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25-452: Diepkloof Rock Shelter is a rock shelter in Western Cape , South Africa in which has been found some of the earliest evidence of the human use of symbols , in the form of patterns engraved upon ostrich eggshell water containers. These date around 60,000 years ago. The symbolic patterns consist of lines crossed at right angles or oblique angles by hatching. It has been suggested that "by

50-501: A butte that overlooks in an east direction 100 metres (330 ft) above the Verlorenvlei River . It contains one of the "most complete and continuous later Middle Stone Age sequences in southern Africa" stretching from before 130,000 BP to about 45,000 BP and encompassing pre-Stillbay, Stillbay , Howiesons Poort , and post-Howiesons Poort periods. It is about 25 metres (82 ft) wide and 15 metres (49 ft) deep. Research

75-409: A canteen for easier carrying, and seem to have been part of "daily hunter-gatherer life". They involved skill to make, with one of the researchers involved noting "Ostrich egg shells are quite hard. Doing such engravings is not so easy." The preservation of organic matter such as wood, grass, seeds and fruits at the site has been described as "exceptional". Pollen remains allow the identification of

100-509: A potential future 'serial nomination' together with Blombos Cave , Pinnacle Point , Klasies River Caves , Sibudu Cave and Border Cave . Three of the sites gained the World Heritage Status in 2024. Rock shelter Rock shelters form because a rock stratum such as sandstone that is resistant to erosion and weathering has formed a cliff or bluff, but a softer stratum, more subject to erosion and weathering, lies just below

125-459: A shrub is defined as a much-branched woody plant less than 8 m high and usually with many stems . Tall shrubs are mostly 2–8 m high, small shrubs 1–2 m high and subshrubs less than 1 m high. There is a descriptive system widely adopted in Australia to describe different types of vegetation is based on structural characteristics based on plant life-form , plus the height and foliage cover of

150-476: A transitional community that occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as fire. A stable state may be maintained by regular natural disturbance such as fire or browsing . Shrubland may be unsuitable for human habitation because of the danger of fire. The term was coined in 1903. Shrubland species generally show a wide range of adaptations to fire, such as heavy seed production, lignotubers , and fire-induced germination. In botany and ecology

175-483: Is based upon finds discovered in a trench excavated within it that is 16 metres (52 ft) across and 3.6 metres (12 ft) in depth. The deposits consist of burnt and nonburnt organic residues and ash that came from hearths, ash dumps and burnt bedding. It was first excavated in 1973 by John Parkington and Cedric Poggenpoel. Since 1999 it has been researched in a collaboration between the Department of Archaeology at

200-490: Is found only in rock shelters in Kentucky and Tennessee. Shrubland Shrubland , scrubland , scrub , brush , or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs , often also including grasses , herbs , and geophytes . Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It may be the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or

225-494: Is seldom a significant factor. Many rock shelters are found under waterfalls . Rock shelters are often important archaeologically . Because rock shelters form natural shelters from the weather, prehistoric humans often used them as living-places, and left behind debris, tools, and other artifacts . In mountainous areas the shelters can also be important for mountaineers . Transhumant nomads, people who move with their livestock - often from lower permanent winter residences in

250-454: Is still fairly dominant. From 65 to 70 ka quartz becomes dominant again with quartzite also being present. Some 270 fragments of ostrich eggshell containers have been found covered with engraved geometric patterns. The fragments have a maximum size of 20–30 mm, though a number have been fitted into larger 80 × 40 mm fragments. It is estimated that fragments from 25 containers have been found. Eggshell fragments have been found throughout

275-478: Is the mature vegetation type, and in other places, the result of degradation of former forest or woodland by logging or overgrazing , or disturbance by major fires. A number of World Wildlife Fund biomes are characterized as shrublands, including: Xeric or desert scrublands occur in the world's deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregions or in fast-draining sandy soils in more humid regions. These scrublands are characterized by plants with adaptations to

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300-599: The University of Cape Town and the Institute of Prehistory and Quaternary Geology at the University of Bordeaux . At Diepkloof Rock Shelter (DRS), from 70 to 74 ka bifaces and bifacial points are present while less complex forms such as backed artifacts occur from 70 ka through 60 ka and are subsequently replaced with unifacial points. Quartz and quartzite predominate the earliest unit with few occurrences of silcrete. During 70-74 ka unit, silcrete has replaced quartz while quartzite

325-442: The area. Animal remains include those of mammals, tortoises and intertidal marine shells. Most bones found in the cave come from rock hyrax , hares , cape dune mole-rats , steenbok and grysbok . Animals from rocky environments are also found including klipspringer , and vaalribbok . There is also evidence of local grasslands, with remains of zebras, wildebeest and hartebeest . Hippopotamus and southern reedbuck came from

350-504: The container. It has been suggested that they form "a system of symbolic representation in which collective identities and individual expressions are clearly communicated, suggesting social, cultural, and cognitive underpinnings that overlap with those of modern people." Moreover, they show "the development of a graphic tradition and the complex use of symbols to mediate social interactions. The large number of marked pieces shows that there were rules for composing designs but having room within

375-485: The dry climate, which include small leaves to limit water loss, thorns to protect them from grazing animals, succulent leaves or stems, storage organs to store water, and long taproots to reach groundwater. Mediterranean scrublands occur naturally in the Mediterranean scrub biome , located in the five Mediterranean climate regions of the world. Scrublands are most common near the seacoast and have often adapted to

400-439: The local animals and plants. The Howiesons Poort period shows evidence for thicket or shrubland vegetation now usually found in gorges, such as Diospyros , Cassine peragua , Maytenus , Rhus , and Hartogiella schinoides . Afromontane trees found in the area, include Ficus , Kiggelaria africana , Podocarpus elongatus , and Celtis africana . This suggests a more diversely wooded riverine environment than now present in

425-532: The local river. The sea coast seems to have moved up the river, as there are fragments from black mussels , granite limpets , and Cape fur seals . Although there are ostrich-shell remains, no ostrich bones have been found. Tortoise bones are mostly those of the angulate tortoise that is still found in the area. These are noted to have been "remarkably large compared with their Late Stone Age counterparts, suggesting different intensities of predation between MSA and Late Stone Age populations". Diepkloof Rock Shelter

450-543: The period of occupation of the cave but those with engraving are found only in several layers within the Howiesons Poort period. These occur across 18 stratigraphic units, particularly those with the stratigraphic names Frank and Darryl. This suggests the tradition of engraving lasted for several thousand years. The engraving consists of abstract linear repetitive patterns, including a hatched band motif. One fragment has two parallel lines that might have been circular around

475-697: The repetition of this motif, early humans were trying to communicate something. Perhaps they were trying to express the identity of the individual or the group." In 2024, the Diepkloof Rock Shelter became a part of the World Heritage Site of Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa. The cave is about 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean in a semi-arid area, near Elands Bay about 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of Cape Town . It occurs in quartzitic sandstone in

500-407: The resistant stratum, and thus undercuts the cliff. In arid areas, wind erosion ( Aeolian erosion ) can be an important factor in rockhouse formation. In most humid areas, the most important factor in rockhouse formation is frost spalling , where the softer, more porous rock underneath is pushed off, tiny pieces at a time, by frost expansion from water frozen in the pores. Erosion from moving water

525-510: The rules to allow for individual and/or group preferences." Earlier finds exist of symbolism, such as the 75,000-year-old engraved ochre chunks found in the Blombos cave , but these are isolated and difficult to tell apart from meaningless doodles. The engravings are found on ostrich eggshells that were used as water containers. Ostrich eggshells have an average volume of 1 litre. They may have had drinking spouts, holes to enable them to be strung as

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550-472: The tallest stratum or dominant species . For shrubs that are 2–8 metres (6.6–26.2 ft) high, the following structural forms are categorized: For shrubs less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) high, the following structural forms are categorized: Similarly, shrubland is a category used to describe a type of biome plant group. In this context, shrublands are dense thickets of evergreen sclerophyll shrubs and small trees, called: In some places, shrubland

575-458: The valleys to higher summer pastures - frequently build semi-permanent camps, often of rocks. In western Connecticut and eastern New York , many rock shelters are known by the colloquialism "leatherman caves", as they were inhabited by the Leatherman over three decades in the late 19th century. The Cumberland stitchwort ( Minuartia cumberlandensis ) is an endangered species of plant which

600-908: The wind and salt air of the ocean. Low, soft-leaved scrublands around the Mediterranean Basin are known as garrigue in France , phrygana in Greece , tomillares in Spain , and batha in Israel . Northern coastal scrub and coastal sage scrub occur along the California coast, strandveld in the Western Cape of South Africa , coastal matorral in central Chile , and sand-heath and kwongan in Southwest Australia . Interior scrublands occur naturally in semi-arid areas where soils are nutrient-poor, such as on

625-611: Was declared a provincial heritage site by Heritage Western Cape on 23 September 2014 in terms of Section 27 of the National Heritage Resources Act. This gives the site Grade II status and provides it with protection under South African heritage law. In 2015, the South African government submitted a proposal to add the caves to the list of World Heritage Sites and it has been placed on the UNESCO list of tentative sites as

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