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Boomplaas Cave (Member OCH)
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Basic information
Sample name: Boomplaas Cave (Member OCH)

Reference: J. T. Faith. 2013. Taphonomic and paleoecological change in the large mammal sequence from Boomplaas Cave, western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 65(6):715-730 [ER 3779]
Geography
Country: South Africa

State: Western Cape


Coordinate: 33° 22' 14" S, 22° 9' 31" E
Coordinate basis: stated in text

Time interval: Late Pleistocene

Section: 3779

Unit number: 12

Unit order: above to below

Max Ma: 0.066

Min Ma: 0.059

Age basis: U/Th

Geography comments: "Boomplaas Cave is located in the Cango Valley in the foothills of the Swartberg mountain range, north of Oudtshoorn, Eden District Municipality in the Western Cape Province, South Africa".
The OCH member of the deposit has been U-series dated to between 66,000 ± 7000 BP and 59,000 ± 2000 BP.

Environment
Lithology: not described

Taphonomic context: bird accumulation,carnivore accumulation,cave

Archaeology: stone tools

Habitat comments: "Boomplaas Cave contains a stratified sequence of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) deposits spanning the last 65,000 years. People were the primary accumulators of the faunal remains in the LSA assemblages younger than ∼18,000 years ago (CL to BLD). In the LSA and MSA deposits dating from 18,000 to 50,000 years ago (BOL to GWA), a combination of humans, carnivores, and raptors accumulated the faunal remains, while the lowermost units were accumulated by carnivores and raptors. The Howieson's Poort lithic industry occurs in member OCH".

Methods
Life forms: carnivores,primates,rodents,ungulates,other large mammals,other small mammals

Sampling methods: quarry

Sample size: 498 specimens

Sampled by: H. J. Deacon

Years: 1974 - 1979

Sampling comments: "Excavations were conducted by H.J. Deacon from 1974 to 1979. In 2009 and 2010, taphonomic and taxonomic data were collected on thousands of previously unsorted specimens, in addition to those previously examined. All MSA and LSA units were examined with the exception of the uppermost pastoralist levels (member DGL)".

Metadata
Sample number: 4093

Contributor: Benjamin Carter

Enterer: Benjamin Carter

Created: 2023-02-23 13:46:43

Modified: 2023-05-30 04:56:40

Abundance distribution
20 species
4 singletons
total count 498
extrapolated richness: 30.7
Fisher's α: 4.176
geometric series k: 0.7593
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.7822
Shannon's H: 1.9336
Good's u: 0.9920
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
Register
Lepus capensis4
Bunolagus monticularis11
also 2 Leporidae indet.
Papio ursinus10120 kg
Lycaon pictus426 kg carnivore
Genetta sp.1
Caracal caracal112 kg carnivore
"Felis cf caracal"
Panthera pardus1433 kg carnivore
Procavia capensis1872.8 kg browser
Equus sp.3
zebra/quagga
Taurotragus oryx7393 kg browser-grazer
also 1 Tragelaphini indet.
Hippotragus leucophaeus2
also 1 Hippotragus sp.
Redunca fulvorufula2729 kg
Redunca arundinum2 grazer
also 28 Redunca sp.
Damaliscus pygargus883 kg grazer-browser
"Damaliscus dorcas", also 1 Alcelaphinae indet.
Caprinae indet.1
an unknown extinct species
Pelea capreolus8016 kg grazer
Antidorcas cf. marsupialis1040 kg browser-grazer
Oreotragus oreotragus32 browser-grazer
Raphicerus melanotis19.1 kg
also 49 Raphicerus sp. and 19 Neotragini indet.
Syncerus caffer2548 kg grazer-browser
Current reference: Huckleberry et al. 2001 (ER 3215)