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2.2. Wonderwerk Cave A Micromorphological Approach to Inferring Paleo-Lake System Phases: The Case Study of the Earlier Stone Age at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa by Ailidh Hathway B.A. (Hons.), Wilfrid Laurier University, 2017 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Archaeology Faculty of Environment © Ailidh Hathway 2021 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2021 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Declaration of Committee Name: Ailidh Hathway Degree: Master of Arts Title: A Micromorphological Approach to Inferring Paleo-Lake System Phases: The Case Study of the Earlier Stone Age at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa Committee: Chair: Dana Lepofsky Professor, Archaeology Francesco Berna Supervisor Associate Professor, Archaeology George Nicholas Committee Member Professor, Archaeology Paul Goldberg Committee Member Adjunct Faculty, Archaeology Vance T. Holliday Examiner Professor, Anthropology and Geosciences University of Arizona ii Abstract Playa lakes are arid region ephemeral bodies of water that have been found in association with important archaeological sites. These lakes produce distinct sediments in response to changing hydrological and environmental conditions. To provide the means to more effectively study playa lake sediments, I developed an analytical protocol and a model that utilizes micromorphology and grain size distribution analysis of thin sections to identify and interpret paleo-playa lake phases preserved in intact archaeological deposits. To assess the potential of the analytical procedure, I applied it to thin sections collected from Earlier Stone Age deposits at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa, where a playa lake system existed in proximity to the cave. The results of the study show that sediments produced during different playa lake phases can be distinguished according to a specific set of criteria identifiable through micromorphology and grain size distribution analysis. Keywords: Micromorphology; Playa Lake; Wonderwerk Cave; South Africa; Earlier Stone Age iii Acknowledgements I thank Dr. Francesco Berna for providing me with this opportunity. Thank you for your guidance and expertise as I fumbled my way through this research. I am very appreciative of the hours spent in the lab and the field, passing on your knowledge and mentoring me in the realm of geoarchaeology. I also thank you for the opportunity to work on material from and excavate at a truly remarkable archaeological site. Thank you to Dr. George Nicholas for your guidance, feedback, support, and ultimately making me a better writer. I express my thanks to Dr. Paul Goldberg for offering your expertise and contributions to my thesis. Without your previous work, this research would not have been possible. The Wonderwerk Cave team and Co-Directors, Dr. Michael Chazan, Dr. Liora Kolska Horwitz. Dr. Nathan Jankowski for offering expertise and advice on Lake Mungo sediments. I would not have been able to complete this research without the funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the SFU Department of Archaeology. I express my gratitude to Dr. Laure Spake for sharing your skills when it comes to coding in R, but more importantly the endless support, encouragement, and fun times. Thank you to Emily Purcell and Matthea Wiebe for the friendship, support, and encouragement over the last few years. Thank you to Sarah Johnson for the adventures and support. A very special thank you to Candice Koopowitz for your friendship, kindness, guidance, endless laughing, and being my personal tour guide in South Africa. Thank you for being my favourite water gun target. Finally, a special thank you to all my family and friends that encouraged me to keep going when I did not think I could. Without that encouragement I would not have been able to do it. iv Table of Contents Declaration of Committee .................................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures................................................................................................................... ix List of Acronyms .............................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Research Aims and Objectives ............................................................................... 4 1.2. Thesis Outline ......................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2. Background ................................................................................................ 8 2.1. Environments and Human Evolution in Africa ......................................................... 8 2.1.1. The Savanna Hypothesis ................................................................................ 8 2.1.2. The Mosaic Environment Hypothesis ............................................................ 10 Temporal and Spatial Mosaics ................................................................................ 10 2.1.3. Lake Margin Settings and Early Hominin Archaeological Sites .................... 12 2.2. Wonderwerk Cave ................................................................................................. 15 2.2.1. Previous Sedimentological and Micromorphological Investigations of the Earlier Stone Age at Wonderwerk Cave ...................................................................... 17 2.2.2. The Potential of Wonderwerk Cave for Testing the Protocol ........................ 18 2.3. Cave Systems ....................................................................................................... 19 2.3.1. Cave Sediments ............................................................................................ 20 2.4. Playa Lakes ........................................................................................................... 20 2.4.1. The Playa Lake Cycle ................................................................................... 21 2.4.2. Playa Lakes in the Geological Record .......................................................... 22 2.5. Lunette Dunes ....................................................................................................... 23 2.5.1. The Formation of Lunette Dunes .................................................................. 24 2.5.2. Clay Aggregates ............................................................................................ 26 2.6. Previous Studies of Playa Lake Sediments in Archaeological Sites ..................... 26 2.6.1. Southern Africa ............................................................................................. 27 2.6.2. The Willandra Lakes Complex and Lake Mungo .......................................... 28 Chapter 3. Methodology ............................................................................................ 33 3.1. Earlier Stone Age Deposits at Wonderwerk Cave ................................................ 33 3.1.1. Lithostratigraphy ............................................................................................ 33 3.2. Modelling Playa Lake Phases Based on Sediment Composition .......................... 37 3.3. Analytical Protocol ................................................................................................. 40 3.3.1. Sedimentology and Soil Micromorphology .................................................... 41 3.3.1.1 Sampling Intact Sediment Blocks ................................................................ 43 Thin Section Preparation ......................................................................................... 43 3.3.1.2 Microfabric Units: Lithostratigraphy at the Microscale ................................. 43 v 3.3.1.3 Micrographs and Subsamples ..................................................................... 44 3.3.1.4 Texture and Sorting ..................................................................................... 45 3.3.1.5 Microstructure .............................................................................................. 46 3.3.1.6 Groundmass: c/f Related Distribution, Coarse Material and Micromass ..... 47 3.3.1.7 Mineral Composition .................................................................................... 48 3.3.1.8 Diagenesis and Pedofeatures ...................................................................... 49 3.3.2. Grain Size Distribution Analysis .................................................................... 52 Particle Size Analysis .............................................................................................. 52 Graphing Grain Size Distribution ............................................................................
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