ASU research site given UNESCO World Heritage designation
Looking out of cave site PP13B to the ocean. Photo courtesy the South African Coast Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, Paleoanthropology Project
At the edge of the south coast of South Africa, Arizona State University Professor Curtis Marean and his research teams have been teasing out the secrets of our earliest modern human ancestors in caves at Pinnacle Point, South Africa, for over 25 years.
In late July, the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the Olympic gold medal of heritage — which is only given to sites of “outstanding universal value” to all of humanity.
It all started in 1999, when Marean was conducting reconnaissance on the south coast of South Africa, looking for a new field site to investigate ideas he had about the origins of modern humans. He explored a series of caves and rock-shelters at the base of a 50-meter-tall coastal cliff at Pinnacle Point.
Marean saw high scientific potential in those sites, though they had never been excavated. A year later, when he moved to ASU to join the Institute of Human Origins, Marean and his team did the first test excavations and commenced a research project that continues to reveal new and surprising clues about people living at the edge of the ocean around 160,000 to 50,000 years ago.
In 2009, after successive breakthrough discoveries were published in Nature and Science, Marean wondered how his team could use their scientific discoveries to give back to the local community that had so warmly welcomed and supported the researchers over the years.
Marean decided to see if there was any opportunity for a World Heritage Site recognition, since World Heritage Sites can be potent drivers of tourism and job creation. He met with the mayor of the local town, Mossel Bay, and various stakeholders and members of the communities, and began the process of surveys and information gathering.
The group engaged the government of the Western Cape Province, which eventually took over the process and, crucially, appointed a full-time “champion” to run it: Mariagrazia Galimberti, who had completed her PhD on Pinnacle Point materials. The application was submitted to UNESCO in March 2023, and subsequently accepted on the first submission.
The formal announcement was made by UNESCO on July 26, from their meeting at New Delhi, India.
“Why does Pinnacle Point deserve World Heritage recognition? The research project itself is iconic in QuaternaryA period beginning 2.6 million years ago extending into the present. studies of climate and environment,” said Marean, who is a research scientist with the Institute of Human Origins and Foundation Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. “Our research team has created a sophisticated narrative of human evolution embedded in a transdisciplinary study of changing climate and environment.”
“The history and adaptability of our species to change is essential to our understanding of all things,” ASU President Michael Crow said. “Pinnacle Point, with continuous human settlement for tens of thousands of years, gives us that window into who we are and how we have adapted. It is a unique and unbelievable place that ASU will continue to use all we have to understand; and now as a world heritage site, its importance cannot be overstated.”
Outstanding discoveries from the Pinnacle Point research team include:
- The earliest evidence for humans eating seafoods and developing an adaptation to the sea, dated to around 160,000 years ago. (Published in Nature, 2007.)
- Early evidence for people modifying and working pigments, in this case red ochre, dated to around 160,000 years ago. (Published in Nature, 2007.)
- The earliest evidence for pyrotechnology, using fire to modify raw materials, dated to around 160,000 years ago. (Published in Science, 2009.)
- The earliest evidence for a new advanced technology called microlithic technology, dated to around 71,000 years ago — good proxy evidence for the use of advanced projectile weapons. (Published in Nature, 2012.)
- That humans thrived through the Mt. Toba supervolcanic eruption at around 74,000 years ago. (Published in Nature 2018.)
“Professor Marean's decades-long research at Pinnacle Point is what brought the site into the limelight to be inscribed as (a) World Heritage Site,” said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, director of the Institute of Human Origins.
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Pinnacle Point cave sites PP13B (upper cave) and PP13C (lower cave).
Photo courtesy the South African Coast Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, Paleoanthropology Project
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Inside cave site PP5-6 shows the excavation process. The green tarp at the top of the image is the opening of the cave. Orange flags mark layers of the excavation where artifacts have been found, which are recorded on the yellow total station and then entered into a computer for tracking.
Photo courtesy the South African Coast Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, Paleoanthropology Project
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ASU students and other scientists working on several different areas for excavation.
Photo courtesy the South African Coast Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, Paleoanthropology Project
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Ancient shells (left side) and red ochre (right) have been discovered at site PP13B, which have been significant to understanding that the early modern humans harvested seafoods and and used red ochre for possible body ornamentation.
Photo courtesy the South African Coast Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, Paleoanthropology Project
Marean credits the university and the foundations that helped support his research for his success.
“This project, and World Heritage recognition, would not have been possible without the ongoing support from Arizona State University, (the) Institute of Human Origins, and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change — and the National Science Foundation and the Hyde Family Foundation,” Marean said.
“In addition, this research was supported by an evolving team of some 60 scientists from eight countries, with hundreds of students — including South African students — gaining excavation and research experience, with many PhD research dissertations completed,” he said.
“Pinnacle Point has proven to be an incredible insight into the origin of our species — particularly our relationship with the sea,” said Ryan Williams, director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. “It has also been a remarkable place for hands-on learning for numerous ASU anthropology students, from undergraduates to doctoral students.
"I am so proud of Curtis Marean for his tireless efforts to advance the understanding of this unique exemplar of the human experience and of our students who have been instrumental in advancing this work.”
During the past 10 years, Marean has also worked to build an outreach center in Mossel Bay called the Point Discovery Centre. His goal is to create a world-class information, outreach and research center that will inform the local and international community of the science and stories told in the region — but it will require additional funding and long-term support to reach its full potential.
Marean said that he and his team have many more research questions to tackle on the southern coast of South Africa, and he is excited to engage new emerging technologies that will help them do that.
According to Marean, there is still much to learn about how our earliest modern human ancestors survived and thrived by the ocean as many other branches of our genus Homo went extinct.
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