Date: Thursday, 07 November 2024

Time: 19h30

Venue: The Auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown.

Charge: Non-members: R50, members: free

Strathalan Cave near present-day Maclear in the Eastern Cape is a Stone Age site at the foot of the Drakensberg. First excavated by Mannie Opperman in the early 1990s, it is one of few sites with deposits that date to the Last Glacial Maximum. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was an exceptionally cold period in the Earth’s history, with extensive ice sheets blanketing much of Europe and North America and a substantial drop in Global temperature. In southern Africa, with its variable climate, the LGM was likely associated with increases in both aridity and precipitation - depending on the region. Certain areas, such as the highlands of the Drakensberg and its foothills would have likely been significantly impacted. Extreme environmental stressful periods, such as the LGM, would have affected social and subsistence networks across southern Africa. Yet, the details of these changing conditions are still unclear.

This talk focuses on how the LGM affected South Africa in general and the broader Drakensberg in particular. New excavations at Strathalan Cave will also be discussed, as well as the role the site may have played in regional networks in south-eastern South Africa.


Dr Jerome Reynard lectures at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. His research focuses on the zooarchaeology of the Middle Stone Age. He is currently involved in research on occupational intensity in southern Africa during the early Pleistocene.