Swartkrans as a case study in African cave taphonomy
Date
1980
Authors
Brain, C. K.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
Abstract
By taphonomy is meant the systematic study of death assemblages of once-living things in
this case of vertebrate animals. Such study may have various aims but in the present instance
my objective has been the interpretation of bone assemblages in the Swartkrans cave
to throw light on such topics as: 1. the ways in which bones found their way to the cave;
2. the nature of the animal communities which contributed bones to the assemblages and the
kind of environment in which the communities lived;
3. the behaviour of the hominids and other animals whose bones form part of the fossil
assemblage.
Swartkrans, though not a particularly large cave, is one of considerable complexity and can
be used as a case study to illuminate several principles in African cave taphonomy. Three of
these principles are discussed.
Description
Main article
Keywords
Swartkrans; cave taphonomy
Citation
None