Article | Renewed impetus for stone age research in the Eastern Free State (South Africa) centred on Rose Cottage Cave

Schmid VC, Wadley L, Brandl M, Guillemard I, Rhodes SE, Taipale N, Witelson DM, Borner M, Cnuts D, Hodgskiss T, Murungi M, Nigst PR, Porraz G, Puech E, Rots V, Stahlschmidt MC, Stelzer S, Teyssandier N, Tribolo C, Val A, van Schalkwyk L, Archer W, 2024. South African Archaeological Bulletin 79 (221): 105–119

Source : https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.T2025020700004601124794880

Rose Cottage Cave is widely recognised as a key sequence for the Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age in the southern African central interior, with its unique palaeoenvironmental and chrono-cultural archive spanning a semi-continuous record from the Late Pleistocene to the 19th century. Building on important previous research, new excavations will extend our knowledge concerning technological systems, landscape use, human-environment interactions, as well as site formation and the linkages between these parameters in a regional context. Here we report on preliminary insights from the recent fieldwork and provide an overview of future directions.