THE FORMATION OF AN EARLY ACHEULEAN ARTEFACT-BEARING HORIZON ACROSS THE MAROPENG LANDSCAPE, CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, SOUTH AFRICA.

Maropeng is the only published open-air Earlier Stone Age site within the Cradle of Humankind, an area renowned for its fossiliferous and artefact-bearing cave deposits. The excavation of Early Acheulean lithic assemblages from Maropeng offers an opportunity to study hominin behaviour in a context where evidence for landscape use may be preserved away from the better-known Cradle karstic environments. However, the assemblages are in secondary context and have been modified significantly by multiscale and long-term site formation processes, resulting in the formation of an artefact-bearing clast-supported buried pavement that extends over a significant area and varies considerably in thickness, clast size, and artefact abundance. Previous interpretations of its formation derive from the study of sedimentary profiles exposed in several small archaeological excavations in a limited area of the Maropeng landscape. Here, we apply a multiscale geoarchaeological approach within the geomorphological context of the landscape to clarify: a) the general formation of the artefact-bearing horizon at the landscape scale; b) variability in formation processes across this landscape; and c) the impact of site-scale depositional and post-depositional processes on the M2 assemblage, which has undergone detailed technological analysis. Results indicate that clasts were transported by slopewash along a saddle in the centre of the property from a quartzite ridge to the east, with some material subsequently moving downslope on either side of the saddle (north and south). Once deposited, these clast-rich deposits were winnowed to varying degrees, creating a deflated, clast-supported pavement that was subsequently buried. The horizon's extensive distribution and the heterogeneity of artefact abrasion states indicate that hominins discarded artefacts at various points on the landscape. The M2 excavation assemblage has been time-averaged and heavily modified by transport and winnowing but can still yield useful information on technological practices of Earlier Stone Age hominins at Maropeng. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]