Sibudu Cave: Early Arrows, Bedding and Glue in South Africa

Sibudu Cave is a rock shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, that was used by Homo sapiens during the Middle Stone Age, from more than 77,000 to about 38,000 years ago. Its well-preserved layers have produced some of the earliest evidence for bow-and-arrow hunting, for glues made from several ingredients and for bedding built from plants. Together, these finds show that early modern humans in Africa used complex, multi-step technologies long before they reached Europe.

The site and its excavation

Sibudu lies in a steep sandstone cliff above the Tongati River, roughly 40 kilometres north of Durban and about 15 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean. The shelter is about 55 metres long, and its floor holds a thick sequence of ash, plant remains and occupation debris.

A small test excavation was made in 1983 by the archaeologist Aron Mazel. Systematic excavations began in 1998 under Lyn Wadley of the University of the Witwatersrand and continued until 2011. Since then a team led by Nicholas Conard of the University of Tübingen has continued the work. Zenobia Jacobs and colleagues dated the layers using optically stimulated luminescence, which measures when sand grains were last exposed to sunlight.

The layers include several named phases of the Middle Stone Age, among them the Still Bay (about 71,000 years ago) and the Howiesons Poort (about 65,000 to 62,000 years ago), followed by later phases ending around 38,000 years ago. People appear to have been absent between about 58,000 and 48,000 years ago.

The oldest plant bedding then known

In 2011 Wadley and colleagues reported in Science that the people of Sibudu had built bedding from plants. From about 77,000 years ago they laid mats of sedges, rushes and grasses on the floor of the shelter, renewing them many times over tens of thousands of years.

Some layers included leaves of Cryptocarya woodii, a local laurel-family tree whose leaves contain chemicals that repel mosquitoes and other insects. The researchers also found that old bedding was sometimes deliberately burned, probably to remove pests and refresh the living space.

When published, this was the oldest known evidence of plant bedding. In 2020 Wadley and colleagues reported grass bedding at Border Cave, also in KwaZulu-Natal, dating to about 200,000 years ago, pushing the practice much further back.

Compound glue

Many Howiesons Poort tools at Sibudu are small, crescent-shaped stone pieces called segments, which were set into handles or shafts. Residue studies by Lyn Wadley, Tamaryn Hodgskiss and Michael Grant, published in 2009, showed that the toolmakers used a glue made from plant gum mixed with powdered red ochre.

Experiments showed that getting the mixture right was not simple. The proportion of ochre, the moisture of the gum and the drying of the glue over a fire all affected its strength. The authors argued that this required planning, the ability to switch attention between tasks, and an understanding of how materials change, which they saw as evidence of complex thinking.

Bows and arrows

In 2010 Marlize Lombard and Laurel Phillipson reported that some of the Howiesons Poort segments, about 64,000 years old, show impact fractures and residues of blood, bone and glue in patterns consistent with use as arrow tips. A bone point from Sibudu, about 61,000 years old, also closely resembles bone arrowheads used by recent San hunters.

Bows themselves, made of wood and sinew, have not survived. However, the combination of evidence has led many researchers to see Sibudu as providing the oldest likely evidence of bow-and-arrow technology anywhere. The bones of small, fast forest antelopes such as the blue duiker have also led Wadley to suggest that people set snares or traps.

Daily life in the shelter

The layers at Sibudu also give a detailed picture of everyday life. Many hearths, some of them reused again and again, were placed near the bedding, and ash from cleaned-out fires was spread across the floor. Plant remains, seeds and charcoal show which trees and shrubs grew nearby and which were collected for fuel.

Animal bones show that the inhabitants hunted a wide range of prey, from large animals such as buffalo and zebra to small forest antelopes and bushpigs. The mix of species changed over time with the climate and the surrounding vegetation, from more open grassland to dense forest. Stone was brought from several sources, including dolerite, hornfels and quartz, and red ochre was ground in large quantities.

Timeline

• c. 77,000 years ago: People at Sibudu begin laying plant bedding on the shelter floor.
• c. 71,000 years ago: Still Bay stone tools are made at the site.
• c. 65,000 to 62,000 years ago: Howiesons Poort toolmakers haft segments with compound glue and likely use arrows.
• c. 58,000 to 48,000 years ago: The shelter appears to be unoccupied.
• c. 38,000 years ago: The latest Middle Stone Age occupation ends.
• 1983: Aron Mazel makes a first test excavation.
• 1998 to 2011: Lyn Wadley directs excavations.
• 2011: Plant bedding at Sibudu is published in Science.

Why it matters

Sibudu shows early Homo sapiens solving practical problems with skill and foresight: mixing glues, hunting at a distance with arrows and keeping their homes clean and free of insects. Along with Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point, it has helped place southern Africa at the centre of research into the origins of modern human behaviour.