<< Other Photo Pages >> Kathu Pan - Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry in South Africa

Submitted by Andy B on Thursday, 22 November 2012  Page Views: 6005

Multi-periodSite Name: Kathu Pan Alternative Name: Kathu Pan 1
Country: South Africa
NOTE: This site is 320.187 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
Nearest Town: Kathu
Latitude: 27.7S  Longitude: 23.050000E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 2

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Kathu Pan
Kathu Pan submitted by Andy B : Examples of experimental hafted points. Points were hafted to wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew and then thrust into a springbok carcass target using a calibrated crossbow. The Kathu Pan 1 archaeological points show a similar pattern of edge damage to these experimental points. Image Credit: Jayne Wilkins) Site in South Africa (Vote or comment on this photo)
Significant Stone Age sites occur in and around Kathu and on adjacent farms. These are subject to on-going archaeological research.

Part of the importance of the sites was highlighted in the November 16 2012 issue of the journal Science in which Jayne Wilkins and colleagues reveal evidence of 500 000 year-old stone points (excavated by Peter Beaumont in 1979-1982), argued to be the earliest stone-tipped spears yet found.

This conclusion, based partly on study of use wear, is taken to indicate that human ancestors used stone-tipped weapons for hunting 200 000 years earlier than previously thought. Wilkins is quoted as saying that the find does more than simply extend the prehistory of stone-tipped spears – it puts those first spears firmly in the hands of Homo Heidelbergensis.

"Modern foragers use such tools to take down large game as part of cooperative, strategic hunts. Perhaps our ancestor did so too."

Source: Wikipedia

Note: Hunting with stone-tipped spears began 200,000 year earlier than previously thought, and the oldest complex projectile weapons from Pinnacle Point, also in South Africa
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"Kathu Pan" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Re: Hunting with stone-tipped spears began 200,000 year earlier than previously thoug by Andy B on Thursday, 22 November 2012
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There seems to be some disagreement between South African academics over who has discovered the oldest stone tipped weapons. My colleague Dr Hill suggests that "There's only one way to find out Fiiiiggghhht!!." With stone tipped arrows naturally...

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Re: Hunting with stone-tipped spears began 200,000 year earlier than previously thoug by Andy B on Thursday, 22 November 2012
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See also
http://archaeology.about.com/od/kterms/qt/Kathu-Pan.htm

Jayne Wilkins on Academia.edu
http://utoronto.academia.edu/JayneWilkins
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Hunting with stone-tipped spears began 200,000 year earlier than previously thought by Andy B on Thursday, 22 November 2012
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Man began hunting with stone-tipped spears half a million years ago - 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

Scientists have discovered our ancestors began hunting with stone-tipped spears 500,000 years ago - with the help of a special crossbow and a dead springbok.

Up until recently, it was thought attaching a stone tip to a spear - known as 'hafting' - started about 300,000 years ago.

However, by comparing the wear visible on 500,000-year-old stone points found in South Africa with modern experimental points fired by a specially calibrated crossbow at a springbok carcass, scientists proved they had been used as spear tips for hunting.

'Hafting' was an important technological advance that made it possible to handle or throw sharp points with much more power and control.

Leader author Jayne Wilkins, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the research suggested stone-tipped spears could have been in use before the divergence of early humans and Neanderthals.

She said: 'This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and capacities before the origin of our own species.

'Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species.'

Attaching stone points to spears was an important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans.

More, with photos in the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2233557/The-birth-weapons-Man-began-hunting-stone-tipped-spears-200-000-year-earlier-previously-thought.html
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