Dating the Pleistocene hominin ichnosites on South Africa’s Cape south coast

Abstract

Seven hominin ichnosites in aeolianites on the Cape south coast of South Africa have been dated using Optically Stimulated Luminescence, yielding age estimates from Marine Isotope 6 through Marine Isotope Stage 4. All rock outcrops containing these sites are situated on the modern coastline. The new ages are consistent with geomorphological expectations, and with other numerical dating results from the wider southern Cape coastline. Seen in a global ichnological context, the cluster of South African sites (including two previously dated sites) contains nine of the twenty-three sites older than 70 ka from which hominin tracks have been reported. With a single exception they are also the only sites older than 40 ka that have been attributed to Homo sapiens, and include the oldest tracks (153 ± 10 ka) thus far attributed to our species. The South African coastline contains an archaeological and palaeoanthropological record of global significance, to which the hominin ichnological record, preserved on aeolianite palaeosurfaces and now chronologically constrained, can make a substantial contribution.