Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • A laugh a day keeps the end of fest blues away
  • The hole left by absent fathers
  • Festival Of Circles: a festival within a festival
  • The stunning story of an autistic, self-taught pianist
  • A woman in jazz
  • Jozi dancers push boundaries
  • Kariega crafters on a mission Under the Arch
  • Undead, shape-shifting punk
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
Cue Media
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Howieson’s Poort Stone Age tools on display
Uncategorized

Howieson’s Poort Stone Age tools on display

_Gr0cCc0Tts_By _Gr0cCc0Tts_February 20, 2014No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Between 1927 and 1928, Father P. Stapleton, a keen amateur archaeologist and teacher at St Aidan’s College, and Dr John Hewitt, a zoologist by training and the director of the Albany Museum, excavated a small rock shelter just below the crest of a hill on the northern side of the Howiesons Poort overlooking the main road into Grahamstown from Port Elizabeth.

Between 1927 and 1928, Father P. Stapleton, a keen amateur archaeologist and teacher at St Aidan’s College, and Dr John Hewitt, a zoologist by training and the director of the Albany Museum, excavated a small rock shelter just below the crest of a hill on the northern side of the Howiesons Poort overlooking the main road into Grahamstown from Port Elizabeth.

Because the rock shelter is situated half way up a cliff and is only accessible by climbing down the cliff face from above or by climbing a tree from below, it would not have been considered an ideal habitation site during ancient times.

This was confirmed when excavations revealed only a single archaeological deposit (consisting entirely of stone artefacts), an indication that the rock shelter was inhabited only once, perhaps by a small hunting party.

In order to make sense of the site's stratigraphy and to acquire samples for carbon dating, the Howiesons Poort rock shelter was re-excavated in 1965 by Hilary and Janette Deacon, two of South Africa’s most influential Stone Age archaeologists.

The stone artefacts recovered from the site (which became known as the Howiesons Poort Industry and have since been discovered elsewhere in the country) include small segment or crescent-shaped tools and are believed to have been made between 66 and 58 000 years ago.

The tools, which archaeologists consider to be technologically advanced for their time, were hafted together with an ochre and tree gum compound so that they could serve as arrow points.

These tools are particularly interesting for archaeologists as their production involves a complex set of steps, an indication that their makers possessed the cognitive ability to think and reason in much the same way as we do today.

Despite the ingenuity and practicality of these tools, the Howiesons Poort Industry was short lived and was ultimately replaced by a technologically uneventful period known as Middle Stone Age 3 and 4.

It is only in the much later Robberg Industry (between 22 and 12 000 years ago) that we again start seeing stone tool technologically comparable to that of the Howiesons Poort Industry.

The Howiesons Poort tools are on permanent display at the Albany Museum and are a must-see for anyone interested in the pre-history of the Grahamstown area.

Correction: The Howieson's Poort tools were said to be on permanent display at the Albany Museum. According to museum's archaeology department the tools are not on display at the moment, as the gallery is currently being renovated.

Previous ArticleCity of Saints heaven for burglars
Next Article Rhodes SRC awaits promised NSFAS funding
_Gr0cCc0Tts_

Related Posts

Johan Carinus tree planting

Learn music fit for a king

First place for Malawian journalist- Need to upload Pix

Comments are closed.

Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Latest video

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2022 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.