A 74,000-year-old burial
In a rock shelter on the cliffs of the Lebombo Mountains, archaeologists found the oldest deliberate human burial in Africa. The grave contained the tiny, near-complete skeleton of a Homo sapiens infant, aged between four and six months. Electron spin resonance dating of associated materials places the burial at approximately 74,000 years old. The infant, known as BC3, was found in a small pit dug into the cave floor. The bones were stained with red ochre, indicating a ritualistic part of the interment.
The find was a single, perforated shell from a marine cone snail, found near the infant's remains. Analysis identifies it as Conus ebraeus, a tropical species found along the nearby Indian Ocean coast. The shell shows clear signs of human modification, including a deliberately made hole at its apex and wear marks from being strung and worn for a prolonged period. This shell is the earliest known example of a grave good—an object intentionally buried with a body—in Africa. Its presence indicates complex symbolic thought and mourning practices among these early modern humans. The shell had to be transported at least 80 kilometers from the coast, making it a special object.
A quarter-million years of history
Border Cave is not defined by a single burial; it contains one of southern Africa's longest and most complete archaeological records, with deposits spanning from around 227,000 years ago to the Iron Age. This deep history records the lives of Middle Stone Age people. Excavations, which began in the 1930s, have uncovered other anatomically modern human remains, including the partial crania of two adults (BC1 and BC2) and an adult mandible (BC5).
The cave is also the site of the world's oldest known grass bedding. Layers of grasses from the Panicoideae subfamily were brought into the cave as early as 200,000 years ago to create comfortable living and sleeping surfaces. These grass beds were placed on top of layers of ash, which likely was an insect repellent. Traces of camphor bush, a plant still used as an insect repellent, were also found within the oldest bedding layers. The occupants periodically burned their bedding, probably to eliminate pests and clean the living space, before laying down fresh grass.
Another significant artifact is the Lebombo Bone, a baboon fibula with 29 distinct notches, dated to between 44,000 and 42,000 years old. It is one of the oldest known mathematical artifacts, possibly used as a tally stick or a lunar calendar.