Site formation in the early South African Stone Age sites and its influence on the archaeological record : reviews of current issues and research findings : human origins research in South Africa

NLY THREE PLIO-PLEISTOCENE SITES IN South Africa preserve any sizeable numbers of Earlier Stone Age artefacts. Although there are a further 13 sites with deposits of potentially the right age, only a handful of artefacts has been excavated from a few deposits. Although few of these latter sites have been worked as intensively as the three archaeological sites, the rarity of stone tools is not only a product of this relative inattention. The richest assemblages are found at sites close and convenient to major river gravels, and a combination of factors is discussed to explain the special circumstances in which cultural material has been preserved. The pattern for Acheulean sites younger than c. 1 Myr is also discussed and linked to the rarity of the sediment traps that preserve Earlier Stone Age sites on the South African landscape.