The Phinda Archaeological Project (PAP) – Establishing a regional chrono-cultural and paleoenvironmental sequence for the Middle and Later Stone Age in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

• Applicant: Dr. Gregor Bader
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 546546624

The project aims to establish a chrono-cultural and paleoenvironmental reference sequence for the Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA and LSA) in northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. Over the past decade different research teams, have significantly improved the resolution of the MSA and LSA in KZN and Eswatini. Additionally, new archaeological investigations are undertaken in southern Mozambique, at the border to Eswatini at several rock shelters and MSA/LSA open air sites. Numerous research questions arose from these projects, including the relation of final MSA and Early LSA assemblages in southern KZN and Eswatini, the near absence of late Pleistocene LSA assemblages in Eswatini and hypothesis about a possible connection between the different MSA and LSA assemblage to southern Mozambique. Further, paleoenvironmental drivers and the role of natural geographic boundaries behind variability in material culture are debated. The main problem at this stage is a large area of archaeological no-mans-land in between southern KZN, Eswatini and southern Mozambique. The proposed project aims to improve this situation. We explicitly address a cross-periodical approach measuring the MSA and LSA with the same scale. To achieve these goals we propose intense fieldwork, including new excavations and detailed surveys on the property of the Phinda Private Game reserve in northern KZN, paired with detailed comparative analysis of already existing and well dated assemblages in southern KZN, Eswatini and southern Mozambique. Phinda is located on the ideal spot to serve the project goals. It is geographically located at the center between the three areas of major research attempt. Phinda also covers divers vegetational zones and the two major biomes which are documented for all sites in the project, Savanna and Indian Ocean Coastal Forest. Finally, Phinda is located at the southernmost extension of the Lubombo mountains which are proposed to form a natural geographic boundary potentially having influenced human and animal migration and transmission of knowledge. We therefore hypothesize that Phinda could be an area of cultural divergence or coalescence. A preliminary survey in 2023 confirmed that Phinda is rich in MSA and LSA open-air sites as well as caves and a highly promising rock shelter named Crowned Eagle Shelter. The site is entirely untouched, has dry conditions and through it´s excavation we are expecting to get a datable sequence of archaeological horizons with good preservation conditions. We plan to contextualize the results from this excavation together with data from the surrounding open-air sites gained from in-field documentation and 3D scanning of diagnostic finds, without the need to remove and collect the artifacts. These new results will be embedded within already existing research outcomes concerning material culture and paleoenvironment from southern KZN, Eswatini and southern Mozambique.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants