🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Boomplaas Cave
Boomplaas Cave is located in the Cango Valley in the foothills of the Swartberg mountain range, north of Oudtshoorn, Eden District Municipality in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Cango Caves
The Cango Caves are located in Precambrian limestones at the foothills of the Swartberg range near the town of Oudtshoorn, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Cooper's Cave
Cooper's Cave is a series of fossil-bearing breccia filled cavities. The cave is located almost exactly between the well known South African hominid-bearing sites of Sterkfontein and Kromdraai and…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Elands Bay Cave
Elands Bay Cave is located near the mouth of the Verlorenvlei estuary on the Atlantic coast of South Africa's Western Cape Province.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Gladysvale Cave
Gladysvale Cave is a fossil-bearing breccia filled cave located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) northeast of the well-known South African hominid-bearing sites of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans and about…
🇸🇴 Somalia · Archaeological wonder
Laas Geel
Neolithic Pastoral (c.5000–3000 BCE; dated by stratum ceramics) · Early Cushitic Pastoral Neolithic / Horn of Africa pastoralists
Exceptionally preserved Neolithic rock art shelters discovered 2002 by French team (Xavier Gutherz): 10 granite alcoves with polychrome paintings 5000–3000 BCE – long-horned cattle with udders,…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Klasies River Caves — Middle Stone Age Shelter
Middle Stone Age (120–55 ka) · Early Homo sapiens (MSA I–Howiesons Poort)
Klasies River Main site (KRM) is 5 caves/shelters on Tsitsikamma coast (34°06′29″S 24°23′24″E) with 120–55 ka MSA deposits containing anatomically modern human fossils (KRM 13400 mandible 115 ka),…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Wonderwerk Cave Excavation Trench 6 Acheulean
Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) · Upper Palaeolithic
Wonderwerk Cave Excavation Trench 6 Acheulean in Northern Cape, Wonderwerk, South Africa is a Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) cave attributed to Upper Palaeolithic.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Blombos Cave M1 Still Bay Bifacial Layer
Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) · Upper Palaeolithic
Blombos Cave M1 Still Bay Bifacial Layer in Western Cape, Blombos, South Africa is a Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) cave attributed to Upper Palaeolithic.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Klasies River Cave 1A Howiesons Poort Layer
Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) · Upper Palaeolithic
Klasies River Cave 1A Howiesons Poort Layer in Eastern Cape, Klasies River, South Africa is a Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) cave attributed to Upper Palaeolithic.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock shelter
Sibudu Cave — Middle Stone Age Rock Shelter
Middle Stone Age (77–38 ka) · Homo sapiens Still Bay–Howiesons Poort–Sibudan
Sibudu is the 55×18 m sandstone cliff shelter above Tongati River where Lyn Wadley found 77–38 ka MSA succession with earliest bow-and-arrow (64 ka quartz segments), earliest bedding (77 ka sedge…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock shelter
Diepkloof Rock Shelter — Engraved Ostrich Eggs
Middle Stone Age (130–45 ka, engraved eggs 60 ka) · Still Bay–Howiesons Poort Homo sapiens
Diepkloof Rock Shelter is the 25 m quartzite shelter above Verlorenvlei 15 km E of Elands Bay with 130–45 ka MSA stratigraphy and 270 fragments of engraved ostrich eggshell containers (60 ka…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Wonderwerk Cave — Acheulean to Later Stone Age
Early Stone Age to Later Stone Age (2 Ma–14 ka) · Oldowan → Acheulean → MSA → LSA (Homo erectus to sapiens)
Wonderwerk Cave is the 140 m phreatic tube on Kuruman Hills with 2 Ma to 14 ka stratigraphy spanning Oldowan to Late Stone Age and earliest fire (1 Ma ash, burnt bone).
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Blombos Cave — Middle Stone Age Ochre Workshop
Middle Stone Age (100–70 ka ochre horizon, Still Bay 75 ka) · Homo sapiens Middle Stone Age (Still Bay/Howiesons Poort)
Blombos Cave is the 34 m-apse calcarenite sea-cliff shelter 300 km E of Cape Town where Christopher Henshilwood found 100,000–70,000 BP ochre workshop and earliest abstract engravings.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock shelter
Border Cave — Early Homo Sapiens Shelter
Middle to Later Stone Age (227–44 ka to Iron Age) · Early Homo sapiens → San foragers
Border Cave is the 50×35 m west-facing shelter 600 m on Lebombo crest 365 m from Eswatini border with 227–44 ka continuous stratigraphy spanning ESA to Iron Age and early Homo sapiens fossils BC 1…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Pinnacle Point Caves — Early Modern Human Site
Middle Stone Age (164–50 ka) · Early Homo sapiens coastal foragers
Pinnacle Point is the 164,000–50,000 BP sea-cliff cave complex (PP13B, PP5-6) 12 km E of Mossel Bay where Marean found earliest heat-treated silcrete (72 ka), bladelet microliths, marine shellfish…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Rising Star Cave — Homo Naledi Chamber
Middle Pleistocene (335–236 ka Homo naledi deposition) · Homo naledi (small brain 460 cc)
Rising Star Cave system (20–30 m dolomite horizon, 3 km passages) yielded 1,550+ Homo naledi fossils (15 individuals) in Dinaledi Chamber (2013) and Lesedi Chamber (2015) by Berger.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Sterkfontein Caves — Cradle of Humankind
Pliocene-Pleistocene (3.67–0.8 Ma Member 2–5) · Australopithecus africanus / early Homo / Paranthropus
Sterkfontein is the dolomitic limestone cave system 40 km NW of Johannesburg that yielded >500 hominin fossils including Mrs Ples (Australopithecus africanus 2.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient village
Taforalt Cave (Grotte des Pigeons)
Middle Paleolithic to Epipalaeolithic (85,000–8,000 BP; cemetery 13,000 BCE) · Aterian / Iberomaurusian
Iberomaurusian cemetery cave Taforalt with oldest African funerary bundle and Natufian-linked DNA.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Rock art
Wadi Sura — Cave of Beasts and Swimmers
Early Holocene (7000–6000 BCE Beasts) · Gilf early Holocene cattle herders and hunters
Sura Beasts excavated by Kuper 2010, 7000 BCE 13k stencils Africa biggest.
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe · Cave
Bambata Cave
Bambata Cave is one of the Southern Africa prehistoric sites situated in Motobo National Park along with Inanke, Nswatugi, Pomengwe and Silozwane caves in Zimbabwe.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Cave
Batadombalena
Batadombalena is an archaeological site with evidence of habitation from 8,000 years BCE, Balangoda Man, located 85 km (52.8 mi) from Colombo in Sri Lanka, a two-hour drive from Colombo.
🇰🇪 Kenya · Ancient village
Enkapune Ya Muto (Twilight Cave)
Middle Stone Age to Pastoral Neolithic (46,000–3000 BP) · MSA → LSA → Savanna Pastoral Neolithic
Mau Escarpment Twilight Cave Enkapune Ya Muto — 40,000-year-old ostrich eggshell beads at 2,400 m.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Manot Cave
Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (c.55000–16000 BCE) · Late Mousterian → Aurignacian → Kebaran/Geometric Kebaran
Active Levantine cave site (55 ka–16 ka) in the Galilee karst, excavated by Ofer Marder and Omry Barzilai. Mousterian th...