Sibhudu will provide a fine-grained paleoenvironmental reconstruction and information on how people adapted to changing environmental conditions during the MSA. The planned research will make Sibhudu a critical reference site for regional and continent-wide comparisons of human evolution in the period between >120,000 and ca. 30,000 years ago. The completion of the stratigraphic sequence will also be a key asset for the future international and museum presentation of Sibhudu as potential UNESCO World Heritage. Currently, the nomination of Sibhudu and other MSA sites is under review for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Further details can be found in the attached documents.