The Klasies River site, situated on the southern Cape coast, contains extensive Late Pleistocene deposits dating to between ~120 and 55 000 years ago. This 20 metre thick occurrence consists of characteristic shell middens, and its shell, fauna and stone artefacts have been described in a significant number of publications.

A new phase of investigation was initiated in 2013 initially focussing on stabilisation, conservation and sampling. The first excavation season was completed early in 2015 and aimed at complementing the work undertaken by Hilary Deacon by following a similar excavation protocol and stratigraphic divisions.

In this talk the progress made will be discussed in the context of a number of ongoing projects. These include, for example, digitising and mapping of stratigraphic details, contextualisation of the human fossils, ochre, combustion, microstratigraphical and archaeobotanical studies. Ultimately the goal is to link results to those from contemporaneous sites on the Cape coast, a crucial step in understanding patterns of behaviour of early modern humans on a regional scale.

Klasies River shelter