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A multiscale stratigraphic investigation of the context of StW 573 ‘Little Foot’ and Member 2, Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa

View ORCID ProfileLaurent Bruxelles, Dominic J. Stratford, Richard Maire, Travis R. Pickering, Jason L. Heaton, Amelie Beaudet, Kathleen Kuman, Robin Crompton, Kris J. Carlson, Tea Jashashvili, Juliet McClymont, George M. Leader, Ronald J. Clarke
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/482711
Laurent Bruxelles
aINRAP, French Institute for Preventive Archaeological Researches, 561 rue Etienne Lenoir, km delta, 30900 Nîmes, France
bIFAS, French Institute of South African Studies, 62 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa
cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
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  • ORCID record for Laurent Bruxelles
Dominic J. Stratford
cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
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Richard Maire
dUMR 5319 Passages, CNRS-University of Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Montaigne
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Travis R. Pickering
eDepartment of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
fEvolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
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Jason L. Heaton
fEvolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
gDepartment of Biology, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL, 35254, USA
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Amelie Beaudet
cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
hDepartment of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, PO Box 2034, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
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Kathleen Kuman
cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
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Robin Crompton
fEvolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
iDepartment of Musculoskeletal Biology, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, The William Henry Duncan Building, 6 West Derby Street, Liverpool L7 8TX
jDepartment of Rheumatology, Aintree University Hospital NHS Trust, Liverpool L9 7AL, UK
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Kris J. Carlson
fEvolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
kDepartment of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033, U.S.A.
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Tea Jashashvili
fEvolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
lMolecular Imaging Center, Department of Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033, U.S.A.
mDepartment of Geology and Paleontology, Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi 0105, Georgia
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Juliet McClymont
nCentre for Health Research, School of Health Sciences, University of Brighton
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George M. Leader
cSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
oDepartment of Sociology and Anthropology, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, U.S.A
pDepartment of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A
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Ronald J. Clarke
fEvolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa
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Abstract

The Sterkfontein Caves has an 80 year history of yielding remarkable evidence of hominin evolution and is currently the world’s richest Australopithecus-beafing site. Included in Sterkfontein’s hominin assemblage is StW 573 (‘Little Foot’). Discovered in the Member 2 deposit in the Silberberg Grotto, StW 573 represents the most complete Australopithecus skeleton yet found. Because of its importance to the fossil hominin record, the geological age of Little Foot has been the subject of significant debate. Two main hypotheses have been proposed regarding the formation and age of Member 2 and by association StW 573. The first, proposes that Member 2 formed relatively rapidly, starting to accumulate at around 2.8 million years ago and that the unit is isolated to the Silberberg Grotto - the underlying chambers and passages forming later. The second proposes that Member 2 formed slowly, its accumulation starting before 3.67 million years ago and that the deposit extends into the Milner Hall and close to the base of the cave system. Both assume a primary association between StW 573 and Member 2, although which sediments in the Silberberg Grotto are associated with Member 2 has also been questioned. Recently a third alternative hypothesis questioning the association of StW 573 to Member 2 sediments proposed a ‘two-stage burial scenario’ in which sediments associated with StW 573 represent a secondary and mixed-age deposit reworked from a higher cave. The stratigraphic and sedimentological implications of these hypotheses are tested here through the application of a multiscale investigation of Member 2, with reference to the taphonomy of the Little Foot skeleton. The complete infilling sequence of Member 2 is described and depositional units are tracked across all exposures of the deposit in the Silberberg Grotto and into the Milner Hall. Facies development follows patterns characteristic of colluvially accumulated taluses with 30-40° angles of repose developing coarser distal facies. Sediments are generally stratified and conformably deposited in a sequence of silty sands eroded from well-developed lateritic soils on the landscape surface. Voids, clasts and bioclasts are organized consistently across and through Member 2 according to the underlying deposit geometry, indicating a gradual deposit accretion with no distinct collapse facies evident, no successive debris flow accumulation, and only localized intra-unit post- depositional modification. The stratigraphy and sedimentology of Member 2 supports a simple single-stage accumulation process through which Member 2 partially fills the Silberberg Grotto and extends into the deeper chambers and passages of the Sterkfontein Caves. Through this work we demonstrate at multiple scales the primary association between the sediments of Member 2 and the StW 573 ‘Little Foot’ skeleton.

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Posted November 29, 2018.
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A multiscale stratigraphic investigation of the context of StW 573 ‘Little Foot’ and Member 2, Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa
Laurent Bruxelles, Dominic J. Stratford, Richard Maire, Travis R. Pickering, Jason L. Heaton, Amelie Beaudet, Kathleen Kuman, Robin Crompton, Kris J. Carlson, Tea Jashashvili, Juliet McClymont, George M. Leader, Ronald J. Clarke
bioRxiv 482711; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/482711
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A multiscale stratigraphic investigation of the context of StW 573 ‘Little Foot’ and Member 2, Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa
Laurent Bruxelles, Dominic J. Stratford, Richard Maire, Travis R. Pickering, Jason L. Heaton, Amelie Beaudet, Kathleen Kuman, Robin Crompton, Kris J. Carlson, Tea Jashashvili, Juliet McClymont, George M. Leader, Ronald J. Clarke
bioRxiv 482711; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/482711

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