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Anyone visiting George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate today will see a large, ornately designed red brick enclosure only a brief southward walk down-slope from his restored mansion house. It defines the entrance to the tomb vault wherein lies the marble sarcophagus containing the remains of George Washington himself. Inlaid at the top of the enclosure is a stone tablet with the inscribed legend, “Within this Enclosure Rest the remains of Gen.l George Washington.” It is among the most visited stations on the Mount Vernon property, and on any given day during peek visitation times of the year there are typically long lines of visitors before the tomb, anxious to snatch a glimpse and snap pictures of the very place where Washington rests. Like a pilgrimage destination, it is, historically speaking, sacred ground for the thousands of American travelers who come to this place each year. 

But only yards south from the tomb is a nondescript patch of ground, populated by a few trees and other unremarkable vegetation. There are no signs or anything that bespeaks a memory in this little place. But here, beneath the surface, lie the remains of a slave. Archaeologists happened upon it while conducting a survey. 

A few steps further to the west of this spot, along a narrow, forested ridge, lie the remains of many more slaves. There are no individual markers, no tombstones — and for many decades, there hasn’t been a single surface trace of a burial, other than a single, albeit well-appointed, memorial created by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association to memorialize the ground as a slave cemetery. “In Memory of the Afro-americans who served as slaves at Mount Vernon……” reads the legend in stone on the memorial. 

Joe Downer, who is an archaeologist with Mount Vernon’s archaeology program, leads me down across the ridge. As the archaeological crew chief for the team assigned to conduct a survey of the cemetery, he is now in his third season of excavations at the site. “In 1985,” he says, “GPR surveys detected subsurface anomalies that were interpreted to be possible grave shafts. In the early 90’s, we dug shovel test pits in the area and found three burials. That was followed much later from 2007 to 2012 with a small-scale investigation and then full-scale excavations beginning in 2014.”   

“We have always known that there was an area used as a slave cemetery,” added Downer. Historical documentation for this, however scant, hinted that this had to be the case. Although Washington never mentioned a slave cemetery on his property during his lifetime, historians do know that during the 1790’s carpenter slaves were building coffins for their fellow deceased slaves, and they know the names of a few of the slaves thought to be buried at Mount Vernon, including Frank Lee, Washington’s butler, his brother William (Billy) Lee, who was with Washington as his servant throughout the Revolutionary War, and West Ford, a slave who served the Washington family, freed in 1829 but serving the family until he died in 1863. Caroline Moore, a visitor to Mount Vernon in 1833, writes of seeing a slave burial ground: “Our guide first took us to the tomb where the remains of General Washington are now interred…….Near his Tomb, you see the burying place of his slaves, containing 150 graves.” And another Mount Vernon visitor account recorded in 1846 mentioned that there were “many [servant/slave] graves in the grove”.  A historical map printed by Charles Currier in 1855 indicates a “Negro Burying Ground” with 12 graves within a fenced plot. 

But despite the clues of a slave cemetery at Mount Vernon, its traces were for the most part lost in time and forest overgrowth, until the archaeology department of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association began the investigations. Today, after two complete seasons of 5’ by 5’ test excavation units, one can see the visible outlines of the tops of at least 47 grave shafts. They are distinguishable by clear yellowish, rectangular ‘shadows’ in an otherwise pale, light-brown silty clay soil context. The archaeologists have no plans to excavate into the grave shafts further to investigate the remains of the interred. “Ethically, it would be frowned upon to excavate the remains strictly for the purpose of research,” says Downer. 

For now, a forensic examination of the remains of the interred to identify specifically who among Washington’s slaves were buried in the cemetery and, more feasibly, the physical conditions, diseases, gender, age, and physical builds of the interred, will remain elusive. Current objectives are confined to determining the boundaries of the cemetery and the spacial relationships and number of shaft graves, with the ultimate goal of producing an accurate, complete map of the cemetery. In the process, they will be recovering any artifacts at the top of the graves, though they are sparse. Test units have thus far indicated that the burials were restricted to the top, level area of the ridge, and one other pattern has become clearly evident as they have excavated: “All the burials are oriented east/west,” says Downer. 

“Overall, these burials are fairly typical of other slave burials on other plantations,” he adds. More significantly, he says, this particular survey/excavation is “the first of its kind” and should inform planners in the future about how to manage the property in this area of Washington’s estate in addition to contributing to a better knowledge of the Mount Vernon landscape. But most of all, for Downer and the team working at the site, it is an exciting opportunity to uncover a little bit of material history that otherwise would have continued to languish in oblivion.

Concludes Downer: “It’s very powerful to see where these [long-forgotten] people were buried.”

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 Who are they? What are their names? Above and below, the exposed individual grave shaft locations as revealed through excavation. Courtesy George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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Beyond the traces of grave shafts, “we continue to find numerous prehistoric artifacts in the Slave Cemetery that speak to the Native American occupation of the site,” says Downer. Above photo illustrates the kinds of prehistoric artifacts that are being unearthed at the site, including lithics dated to the Late Archaic period (5000 – 3000 BP). They testify to human occupation of the site long before the Washington family ever acquired the property for their plantation.  Courtesy George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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Individuals interested in learning more and following the progress of the slave cemetery survey can obtain more information from the website, and individuals interested in participating in this project as volunteers with the archaeology program at Mount Vernon may learn more about the opportunities at this page. 

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Image, second from top, right: The Tomb of George Washington. Ken Lund, Wikimedia Commons

Cover photo: An exposed outline of a slave grave shaft with a bouquet of flowers placed upon it. Courtesy George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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On a hill overlooking the confluence of two small rivers, in the heart of Sherwood Forest, England, is an unassuming, ruined stone building. The roofless structure stands in splendid isolation on the edge of the village of Kings Clipstone in Nottinghamshire. Known locally as ‘King John’s Palace’, it was thought for much of the twentieth century to be nothing more than a mere hunting lodge associated with a nearby 1,500-acre medieval deer park. However, intensive  archaeological and historical research over the past twelve years has shown that the ruin was once part of an enormous royal palace, known as the King’s Houses, that stretched over seven and a half acres and was visited by eight of the Plantagenet kings.

The first serious study of the site took place in 1890 by local researcher Alfred Stapleton. However, he arbitrarily misrepresented the site as nothing more than a hunting lodge. Unfortunately, he was followed in this interpretation, during the mid-twentieth century, by influential academics such as buildings historian Nikolaus Pevsner, archaeologist Philip Rahtz and architectural historian Howard Colvin. A fundamental reassessment of the evidence has taken place over the last twelve years, which has included a wide range of research techniques such as map-regression, documentary analysis, standing building survey, field-walking, geophysics, metal detecting, test-pitting and archaeological evaluation. The work has managed to establish the true scale of the site, as well as specifically identify the original use of King John’s Palace as a twelfth century great hall, and has pinpointed the locations of the great gate and a possible chapel. It has also produced an array of artifacts such as coins, a seal matrix, book clasps and horse pendants.

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 Composite map of the ground plan of the King’s Houses, Clipstone in the fourteenth century. 

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 King John’s Palace, looking north-east, viewed from a similar direction to several antiquarian illustrations made of the building in the eighteenth century. 

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 The former interior of King John’s Palace, looking north-west, the openings in the center and to the left are relict doorways whereas the masonry blocking to the right was inserted during 1991.

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The origins of the King’s Houses date to 1164 when Henry II established a base in Sherwood Forest, from which to engage in his beloved pursuit of hunting. By 1176, the king was thinking on an even grander scale. He had recently defeated a rebellious coalition of enemies led by his own sons and was free to express his enormous power. The king used two methods to do this: tightened control of the royal forests, coupled with a redistribution of castles amongst his supporters. There was no better time for the king to begin expanding his own residence in the royal forest of Sherwood.

When Henry II’s son, Richard, briefly visited Clipstone in 1194 (during a tactical meeting with his ally, William the Lion of Scotland) he was enormously pleased with the facilities that he had inherited from his father. Alongside the vast deer park, enclosed within a timber pale fence, was a huge lake to the east of the palace. Rising above the lake on the slopes of the hill was a complex of buildings including a hall, chamber and chapel which were surrounded by a D-shaped enclosure ditch and palisade. The standing ruin was almost certainly the great hall which was built in the French style, with the main room at first floor level. It was modeled after St. Mary’s Guildhall in Lincoln and was constructed in the Romanesque fashion, complete with an elaborately moulded central doorway and great, round-headed windows.

The King’s Houses remained this way throughout the reign of Richard’s younger brother, John. Despite visiting Clipstone on seven occasions, John made little impact on the site beyond ordering necessary maintenance and repair work. The name ‘King John’s Palace‘ only became associated with the standing ruin during the eighteenth century, when antiquarians were keen to associate many medieval buildings with the notorious king.

It was John’s son, Henry III (pictured right), who dramatically remodeled the King’s Houses during the 1240s and 50s and truly turned the site into a sprawling palace, complete with a new timber-framed great hall, a great chamber, a new chapel, another hall, chapel, kitchen and wardrobe for Queen Eleanor of Provence, as well as chambers with chimneys and privies for both king and queen. This was all surrounded by a new palisade which extended far beyond the original enclosure and was accessed by a great gate.

Henry III was extremely influenced by the new Gothic style of architecture characterized by pointed arches and traceried windows. In particular, the buildings of France and of Queen Eleanor’s native land of Savoy provided inspiration, and during his reign, Henry authorized over £30,000 on building projects. However, it was partly this lavish spending which ultimately led to the rebellion of his own brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, during the 1260s.

The King’s Houses at Clipstone had various purposes. Just one day’s ride from the great royal castle at Nottingham, they provided a base for hunting in Sherwood Forest. Hunting the red, fallow and roe deer that inhabited the oak and birch woodlands of the region was an activity legally reserved for the monarchy and as such was a powerful statement of the status of the participants. Deer bones excavated at the site have shown a preponderance of meat selected from the right side of the carcass. This reflects the medieval ritualized butchery of the animal – the highest status hunters were offered venison cut from the right side. Equally, the palace was designed to maximize the status of the king through lavish architectural statements such as high quality stone-carving and substantial buildings that, when seen from the outside, must have appeared densely clustered around a number of courtyards to create the impression of a large village.

By the fourteenth century, the entire landscape around the palace had been developed to provide a romantic, idealized backdrop with stage-managed views via deliberately cleared areas of land known as ‘launds’, which were framed by the wild wood on the fringe of the lordship. This type of landscape was observed by the contemporary author of the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight when he wrote of: ‘high walls in a moat, on a mound, bordered by the boughs of thick-trunked timber which trimmed the water. The most commanding castle a knight ever kept, positioned on a site of sweeping parkland with a palisade of pikes pitched in the earth in the midst of tall trees for two miles or more.’ (Quoted from Simon Armitage’s translation of the poem published by Faber & Faber).

The palace is perhaps best remembered for the parliament held there in the autumn of 1290. It was summoned by Edward I, with the primary objective of making arrangements for a renewed crusade in the Holy Land. What is less well known is that it was the only parliament not based either at Westminster or at a location related to his wars in Wales. The parliament took place at Clipstone because Queen Eleanor of Castile was simply too ill to make a journey south. Within days of the end of the 1290 parliament, Eleanor had died.

Medieval monarchs were itinerant and moved between residences so that they could personally dispense justice, patronage and power. Their household retinues numbered perhaps 150 during the Norman period, but by the time of Henry VI, the mobile court consisted of around 800 souls. Such numbers required large amounts of food and, as a result, the king had to move around his estates on a regular cycle so as not to drain the produce and resources of a single manor. This necessity became apparent during the winter of 1315-16, when Edward II spent over three months at Clipstone and was forced to send foragers far out across the River Trent into Lincolnshire. Their mission was to provide food for the household that had already managed to consume over 1,700 fish caught in the lake east of the palace.

The King’s Houses provided the backdrop for many events above and beyond hunting. In 1316-17, whilst at Clipstone, Edward II brokered peace with Scotland through the diplomatic intervention of the papal envoy Ammenenus de Pelagrua. Early in his reign, Edward III held two tournaments at Clipstone. The second of these, in January 1328, took place at night and the king rode out in a new suit of armor, covered with a purple velvet surcoat – stitched with 21,800 golden threads, depicting crowns and oak leaves, it must have caught the necessary torchlight enchantingly. Later on in his reign, Edward III and Queen Philippa of Hainault attended the wedding of two of their retainers at the palace chapel in 1337.

Building projects continued through the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Edward I ordered new apartments for himself and the queen, and in 1283 he commanded the construction of an astonishingly large building known as the King’s Long Stable, which was capable of housing two hundred horses. In 1316, Edward II was suffering major political setbacks related to the economic recession, created by a decline in environmental conditions, unsuccessful wars in Scotland, and an ongoing tension with his cousin, the Earl of Lancaster. He chose to improve his personal security by constructing a fortification, three miles southwest of the King’s Houses, known as Clipstone Peel. This fort also commanded an extensive agricultural enterprise, intended to provide food for the household at a time of terrible crop failure. During the second half of the fourteenth century, both Edward I and Richard II engaged in large programs of repair work, particularly after a great storm in 1360 which caused extensive damage, requiring the employment of stonemasons, carpenters, sawyers, plumbers, carters and many laborers.

During March 1396, Richard II was the last monarch to spend time at Clipstone. Throughout the fifteenth century, the site had been granted by the Crown to a number of household retainers and relatives as interest in the isolated residence began to wane, in favor of houses and castles located more conveniently near London and the southeast. Although the palace continued to be maintained into the 1440s, no other monarch ever visited and the buildings began to slip into what was described in 1525 as ‘great decay and ruin in stonework, timber, lead and plaster.’ By the early years of the seventeenth century, only the roofless ruin of King John’s Palace was standing as successive generations had robbed the stone and timber structures for other building projects such as the construction of nearby Clipstone Hall.

Under the ownership of the dukes of Newcastle and later the dukes of Portland, the site of the King’s Houses became nothing more than an agricultural field managed by their tenant farmers. Interest in the medieval site was once again sparked towards the end of the seventeenth century by Robert Thoroton, when he wrote The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire. This work was followed up by a number of other antiquarians such as Francis Grose, Major Hayman Rooke and Samuel Hieronymous Grimm, who wrote about and illustrated the ruins during the eighteenth century. Despite this, further disaster struck the site in the early nineteenth century when the intensive remodeling of the village of Clipstone, coupled with the Duke of Portland’s flood meadows irrigation scheme, led to the foundations of the site being quarried for stone.

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Silver penny of Edward I excavated in 2012 (David & Anthony James)

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 Mediaeval horse pendant from Clipstone (David & Anthony James)

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 King John’s Palace photographed in 2009 during a program of comprehensive conservation carried out by Paul Mendham Stonemasons.

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It is true to say that the archaeological remains of the King’s Houses are in very poor condition as a result of repeated quarrying of foundations, which has left only minimal traces in situ, largely characterized by robber trenches. However, it is also true to say that multidisciplinary research has been employed successfully to once again understand the great significance of the once-great palace at Kings Clipstone, and the role it played in the history of medieval monarchy in England.

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Standing in a public square in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter, it is not unusual to see groups of tourists filing into the shops and restaurants that line its periphery. Many of them have just seen some of the nearby iconic sites, only steps away, that until now they have only glimpsed in photographs or read about in books and magazines — the Western Wall; the sacred area known as the Temple Mount (to Jews and Christians), otherwise known as the Haram esh-Sharif (to Muslims); the Tower of David; the Cenacle – the ‘Upper Room’ for Christians; and the Tomb of King David. These are sites that have drawn pilgrims and visitors alike for centuries.

Some of these tourists may not know, however, that just 3 meters beneath their feet are the remains of another, hidden ancient Jerusalem that doesn’t easily meet the visitor’s eye, yet nonetheless would surely astound any beholder as much as the better known iconic shrines. Tucked away beneath the modern-day pavement, they are the remains of the most affluential neighborhood of 1st century Jerusalem’s Jewish power elite. 

Today it is known as the Herodian Quarter. To date, archaeologists have excavated only a segment of this ancient upscale community — the remains of six homes sporting, what for Jerusalem society was the latest and best in materials, style, and interior decorative splendor, adapted to conform with the requirements of Jewish religious laws of the time. Elevated and spread across the western hill, they overlooked what at that time was the Herodian re-built Second Temple and its Mount, one of the architectural wonders of the 1st century CE Roman world. 

It must have been a wonderful view. 

The Excavations

As the historical record and archaeological excavations have attested, these finely appointed mansion-like homes were destroyed and burned shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans following the First Jewish Revolt. Succeeding centuries saw construction of new structures atop their ruins, so that by the time a team under the renowned Israeli archaeologist Nachman Avigad began digging in the 1970’s, only the basements remained to be revealed. Even so, they were two stories in depth, and over time the team had uncovered the remains of storage rooms, frescoed walls, remarkably well-preserved floor mosaics, mikveh or ritual baths, decorated tables, fine imported ceramic ware, stone vessels (used to comport with Jewish ritual purity laws), water cisterns, kitchen ovens, and a host of other artifacts. Analysis of the remains indicated that the homes were at least two stories high, not including the basements. The basements were used as storerooms, washrooms and ritual cleansing. The upper floors featured kitchens and bedrooms.     

Who lived in these privileged accommodations?

Historians and archaeologists suggest they were likely the homes of Jerusalem’s priestly class. This would include the officiating priests of the Temple and members of the Sanhedrin. They were individuals like the High Priest Caiaphas, the man who, according to the New Testament gospel accounts, organized the plot to kill Jesus; and the High Priest Annas, Caiaphas’ powerful father-in-law. The proximity of the homes to the Temple Mount, the opulent nature of the structures, the interior features and decorative elements, the artifacts recovered, and the dating of the finds—all  have provided strong evidence that this would have been a slice of their residential community. 

Now, new excavations very near and just south of the Herodian Quarter excavations on Mount Zion continue to support this suggestion. Under Shimon Gibson and co-director James Tabor of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, archaeologists have recently uncovered what they interpret to be more of the likely residential area of wealthy families of the priestly class, dated to the same time period as the Herodian Quarter excavation only a stone’s throw away to the north. They know this from the numerous tell-tale finds, particularly the remains of the basement of an upscale house, which included a stepped, plastered ritual bathing pool or mikveh, a bathing room with a ‘bathtub’-like feature very similar to one found in the Herodian Quarter excavation, bread ovens, a plastered cistern, a well-preserved vaulted ceiling, and associated artifacts. One particular artifact stood out among the small finds and helped to cement the suggestion of a priestly residence: “Among the special finds from the 2009 season of excavations was a soft white limestone cup dating from the first century C.E. bearing an incised inscription, with ten or perhaps eleven lines of script on its sides,” wrote Gibson.**  The cup was found in four pieces within a fill layer containing 1st century pottery fragments above a barrel-vaulted ceiling of a mikveh. It represented a well-known type of 1st century cup found in excavations throughout Jerusalem and beyond. Study of the cup and the historical context of its finding suggests that it might have been a ritual cleansing cup, used for the washing of hands before engaging in liturgical functions. Suggests Gibson, “the discovery of the cup in the area of the Upper City of Jerusalem, in which priestly families are known to have resided (including the Qatros family*), may hint at the original priestly function that this specific vessel had some two thousand years ago.”** Also of note was the discovery of a gold coin bearing the image of the Roman Emperor Nero, struck in 56/57 AD. “It’s a valuable piece of personal property and wouldn’t have been cast away like rubbish or casually dropped,” says Gibson. “It’s conceivable that it ended up outside these structures in the chaos [the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD] that happened as this area was destroyed.” The find is additionally rare because it is the first time such a coin has been excavated in a controlled archaeological dig.

Excavations at the Mount Zion location are ongoing, and archaeologists are confident that much more will be unearthed that will help further define the lifestyles of the rich and famous of Jerusalem at a pivotal time in the history of the region. 

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 Above and below: Finely built structures, including floor mosaics, wall frescoes and mikvehs, characterized even the basement levels of these homes (see images below). Depicted above is a triclinium and courtyard of a palatial mansion home.

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 Above: Example of decorative wall detail.

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 Above: Stone vessels recovered from the Herodian Quarter excavations. Courtesy Victoria Brogdon

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 Above: Aerial overview photograph of the Mount Zion excavations. Courtesy Victoria Brogdon

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Above and below: The Mount Zion excavations are just south and adjacent to the south wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, not far from the Herodian Quarter, which is inside the wall. The wall of the city during the 1st century CE was further south from this point, such that the remains found in the Mount Zion dig and those of the Herodian Quarter would have both been within or behind the city wall. Photos courtesy Victoria Brogdon

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 Above and below: Detailed views of the Mount Zion excavations. 

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Readers can learn more about the Herodian Quarter, otherwise known as the Wohl Archaeological Museum, here and here, and more about the Mount Zion excavations at this site. 

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*https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283255501_Bar_Qatros_and_the_Priestly_Families_of_Jerusalem

**Gibson, Shimon, Preliminary Report: New Excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and an Inscribed Stone Cup/Mug from the Second Temple Period, University of North Carolina at Charlotte and University of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, 2010

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Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

In this place, you can peer out over a grand oceanic vista. Standing on the top of a cliff and looking down,  you see waves crash against rugged rock formations of various hues of brown—natural stone monuments sculpted by wind, water and time. If you look more closely, you can see dolphins among the waves and seals on the rocks. It’s perfect coastal hiking territory. 

The coast of northern California?

Think again.

You’re on the southeastern coast of South Africa, on a rocky headland called Pinnacle Point just south of the town of Mossel Bay. 

Other than its majestic scenery, Pinnacle Point would mean little to most people. But for archaeologists and others who know about its significance, it is one of a number of locations where evidence has been found bearing on the dawn of modern humans. People lived here as long ago as 100,000 years and more—near the beginnings of modern humanity in terms of modern human behavior, as the current thinking goes. (Archaeological and genetic research has shown that the first modern humans ancestral to our current populations likely arose at least 160,000 to 200,000 years ago). 

For almost countless millennia to the present, cave shelters have helped to define the coastline cliffs here. They have also helped to define a relatively good living for prehistoric people. One of these shelters, designated by archaeologists as ‘PP13B’, was first excavated more than a decade ago by an international team under the direction of palaeoanthropologist Curtis Marean of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. He and his team are still excavating at Pinnacle Point, which also includes a second cave shelter known as PP 5-6. Between the two shelters, scientists have uncovered a wealth of information that has enlightened current understanding about what kind of people these early occupants were and what they could tell us about human evolution and human behavior tens of thousands of years ago. 

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 View looking down at the Pinnacle Point cave shelter area. Courtesy Kate Leonard

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 View of Pinnacle Point cave shelters. Courtesy Kate Leonard

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 View toward the ocean looking out of a cave shelter at Pinnacle Point. Courtesy Kate Leonard

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Kate’s brush with prehistory

For a brief time in early 2016, Kate Leonard, a young Canadian PhD-credentialed archaeologist, joined the team as part of her global year-long journey to work at twelve different archaeological sites in 12 separate countries. She calls her project Global Archaeology: A Year of Digs. Popular Archaeology has been following her on her journey as she makes her rounds across the world. Pinnacle Point now makes the 5th stop on her global trek. 

As part of any dig crew, Leonard knows that there are sometimes a few challenges that come with the outdoor experience of a dig, and Pinnacle Point was no exception. “To reach the site itself,” says Leonard, “the team walks down a long wooden staircase — that can be a bit slippery after a rainfall — and along the coastline. After a long day of digging it can be daunting to look up at all those steps with your frame-pack loaded with archaeological gear. Because the site is inaccessible except by foot much of the valuable equipment has to be trekked in and out by the team members.” 

But there are benefits. 

“A very positive aspect of this trek is the beautiful view over the Indian Ocean: it was wonderful to see the sunrise over the waves as we headed to the site in the morning,” she adds. But even more satisfying, as Leonard would be the first to say, is the opportunity to be a critical part of a major scientific investigation at a site that is having a salient impact on our understanding of human evolution. Archaeology at Pinnacle Point has been one of those undertakings leading the way. “All archaeological investigations are important and further our understanding of why humans do the things we do,” Leonard states. “But to be revealing evidence of human activity from so long ago is an even greater responsibility.” 

Unlike excavating great ancient monumental structures of more recent human history, the investigation and retrieval of evidence of human occupation at prehistoric sites require recognizing and recovering objects and material that are generally far more subtle. It often requires the application of advanced techniques in the most careful way possible. “Archaeology is ‘preservation through destruction’: you only get one chance to put your trowel in the ground because after you remove the archaeological material it can never be put back,” explains Leonard. “That is why the work of recording the excavation process is so essential. At Pinnacle Point the level of detail being recorded is truly astounding. We plot every ‘find’ with no size restriction – so even pieces of shell that are 0.25 cm in size are digitally mapped with the total station [a high-tech piece of survey equipment that makes digital 3D maps]. This creates a rich database of information that can be intensively analyzed. When over 50,000 artifacts are being collected over the course of one field season precision and organization is paramount!”  

Unique to the Pinnacle Point excavation is the integration of bar code scanners to record artifacts, archaeological features and buckets of sieved soil. The scanners are connected to hand-held computers, which are in turn connected to a total station. Currently, the excavation team is focusing on shelter PP 5-6, where they have set up 5 total stations with two team members functioning as site recorders moving among the excavators to carefully record the data with tablets. “There is a lot riding on the site recorders,” says Leonard, who worked as one of the recorders. “They have to ensure that all data is logged correctly and nothing is left out. It is amazing to see the activity on site with excavators furiously digging, the site recorders moving between their workstation and the excavators, and the 5 total stations being run simultaneously to keep up with the amount of archaeology being revealed.”

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 The team walking to the site in the morning. Courtesy Kate Leonard

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 Pinnacle Point (PP) Cave 5-6 (left). Courtesy Kate Leonard

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 The team working at the lower end of the excavation in PP 5-6. Courtesy Kate Leonard

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 The team at work in the upper portion of the excavation. Courtesy Kate Leonard 

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 A view of the long section in PP 5-6. This shows 40,000 years of stratigraphy. The base yielded material from 90,000 years ago. Courtesy Kate Leonard

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The finds and what they mean

Exploration at Pinnacle Point has taken scientists to a series of cave shelter sites. But the two cave shelters, PP13B and PP5-6, have stood out most prominently in the ongoing investigations. Cave PP13B alone has provided a glimpse of the surprisingly early sophistication and innovation of our modern human ancestors. “It has given us the earliest evidence for human consumption of shellfish – dated to around 164,000 years ago,” says Leonard. “Shellfish collecting can only be done at low spring tide (a new and full moon) and therefore a knowledge/awareness of the lunar cycle is implied. Once this knowledge began to be implemented to harvest shellfish the people living at Pinnacle Point had a predictable source of calorie rich protein with which to supplement their diet.” Cave PP13B also contained evidence for early use of ochre pigment and heat treatment of stone artifacts.” (See videos below. While viewing, note there is a momentary pause between each taping session within each video.) 

Cave shelter PP5-6, where the team is now working, has added yet more. Containing material dated from 50,000 to 90,000 years ago, it has provided the earliest known evidence for the knapping of microliths to make composite tools, including intentional heat treatment of the stone. “This may be the earliest evidence for projectile points around 71,000 years ago, and to make those microliths they focused on heat treatment to improve the stone,” Leonard adds. Using the controlling elements of simple hearths, the shelter occupants employed a complex process to heat the stone (in this instance silcrate) and thus change its properties for better flaking to produce the micro blades or microliths for more advanced toolmaking. Many scientists consider this to be the foundation for pyrotechnology and a precursor to later technologies, such as the making of ceramics and the manufacturing of metals. 

And that’s not all. “The types of innovations that have been revealed by the excavations in the Pinnacle Point complex share some major traits: cooperation, organization and planning,” says Leonard. And these were critical to the later development of agriculture and urbanization, basic elements of civilization. 

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Blombos

At first blush, there is nothing extraordinary about it. Carved out of a limestone cliff by nature millions of years ago, Blombos Cave is, like the Pinnacle Point caves, set picturesquely above a rugged seascape along South Africa’s Southern Cape Coast. And like Pinnacle Point, it may be without argument one of the most important locations yet discovered that holds evidence, with secrets perhaps yet to be revealed, bearing on the origins of modern humans.

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 Blombos Cave interior panorama view. Image courtesy of Magnus Haaland

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The significance of the cave was first discovered in 1991 when Professor Christopher Henshilwood of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and others began serious investigations of the cave features. Systematic excavations were carried out beginning in 1997 with Cedric Poggenpoel and a team of excavators. It soon proved to be a goldmine of evidence that could potentially rewrite the scenario of when and where behaviorally modern humans emerged.  

Most scientists at this time had assumed, based on evidence uncovered in the prehistoric cave sites of Europe, that modern human behavior, the ability to think and express abstractly, innovate, cooperate and communicate with symbolic expression, was born up north, in or near the Ice Age environs of present-day Europe, among anatomically modern humans who coexisted with their stalky, robust but perhaps less cognitively endowed Neanderthal cousins. But with the work of Henshilwood and others it was now beginning to appear that there was another story—a southside story—a story that played out far earlier in time near the southern Cape of South Africa. Scientists had unearthed 75,000-year-old pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs, 75,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius (sea tick) shells, and 80,000-year-old bone tools, as well as human teeth with crown diameters that suggested that the people in the cave were likely anatomically modern. Moreover, evidence of shellfishing and possibly fishing had been discovered, dating to about 140,000 years ago. The engraved pieces of ochre have been regarded by many scientists as the oldest known artwork. According to Henshilwood and his associates, the use of abstract symbolism as demonstrated on the engraved pieces of ochre and the presence of a complex tool kit suggested that a Middle Stone Age (MSA) people [280,000 – 25,000 B.P.] were behaving in a “cognitively modern way” and may have exercised syntactical language, the rudiments of modern-day language communication, at least 80,000 years ago. 

Since the earliest investigations beginning in 1991, teams of researchers at the cave have revealed evidence bearing on at least several elements of human cultural activity. For recording and analysis purposes, they divided the stratigraphy (sediment layers) into sub-levels known as M1, M2, and M3, occupation of which has been dated to 72.7 ± 3.1 ka, 84.6 ± 5.8 to 76.8 ± 3.1 ka, and 98.9 ± 4.5 ka, respectively: 

Stratigraphy and dates of the west section of Blombos Cave. The “hiatus” sub-levels contained no cultural features or artifacts. C. Henshilwood, Wikimedia Commons 

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Hunting and Fishing

Researchers under the direction of C. Villa and Henshilwood studied the manufacture and use of dozens of Still Bay points (a toolkit named for a site nearby Blombos, characterized by bifacial points with elliptical bases) and other stone tools and fragments which were excavated from Blombos Cave between 1993 and 2004. These lithics all came from the M1 and M2 layers, and most were made of silcrete. Because these researchers were unable, in over a decade of survey and excavation, to find a single source of silcrete closer to Blombos Cave than the alluvial deposits in Riversdale, approximately 30 kilometers away, they inferred that raw materials had been collected in river basins and transported back to the cave for manufacture. The large number of unfinished tools at the site (which comprised more than 80% of the sample set and were found in varying stages of production) allowed the Villa team to physically replicate the manufacturing methods of Blombos Cave’s prehistoric occupants. Their experimental flintknapping revealed that the lithics at Blombos Cave had been constructed by first removing large flakes from a core with a hard stone hammer, then refining the tip and edges by using a softer hammer to remove more delicate flakes. Villa’s team hypothesized that if the lithics at Blombos Cave had been used for hunting, at least some of the tools present would exhibit physical evidence of hafting and of use for cutting meat; morphometric analysis, using comparative collections, revealed that this was indeed the case. The team concluded that the preponderance of lithic evidence, particularly when viewed in conjunction with the other types of artifacts present at this site, is indicative of socially complex hunting behavior, including extensive cooperation and possibly even language and geographic toolkit specialization.

A study led by C. Tribolo and a team in 2006 performed thermoluminescence dating on five silcrete and quartzite lithics from level M1. The internal dose rates were calculated by using delayed neuron activation to measure the concentrations of uranium, thorium, and potassium radioisotopes in the core of each sample, and the external dose rates were measured by a series of dosimeters planted in the stratigraphy for almost one year, as well as by a series of field gamma spectrometer measurements taken throughout the cave. Their results yielded a mean age of 74±5 to 78±6 ka, fairly consistent with the 72.7 ± 3.1 ka date derived from optically-stimulated luminescence of M1 sediments taken by Z. Jacobs and other researchers that same year.

Faunal finds indicated that the MSA people of the cave likely exploited a broad range of animals. This included large animals, such as the eland, and smaller, such as tortoises, mole rats and hyraxes. There was also evidence of seal, dolphin, whale, fish and shellfish in the cave. 

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 Faunal chart of Blombos Cave. C. Henshilwood, Wikimedia Commons

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Personal Adornment

In a study by Francesco d’Errico of the University of Bordeaux, researchers used several methods to study 41 Nassarius kraussianus (sea tick) shells, 39 of which came from level M1 and two of which were from M2. Their goal was to determine whether the wear pattern on these shells–which appeared to have been intentionally perforated and strung together, as for personal adornment–could possibly have formed due to natural processes. Taphonomic analysis indicated that no natural predators of N. kraussianus were present at Blombos Cave during the MSA, and wear use analysis indicated that the condition of the shells was too intact to have been deposited by severe weather patterns. In addition, the mouth of the cave, at 35 meters above sea level, would have been out of reach of ocean waves even during the MSA, and the consistently large size of the shell samples indicates that they were purposefully selected for this attribute. Cost-benefit analysis indicated that the amount of meat yielded by N. kraussianus did not warrant the time required for their collection, leading to the conclusion that sea ticks likely would not have been brought to Blombos Cave as a food source. Experiments with several bead-making techniques revealed that the perforations present in the Blombos Cave shells most resembled the results of intentional piercing with a bone awl or crab claw, and the observed wear use was found to be consistent with friction from rubbing against thread, skin, or other beads. Based on this evidence, the team concluded that the shell artifacts found were anthropogenic in origin and most likely used as necklaces, belts, or other forms of personal ornamentation. The abstract, or symbolic, reasoning inherent in this behavior further attested to the presence of “modern” cognition during the African Middle Stone Age.

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 Detail close-up of Blombos shell beads showing intentional perforation. Chris Henshilwood & Francesco d’Errico, Wikimedia Commons

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Bonework

D’Errico and Henshilwood also analyzed bone artifacts from the Cave – which included complete awls and awl tips, projectile points, a tool shaft, and three unidentified fragments with possible engravings – in the interest of dating them and confirming or rejecting anthropogenic modification. It is worth noting that only one of these bone artifacts was found in level M3, and its provenience has thus been attributed to turbation processes. D’Errico and Henshilwood used a scanning electron microscope to examine the use wear and markings on the Blombos Cave bones, comparing these findings to various designs and bone wear patterns that they had produced experimentally. They concluded that the bone tools at Blombos were formed by scraping a piece of bone vigorously against a coarse surface or existing tool to form a point, and that some of the bones were intentionally heated to increase their strength before knapping. (Because animal behavior can sometimes result in similar wear patterns, the researchers were careful to consider the taphonomic evidence at Blombos Cave, which in its entirety revealed few animal-induced bone modifications.) The use of morphological comparative collections revealed that the bone tools at this site were used as piercers, scrapers, hafted spear points, and even lithic retouchers, and that their surfaces were smoothed by intensive use. The grooves and lines found in the surfaces of the three unidentified fragments served no clear functional purpose and could not be attributed to any known natural weathering mechanism; the researchers therefore inferred a deliberate and symbolic purpose behind them, even suggesting a similarity between these markings and the engravings of ownership added to arrowheads by contemporary San populations, a practice documented ethnographically.

Art?

Blombos Cave represents an incidence of man-made abstract images dating earlier than 40 ka, including two ochre pieces which were unquestionably engraved and another seven which are suspected to be so. Ochres are considered to be among the earliest pigments used by humans, derived from natural clay containing mineral oxides. The two definitive pieces were found adjacent to a small hearth, with no evidence of turbation present. They each feature a series of cross-hatched lines bound by sets of thicker parallel lines, creating a discrete, recurring geometric pattern. Experimental production techniques revealed that the engraved surfaces were first prepared by grinding against a rough surface, and that the cross-hatched design resulted from at least two separate tool positions relative to the ochre surface, achieved by rotating the ochre during the engraving process. This led to the conclusion that these engravings could not have been the result of accidental or natural processes, and that their origin was categorically anthropogenic.

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 Bifacial points, engraved ochre and bone tools from the c. 75 –  80,000 year old M1 & M2 phases at Blombos Cave.  C. Henshilwood, photo by Henning, Wikimedia Commons

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But perhaps the most significant recent discovery bearing on abstract or artistic expression came during more recent excavations: 

An Art Workshop

In 2008, Henshilwood and a team of associates discovered a remarkable assemblage of artifacts while excavating the Cave. The findings included an assortment of lithic hammers and grindstones, and two abalone (sea snail) shells that had evidently been used as containers to hold and store a red, ochre-rich paint mixture that was also mixed with ground bone and charcoal. Ochre, the prime ingredient of the ancient paint, produces the yellow or red color so often associated with the ancient paint and seen to embellish drawings and other works of prehistoric art. It was possibly used for other purposes, such as body decoration. The sediments in which the ochre containers were found were dated to about 100,000 years based on Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating. 

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 Karen van Niekerk excavating the Tk1 toolkit with abalone shell in the 100,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave in 2008. Image courtesy Science/AAAS. 

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The use of the ancient paint in human history was previously well documented only after about 60,000 years ago, which means that the Blombos Cave finds push back the use of the paint to earlier periods. The finds also indicate that humans as far back as 100,000 years ago were methodically producing and storing the material, representing a critical point in human thinking within the context of human evolution.  “The recovery of these toolkits adds evidence for early technological and behavioural developments associated with humans and documents their deliberate planning, production and curation of pigmented compound and the use of containers,” said Henshilwood. “It also demonstrates that humans had an elementary knowledge of chemistry and the ability for long-term planning 100,000 years ago.” 

The earliest behaviorally modern humans?

D’Errico, Henshilwood and Tribolo have all noted that while no single line of archaeological evidence at Blombos Cave is conclusive enough to shift our understanding of behavioral modernity and its origins, the implications become clear when the scope of inquiry is widened to the site in its entirety. Systematic lithics production, extensive shell bead manufacture with probable decorative intent, production of bone tools for both practical and symbolic functions, and abstract ochre engravings and a painting “workshop” or tool assemblage: all work in conjunction to challenge the traditional belief that modern thought and behavior patterns were out of reach of Middle Stone Age populations, or that early Europeans were responsible for the rise of human thought as we know it. According to these researchers, the assemblage at Blombos Cave provides ample reason to suspect that this site’s MSA population possessed a spoken language, resided in the cave in social groups, and relied on cooperation for survival. (See the video below).

They have nonetheless tempered their interpretation with a cautious consideration of the evidence, noting that additional data from new sites may be needed before greater confidence can be obtained. They also note that more research needs to be done to determine how past climate variability impacted technological change among early Homo sapiens groups in the region. Were environmental factors a driving force for innovation?

On this point, scientists have recently obtained environmental records from various archaeological sites that suggest climate may not have directly effected cultural and technological innovations of Middle Stone Age humans in southern Africa.* They analyzed animal remains, shellfish taxa, and carbon and oxygen isotope measurements from ostrich eggshell remains sampled from Blombos Cave and Klipdrift Shelter, another cave site with Middle Stone Age deposits and lithics on the southern Cape of South Africa, ranging from 98,000 to 73,000 years ago and 72,000 to 59,000 years ago, respectively. The purpose was to develop data relating to the possible palaeoenvironmental conditions in southern Africa of those time periods. The results showed no clear correlation between the paleoenvironmental changes and the patterns and changes in the archaeological record at each site.

This is significant within a larger debate, which revolves around the suggestion by some scientists that climate instability may have catalyzed technological advances, while others have suggested the opposite—that environmental stability may have allowed for experimentation. Now, the disconnect between palaeoenvironmental records and the archaeological sites complicates the testing of these alternatives.

The importance of sharing technology and culture

Researchers have also been studying the technology used by different groups in South Africa, including objects such as stone spear points and decorated ostrich eggshells, to determine if there was any overlap and contact across Middle Stone Age human groups. The results produced some revelatory insights.

“The pattern we are seeing is that when demographics change, people interact more. For example, we have found similar patterns engraved on ostrich eggshells in different sites. This shows that people were probably sharing symbolic material culture at certain times but not at others” says Dr Karen van Niekerk, a key researcher.

The sharing of symbolic material culture and technology can provide some clues relating to the success of Homo sapiens‘ dispersal from Africa to Arabia and Europe. The greater the inter-group contact and interaction, the more sophisticated and defined their technology and culture became.

“Contact across groups, and population dynamics, makes it possible to adopt and adapt new technologies and culture and it is what describes Homo sapiens. What we are seeing is the same pattern that shaped the people in Europe who created cave art many years later,” Henshilwood says.

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*According to a study published July 6, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Patrick Roberts from the University of Oxford, UK, and colleagues.

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Authors: Michael Gordon, Faithe McCreery, and Dan Mclerran

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This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

Ein Hatzeva.

In Hebrew, it means “strong spring”.

It also describes the ancient place by this name about 35 kms south of the Dead Sea.

The name says it all, because deep in this desert region, in what the ancients called the Arava, water meant everything. The natural fresh water spring made it a reason for ancient roads to converge here — a critical and welcoming oasis for traveling caravans along the spice and incense route, facilitating commerce and providing much-needed rest for weary travelers. And with this clear strategic value, it became a perfect place for expanding kingdoms to establish their presence. 

Fortresses on the Edge

Although the fresh water oasis of Ein Hatzeva has been thought by some to have possibly accommodated ancient Amorites and other wandering, nomadic peoples, it was mostly expanding commerce that transformed this tiny spot into a strategic way station on the fringe of kingdoms. It sat at the intersection of the main Arava road and the Negev-Edom road, a critical stopping point for the traveling caravans of spices and other goods and, at one time, a good location to facilitate oversight and protection of the copper mines at Faynan, near Eilat. 

And a good place to build a fort.  

Which is why Ein Hatzeva, otherwise known as Biblical Tamar*, has seen the presence of at least five succeeding major fortifications. Archaeological excavations since 1972 have uncovered at least 8 historic periods, revealing a sequence including Early Israelite, Edomite, Nabataean, Roman, Early Arab, and later occupations.

The Israelite and Judahite Fortresses

The earliest of the fortifications was constructed during the 10th century BCE. Comparatively small, some scholars and archaeologists have interpreted these Iron Age remains as one of a number of fortifications constructed throughout the land to secure the border of the united kingdom of Israel under Solomon**. But the most magnificent of the Iron Age fortifications was built somewhat later (archaeologists suggesting its construction during the 9th-8th centuries BCE), atop and around the smaller, older fortress footprint. This fortress, according to Biblical scholars, represented the might of the Kingdom of Judah, although it is not certain who among the Judahite kings was responsible for initiating its construction. Some suggest King Jehoshaphat (867 – 846 BCE), desiring an enlarged fortress as part of his policy to renew and build upon commercial ties with the rich kingdoms of present day southern Arabia to the south and east. Others suggest King Amaziah (798-769 BCE) or Uzziah (769-733 BCE). 

In any case, the enlarged fortress is considered to have been among the largest Judahite fortresses ever built, fulfilling a critical role in the Kingdom of Judah’s border defenses. Beginning in the first expansion with a 50 x 50 meter surrounding wall, it was later expanded to 100 x 100 meters, comparable in area to a town of the time. Excavations have uncovered a massive three-meter-thick casemate wall, the casemate sections filled with packed earth. Buttressing the wall was a defensive rampart. Towers were set at its corners. A four-chambered gatethouse complex (a standard feature for cities and fortifications of the period) still stands to a height of three meters in the northeastern corner of the fortress remains. Not intended by its original builders, however, part of the gate complex leans, as if, with one powerful push, one could topple it over. It is a testament to damage caused by a powerful earthquake in the mid-8th century BCE. The fortress remains also feature stores or granaries and silos for food—evidence of wheat and barley found within one of the silos—and a defensive moat. 

But as massive and imposing as the 8th century fortress was, the Judahite kingdom eventually lost control of what is today the Negev region, leaving opportunity for expansion by the neighboring Edomites and the fortress’s resulting destruction near the end of the 8th century BCE. A smaller 7th century fortress was built over the remains of the former, but it never attained the grandeur and defensive prowess that characterized the previous larger fortress. 

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 Aerial view of the excavated remains at Ein Hatzeva. Credit: Biblewalks.com

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 Aerial view of the excavated remains of Ein Hatzeva with excavated area of the first Iron Age (10th century BCE) Israelite fortress highlighted in yellow. Credit: Biblewalks.com

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  Aerial view of the excavated remains of Ein Hatzeva with excavated area of the first Judahite fortress (9th-8th centuries BCE) highlighted in yellow. Credit: Biblewalks.com

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 Aerial view of the excavated remains of Ein Hatzeva with excavated area of the expanded Judahite fortress (9th-8th centuries BCE) highlighted in yellow. Credit: Biblewalks.com

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 View of a section of the Iron Age (Israelite) city gate complex remains, one of the grandest discovered in the ‘Holy Land’ region to this day. 

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 Above and below, view of a section of the Iron Age (Israelite) city gate complex remains. 

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 Above and below: Views of the remains of the Iron Age expanded fortress northwest wall and tower construction. 

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Above: View of the exterior remains of the northwest wall of the expanded Iron Age fortress

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Supplement

The Four-Room House

A key feature uncovered at Ein Hatzeva was a four-room house, built during the period of the Israelite/Judahite fortifications:

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Above and below: The foundation still visible, pictured here are its remains—what archaeologists have identified as a classic Israelite four-room house structure. Most houses inhabited by the Israelites during the Iron Age, beginning at the end of the 11th century BCE until about the time of the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century BCE, were designed after this floor plan pattern. It characterized the ground floor of the house, as this is the house level that could be determined through archaeological investigation. It typically featured four sections, or rooms, three of which were defined by two rows of wooden pillars arrayed through the center of the structure and functioning to divide the spaces, and the fourth ‘broadroom’ oriented across the back or rear of the three vertical rooms. This ground level typically functioned as space to stable livestock and for storage. The family, or extended family, resided on the upper level. Like any domicile even today, these houses varied in size, and were constructed either as stand-alone houses or as connected houses (ancient equivalent of the modern day townhouse). Many connected houses were constructed with the back, or broadroom, exterior wall abutting the surrounding casemate wall of a city. Walls, constructed of fieldstones and dried mud, were typically around one meter in thickness, with exterior walls often thicker. The house exteriors were likely plastered to prevent water erosion. Archaeological investigation has revealed that smaller urban houses may have been clustered, sharing exterior walls between and likely inhabited by nuclear families, whereas larger stand-alone houses, like the one illustrated here at Ein Hatzeva, belonged to wealthy or extended families of the elite. “This is the biggest Israelite house in Israel,” says Dr. DeWayne Coxon of the house at Ein Hatzeva. “It was probably the priest’s house.” Coxon is President of Blossoming Rose, the organization that curates the archaeological site at Ein Hatzeva. 

Along with the Israelite and Roman fortresses, bathhouse, and the Edomite cultic shrine, the large Israelite four-room house stands as one of the distinguishing features of the archaeological park, known as the Biblical Tamar Park, administered by Blossoming Rose on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

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Supplement

The Shrine

During the 7th century BCE, just north of the fortress ruins, the Edomites built a temple or cultic shrine, likely functioning to serve traders journeying from Edom to the Negev region. Excavations have revealed the foundational outlines of the structure, as well as an assemblage of broken ritual clay vessels and evidence of several stone altars, discovered in a repository within the structure. The finds include bowl-shaped incense stands on round bases, one of them featuring small clay objects in the shape of pomegranates (considered symbols of fertility), originally hanging from hooks; and anthropomorphic stands featuring human figures with decorated bowls atop their heads. 

Archaeologists and historians suggest that the shrine was probably destroyed and the ritual objects smashed during the reign of the Judahite king Josiah, who embarked on a campaign of religious reforms at the end of the 7th century BCE. The Biblical account (2 Kings 22-23) records this campaign of destruction. The shrine remains and the ritual vessels found at the site are currently exhibited at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

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 Above and below: Two views of the shrine remains. Above photo courtesy Victoria Brogdon.

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 Aerial view of the site remains, highlighting the locations of the four-room house and shrine in relation to the ancient fortress remains. Credit: Biblewalks.com

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The Nabataean Fortress

Archaeologists unearthed evidence of a small Nabataean (1st century BCE – 1st century CE) fortress and temple beneath the remains of the later Roman fortress (described below). Investigators believe these structures were constructed here as part of a way station the Nabataeans established as a rest and commercial stop along their Incense road. 

The Romans

Ancient Rome’s expanding empire from the 1st century BCE through the 4th century CE saw its presence in almost every corner of the known Western world, and the attractive desert oasis of Ein Hatzeva was no exception. Because of its location along the lucrative caravan routes for transport and trade in spice and merchandise, not to mention its position relative to controlling and protecting the critical Faynan copper mines to the southeast near present-day Eilat and territorial defense against the incursion of outside nomadic tribes, the Romans quickly recognized the imperative of establishing a strategic foothold here. A large Roman fortress took shape over its gentle rise of earth and ruins, and soldiers were garrisoned here in a new fortification, the architectural remains of which have been unearthed by teams of archaeologists in recent years. Part of the massive Roman fortress has been exposed and partially restored by experts and volunteers, including a significant associated bathhouse complex. 

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 Aerial view showing highlighted Roman fortifications and structures. Credit: Biblewalks.com

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 Above and below: Excavated sections of the Roman period bathouse remains.

 Above photo by Victoria Brogdon

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The Biblical Tamar Park

For decades, Blossoming Rose, the organization established to administer the site of Ein Hatzeva as an archaeological park, has governed the planning and execution of activities related to the park on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Today, the site hosts volunteer groups for continuing site restoration and excavation, as well as tour groups organized by various organizations and tour leaders in the country visiting the biblically historic sites throughout the ‘Holy Land’ region. Many visitors, by arrangement, stay in rustic but comfortable accommodations while performing volunteer or other activities at the site. 

Although Ein Hatzeva, or Biblical Tamar, is off the beaten path for most typical tour groups and visitors to this historic region of the world, the site administrators and archaeologists hope that the significance of the site will continue to rise on the ‘radar screens’ of the general public and those visiting the region. Certainly the site’s finds, both monumental and small, have played an important role in helping archaeologists and historians to better understand the history and culture of the region. Indeed, according to Coxon, there are 26,000 artifacts from this site alone in the Israel Museum, one of the nation of Israel’s most visited destinations and arguably one of the world’s preeminent archaeologic museums. 

There is much more work to be done at Ein Hatzeva before the full story of its remains can be realized. With funding and a greater commitment of resources, however, the site can prospectively yield much more, including the possibility of uncovering remains from time periods pre-dating the Iron Age, or Israelite, period. More information about the site and the park can be obtained at blossomingrose.org.  

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*The archaeological remains were surveyed near the start of the 20th century and then excavations between 1987 and 1995 confirmed its identification with Biblical Tamar: Ezekiel 48:28 —“The border shall be even from Tamar by the waters of strife in Kadesh (Ezekiel 48:28) and as the Roman Tamara.”

** 1 Kings 9: 17-18: “And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, and Baalath, and Tadmor [Tamar] in the wilderness, in the land……”

Cover image, top left: View of the Iron Age gate complex at Ein Hatzeva. Image credit: Victoria Brogdon

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Few prehistoric sites can match the primacy of this site. Known to the world as Sterkfontein, it is widely regarded as one of the most important sites in the study of human evolution. A group of limestone caves located in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, the word means “strong spring.” It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000. Archaeological excavations at the site have been ongoing for the past 80 years. Now, new finds have added to its prolific record of prehistory.

The Legacy

Famous for yielding the first fossil remains of the first adult specimen of Australopithecus africanus, discovered in 1936, Sterkfontein still remains the richest source of A. africanus specimens in the world. This early hominin, a genus important for understanding human evolution, lived in Southern Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene, between around 3 million and 2 million years ago (mya). Similar to Australopithecus afarensis, it exhibited a combination of human-like and ape-like features. Research on foot bones has demonstrated that it was bipedal, and recent studies of hand bones suggest that it was able to manufacture and use tools. 

Thousands of stone tools have also been found at Sterkfontein, including the oldest stone tools in Southern Africa. Both Oldowan cores and flakes and Acheulean stone tools are abundant at the site, dating to between 2mya and 1mya. The Oldowan tools are believed to have been made by an early Homo species, while large numbers of Early Acheulean tools at Sterkfontein are attributed to Homo ergaster. Cores, flakes, manuports, choppers, handaxes, and cleavers have all been recovered from Sterkfontein and are dated to between 1.6mya and 1.1mya. Wood and other organic materials rarely survive in the archaeological record, but the conditions at Sterkfontein allowed some 300 wooden fragments to survive. After study of the fossilized wood, researchers have been able to determine that the habitat at Sterkfontein included a combination of tropical forest and savanna habitat about 2.6mya.

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 Oldowan artifacts recovered from Sterkfontein. Courtesy University of the Witwatersrand (from the reference article, Cradle of Humankind Caves Yield New Ancient Dates.

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But the cave system is perhaps best known for the discovery of two iconic hominin specimens. The first, nicknamed ‘Mrs. Ples’ by scientists, constitutes the most complete Australopithecus africanus skull ever discovered. Found in 1947, the fossil dates to 2.05–2.01 mya and revealed a surprising story to researchers at the time: she had a small cranial capacity, even though she walked upright, suggesting that bipedalism preceded any increase in brain size. There continues to be debate about whether Mrs. Ples is indeed a ‘Mrs.”  She could be an adolescent, and possibly even a male.

The second iconic find, nicknamed ‘Little Foot’, was discovered in 1994, from the Silberberg Grotto in the Sterkfontein cave system. The excavation of this specimen has proven to be extremely difficult, as it was embedded in the breccia, and has taken over fifteen years. There has been some debate about the classification of this individual, whether it should be considered Australopithecus africanus or a new, different species called Australopithecus prometheus. The dating of this specimen has also been controversial, and many attempts have been made to determine a definitive date. All estimates have been roughly between 3mya and 2mya, although the most recent estimates – using a new radioisotopic technique – place the date at 3.67mya. Little Foot is remarkably well preserved, but in extremely delicate condition, and is currently in the final stages of preparation. The fossil is being described for upcoming publication by the hominin research team at Sterkfontein. Publication of this rare and distinct specimen will offer much insight into early hominin morphology and evolution.

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 Little Foot as situated (in situ) within the Silberberg Grotto. It has since been removed from the cave context and brought into the lab. Courtesy University of the Witwatersrand

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 Above and below: The Little Foot skull discovered by Ron Clarke. Courtesy University of the Witwatersrand

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The deposits at Sterkfontein have yielded over 800 fossils, from four different hominin species: Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus Prometheus, Paranthropus robustus, and Homo ergaster. Archaeologists have also discovered over 300,000 fossils from other animals, including primates, carnivores, bovids, small mammals, birds, elephants, and a number of extinct large animals. The diversity at Sterkfontein is unparalleled, making it a uniquely important site in both human and natural history. With a sequence of deposits ranging from 3.67mya to just 250,000 years ago, it documents the evolution of the landscape, environment, animals, and hominins. “There’s actually no other site like it, anywhere,” says Dominic Stratford, one of the lead researchers at Sterkfontein.

New Finds, New Technology

Recently, new hominin fossils were discovered in the Milner Hall chamber, deep within the Sterkfontein cave system. Scientists suggest they are most likely “early Homo” fossils – more recent than Australopithecus, but older than Homo ergaster. Stratford says they can’t be sure of the species until they find more specimens. “I am certainly planning further excavations in the Milner Hall,” he says. “There are untouched deposits that are very old and still need to be explored.” This area had previously never been investigated, as most of the excavations have historically focused on surface-exposed deposits – like the one where Mrs. Ples was found.

Now, deeper chambers continue to yield exciting, older fossils. Excavations are currently underway in the Jacovec Cavern, where preliminary finds have been made in recent months, and the Silberberg Grotto, where Little Foot was found. Researchers will also reopen some of the historical ‘surface’ excavations, to resample using new excavation and mapping techniques. The development of a new 3D GIS system will allow the consolidation of all previously discovered data – ranging from sediments and geology, to chemical and fossil data – into an integrated spatial database. The model was designed to better understand the complex history of deposits at the site, including which fossils belong with other fossils, sediments, or tools, and in what environment or time period. The use of this technology will be a first at Sterkfontein.

The framework for this new database is already in place – researchers have established control points throughout the caves, allowing mapping of any part down to millimeter resolution. Several of the chambers have been laser scanned, with this data integrated into the system. The next step will be to include all of the old fossil collections with the new discoveries. The 3D GIS database will then digitally populate the cave spaces with all the incorporated information. Stratford says this can provide answers to several of their questions. “Are more carnivores found in this area of the site than another? Are hominin teeth found more often in this part of the cave?” he wonders. If they can find a pattern showing where certain bones are found, or even bones with certain types of breakage, it may reveal how hominins were able to get into the cave.

Stratford says his goal is to make the database accessible to researchers online. “[The database] will take time as every fossil of the 300,000 strong collection needs to be carefully documented.”

The task going forward is huge, but luckily, there is a large team of international researchers and young South African post-graduates assisting with investigations at Sterkfontein. Some of the research programs focus on geological aspects of the site, or understanding of fossil contexts, but the wide range of fields being studied includes taphonomy, hominin morphology, functional morphology, sediment micromorphology, and geochemistry. Scientists are now generating an extremely large amount of data and information through the new, high resolution documentation techniques. Stratford says the 3D GIS database is crucial to placing each fossil in its correct environment and with the animals that shared this environment many millions of years ago. “[Only] then we can start to investigate, with real insight, what environmental and competitive stresses were put on the hominins,” he says. According to Stratford, this understanding will allow them to “make connections between anatomy, diet, locomotion, social structure” as well as “the opportunity to see if and how [these different hominin species] lived at the same time.”

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Above and below: New excavations are now yielding new hominin fossils. The excavations are conducted as part of a series of exploratory excavations away from the usual, known hominin-bearing areas. Excavations in Milner Hall, Jacovec Cavern, and Name Chamber are being conducted under Dr Stratford’s direction. Courtesy Dominic Stratford. (Above image republished from Sterkfontein Caves produce two new hominin fossils.)

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New hominin finger bone found at the Sterkfontein Cave. It is a very large proximal finger bone. So large, in fact, that it is significantly more robust than any other similar bone of any hominin yet found at South African plio-pleistocene sites. “It is almost complete and shows a really interesting mix of modern and archaic features. For example, the specimen is markedly curved – more curved than Homo naledi and is similarly curved to the much older species Australopithecus afarensis,” says Stratford. “The finger is similar in shape to the partial specimen from Olduvai Gorge that has been called Homo habilis, but is much larger. Overall, this specimen is unique in the South African plio-pleistocene fossil hominin record and deserves more studies,” says Stratford. Courtesy Jason Heaton, republished from Sterkfontein Caves produce two new hominin fossils.

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New hominin molar found at the Sterkfontein Cave. Relatively small, it is a nearly complete adult 1st molar tooth with  similarities to the same tooth identified with the species Homo habilis. “In size and shape it also bears a resemblance to two of the 10 1st molars of the H.naledi specimens, although further and more detailed comparisons are needed to verify this,” says Stratford.  According to the researchers, some of the tooth characteristics suggest it may belong to an early member of the Homo genus which can be associated with early stone tools dated to about  2.18 million years ago. Courtesy Jason Heaton,  republished from Sterkfontein Caves produce two new hominin fossils.

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A New Takeaway

With the innovation of microCT scanning and digital analyses, researchers at Sterkfontein are finally able to look inside the fossils at extremely high resolution without destroying them. This gives them the ability to investigate the structure of fossil bones, and what it might reveal about how prehistoric hominins and animals moved and lived. Moreover, two million years ago, the landscape of South Africa was populated by at least six different species of hominin, living in close proximity to each other. By understanding the context of fossil discoveries, we will know if this picture is simply a bias of our archaeological sampling, or whether it’s true – and perhaps answer some of our biggest questions.

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