ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 05 July 2021 doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.664105 Making the Invisible Stratigraphy Visible: A Grid-Based, Multi-Proxy Geoarchaeological Study of Umhlatuzana Rockshelter, South Africa Femke H. Reidsma 1*†, Irini Sifogeorgaki 1†, Ada Dinckal 2, Hans Huisman 3,4, Mark J. Sier 5,6, Bertil van Os 3 and Gerrit L. Dusseldorp 1,7 1Human Origins, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands, 2Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, Edited by: 3Section Archaeology, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Amersfoort, Netherlands, 4Groningen Institute for Christian Zeeden, Archaeology, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, 5CENIEH, Burgos, Spain, 6Department of Earth Sciences, Leibniz Institute for Applied University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 7Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Geophysics (LIAG), Germany South Africa Reviewed by: Michael B. Toffolo, Université Bordeaux Montagne, Umhlatuzana rockshelter is an archaeological site with an occupational record covering the France Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and Iron Age. The presence of both Middle and Later Mareike Stahlschmidt, Stone Age assemblages makes Umhlatuzana the ideal location for the study of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany MSA–LSA transition (20–40 ka) in southern Africa. This transitional period is *Correspondence: characterized by important modifications in stone tool technology, from prepared core Femke H. Reidsma technology to a toolkit based on microlith production. These changes are argued to have
[email protected] occurred in response to changes in climate and environment leading up to the Last Glacial †These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first Maximum.