Canteen Kopje, South Africa

Sonya Crocker

2018-06-11

The following illustrations are in support of a recent research paper by Li et al on the Canteen Kopje site located in South Africa. “Canteen Kopje has been mentioned in archaeological literature for almost a century because of artefacts which had come to light during exploitation of the Vaal River gravels by diamond miners. It was first registered as a diamond mining site in the 1870s under the name Klip Drift (De Wit 2008). In 1948, the site was declared a national monument due to the richness of its Earlier Stone Age collections (J. Deacon 1993), yet only recently have systematic archaeological excavations been conducted. The majority of this work has focused on the Acheulean finds from the site, especially the Victoria West prepared core industry found in a calcretised alluvial deposit. This is not, however, the only deposit with archaeological significance. A Later Stone Age assemblage has now been discovered in the Hutton Sands overlying the alluvial deposits. This material, which is described here, most closely resembles late Holocene Smithfield assemblages, which is confirmed by radiocarbon dates on charcoal and ostrich eggshell (OES) beads” (Forssman et al 2010):

Canteen Kopje Map

This is a map showing South Africa with the two insets dispaying the local area around Canteen Kopje as well as the area of the site.

Sample Size per Layer

This chart displays the total sample size per layer range. While total sample size is relatively small (n=29), the site is still significant for its conentration of stone tool cores.

Averaged Sample Core Weight per Layer

The average core weight per layer gives an idea of the amount of material the knappers were working with. Combined with size of core (below), this gives an idea of the number of cores per layer given material present.

Total Number of Removal Scars per Layer

Total number of removal scars present is indicative of how far along in the knapping process the cores were before either exhaustion or discardment. This is important to demonstrate several factors: skill of knapper, quality of material, and desired final product (core or flake technology).By hovering over an individual point you can observe the layer range and total scar count of a core.

Length of Preferential Removal vs Total Core Length

The length of removals is a good indicator of desired final product as well as skill of knapper and quality of material. As we would expect, the length of removal positively corresponds with the total length of the core. Longer flakes were preferred.

citation( R Core Team (2013). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL http://www.R-project.org/.)

citation(Author: Plotly Technologies Inc. Title: Collaborative data science Publisher: Plotly Technologies Inc. Place of publication: Montréal, QC Date of publication: 2015 URL: https://plot.ly)

citation(QGIS Development Team (YEAR). QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. http://qgis.osgeo.org)

citation(Hao Li, et al. The Victoria West.Earliest prepared core technology in the Acheulean at Canteen Kopje and implications for the cognitive evolution of early hominids R. Soc. open sci. 2017 4 170288; DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170288. Published 28 June 2017)

citation(FORSSMAN, TIM R., et al. A LATER STONE AGE ASSEMBLAGE FROM CANTEEN KOPJE, NORTHERN CAPE. The South African Archaeological Bulletin, vol. 65, no. 192, 2010, pp. 204-214. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41408513.)