UNESCO World Heritage Site

Pinnacle Point Site Complex in Mossel Bay forms part of the Cradle of Human Culture and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Unlike other sites that can be remote, dry and downright inhospitable, the archaeological findings here are set against a stunning backdrop of seaside caves so cosy that generations of families sought shelter in them. Furthermore, as the sites you can visit in Mossel Bay form part of on-going excavation and advanced research projects, new discoveries are taking place all the time, and since one of the discoverers of the sites at Pinnacle Point in 1997 is a local archaeological tour guide, visitors may be among the first to hear about it.

The Cradle of Human Culture traces the origins and development of human culture over the past 160 000 years and, in the process, it also uncovers what it means to be human.

The latest news (in March 2018) from the Mossel Bay sites is the discovery of microscopic shards of volcanic glass from a super-volcano eruption on Sumatra about 74000 years ago, about 9000km away. While the event was believed to have devastated Stone Age human populations around the world, indications at Pinnacle suggest the existence of a thriving community sheltered from the devastation.

Background

Archaeologists Dr. Peter Nilssen and Jonathon Kaplan first identified Pinnacle Point’s archaeological significance during an environmental impact assessment in 1997 ahead of the construction of the Pinnacle Point golf estate and adjacent Garden Route Casino. Investigating seaside cliffs below the estate, they immediately recognised the value of the fossilized sediment piled high against the cave wall, which was later shown to contain a deluge of archaeological evidence, including the remains of stone artefacts, pieces of shell, charcoal from fires, pigment in the form of ochre, shards of bone and debris from the manufacture of tools.

The most important cave is one of 54 heritage sites ranging from open shell middens to geological and cave sites, and represents one of the densest concentrations of Stone Age sites in the world. They were declared a Western Cape Provincial Heritage Site in 2012, an initial step in a bid towards gaining recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Pinnacle Point caves have been the focus of intense scientific research by a multi-disciplinary team of more than 40 scientists from around the world, led by paleoanthropologist Curtis Marean of the Arizona State University’s Institute of Human Origins and Nelson Mandela University’s Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience in SA.

Known as the SACP4 Project – South African Coast Palaeoclimate, Palaeoenvironment, Palaeoecology and Palaeoanthropology Project – it is one of the largest scientific undertakings of its kind in the world, having so far received more than US$15 million in funding from the United States’ National Science Foundation, the Hyde Family Trust and others.

Research has resulted in publication in prestigious international scientific journals such as Nature and Science.

Current research focuses on caves 5 and 6, which show evidence of occupation from 90 000 to 50 000 years ago.

Archaeological importance

The Pinnacle Point sites are at the centre of the archeologically rich Cape south coast, a 600km stretch of coast from Langebaan (west of Cape Town) to Robberg (Plettenberg Bay) and are archaeologically important for at least two significant reasons: They changed the way scientists contemplated the origins of ‘modern’ humans (homo sapiens) and they hold a unique record of the climate from about 400 000 to 30 000 years ago.

Until fairly recently it was believed that ‘modern human behaviour’ – such as the making of composite tools with intricate stone blades and points, which represent major development in cognitive capacity – first appeared in Europe about 50 000 years ago. Evidence at Pinnacle proves such behaviour dates back as far as 160 000 years or more.

There is also early evidence of symbolic behaviour, pyro-technology used for stone tool manufacture, micro lithic technology (small arrow heads) and early systematic use of seafood in the human diet.

In addition, inferences on the palaeoclimate and palaeolandscape suggest a unique set of environmental circumstances – including ocean currents, a broad continental shelf and sweeping plain, and vegetation supported by the geological substrate –that may have been conducive to the survival of coastal Pleistocene (Ice Age) hominin communities.