Collingham Shelter: the excavation of late Holocene deposits, Natal, South Africa

Abstract

The excavation of Collingham Shelter on the outskirts of the Drakensberg and immediately to the south of the Thukela Basin is reported. This site experienced three phases of hunter-gatherer occupation. The first, and most intensive, occurred over a period of approximately 150 years shortly after 2000 BP. Thereafter there were two ephemeral occupations around 1260 and 650 BP. The final occupation was curtailed by the ceiling collapsing, around, or shortly after, 650 BP. The large lithic and non-lithic cultural, plant and faunal assemblages recovered during the excavations are descriptionbed. These assemblages not only provide us with, among other things, detailed information on a short but intensive hunter-gatherer occupation of the shelter but also contain cultural items not previously known from the Natal hunter-gatherer archaeological record.