MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The interest of Dana Bay resident Kitty Steyn in the excavation of a dune west of Dana Bay has yielded interesting answers. The most important is that Pinnacle Point is in the final stages of being declared a World Heritage site.
Professor Curtis Marean, foundation professor and associate director of the Institute of Human Origins at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at the Arizona State University and Dr Peter Nilssen, an archaeologist and specialist heritage practitioner initiated the research at Pinnacle Point after Dr Nilssen discovered the cave sites in 1997 with Jonathan Kaplan while conducting an archaeological impact assessment for the proposed residential development.
Vleesbaai
Professor Marean told the Mossel Bay Advertiser the scientific potential and results of the studies at Pinnacle Point and Vleesbaai have garnered such international attention for their scientific significance that Pinnacle Point is in the final stages of being declared a World Heritage site.
"This is great news for South Africa, as World Heritage sites are tourism jewels and are thus job creators. The World Heritage nomination is a serial nomination, which allows us to add sites to it in the future. The plan is to add Vleesbaai, due to its high significance, once the World Heritage site is established."
A first report on the findings at Vleesbaai was published in the scientific magazine, Nature, in March 2018. Nature is widely considered the most prestigious science publication in the world, Prof Marean added. He said: "The publication drew an enormous amount of press, and ranks in the 99th percentile of impact of tracked scientific publications. This means that our research has now made Vleesbaai a locality of enormous scientific interest."
(Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25967/metrics)
“The excavations of the dunes west of Dana Bay are archaeological and those have artefacts. Some are geological only, and those do not have artefacts, Prof Marean stressed. Asked whether an environmental impact assessment and public participation process preceded the excavations, Prof Marean said all due processes were followed ahead of the excavations.
Permission
"Over about a ten-year period we have met with all the local landowners and homeowners' associations (HOA) and requested permission to conduct scientific studies on their land. "Some, such as Bart Impens, the owner of the land where the excavations are visible (farm 298, Vuru Vuru), have given us permission to conduct research on their land.
"We are very grateful for that. Others, such as the Nautilus Bay HOA, have refused our requests to conduct scientific research on their property. We have limited our research to land where we have been granted permission.
"Excavations were carried out by permission of a permit from the Western Cape provincial government issued to Dr Jayne Wilkins of the University of Cape Town.
"With regards to the municipality, we have worked in collaboration with municipality authorities since we first started in 2000, and very much appreciate their assistance over the years."
Excavations paused
Professor Marean said very little dune sand had been removed during the excavations. "You will see that we excavated into the naturally exposed cliff of hardened red sediments. These are what we call 'paleosols'. They are ancient land surfaces that at this location date between 120 000 and 50 000 years ago. "We are currently in a 'pause' phase of the research, so during that phase we do some stabilisation but do not do a full back-fill. "We want to be able to gain access later. Once we have concluded our studies, we will fill in the excavations. "We don’t want to refuse people the right to visit the site either. There is nothing there that people can damage unless they begin digging, which we hope they don’t do, but given the remote location it is impossible to force them not to."
Professor Marean added that excavations have specifically been located in naturally exposed areas to avoid vegetation clearance.
Cathy Avierinos of HilLand Environmental cc in George said judging by the photo she had seen the wind cropping of the adjacent vegetation would suggest that it is exposed to the sea breeze and has been for a considerable period of time and not that it has been recently exposed by clearing of vegetation next to it.
Read related documents here:
'We bring you the latest Mossel bay, Garden Route news'
