Die Kelders, South Africa

The Die Kelders Cave site complex, also known as Klipgat, contains Middle and Later Stone Age deposits. It is situated some 8 m above sea level and 10 m from the high tide mark on the southeastern Atlantic coast of South Africa. The site lies at the southern end of Walker Bay, a wide embayment to the north of Cape Agulhas and is separated from the distal ranges of the Cape Folded Belt mountains by a c. 3 km-wide coastal plain that hosts endemic fynbos vegetation. Along the shoreline just north of Die Kelders is a strong freshwater spring that would have been an important source of water to its prehistoric inhabitants. The archaeological nature of the deposit was seemingly first identified by Jalmer Rudner, who undertook regular excursions along the southern African coast in search of shell middens and pottery. The Die Kelders site encompasses a pair of contiguous caves, with excavations concentrated in the larger Cave 1. The deposits in Cave 2 remain untouched. The LSA and MSA occupations yielded rich assemblages containing chipped stone artifacts, fauna, and human remains. Data from Die Kelders has been important in the reconstruction of paleoenvironments in this region of South Africa.