Klipgat Cave

Klipgat Cave at De Kelders was home to humans some 70 000 years ago. Klipgat Cave is an important archaeological site of world importance and experts believe that it would qualify as a World Heritage Site. The name De Kelders means "the caves" and describes the many limestone caves along the Walker Bay coast, which have been formed over millions of years of being exposed to ocean waves.

Jalmar and Ione Rudner, who were surveying shell middens and pottery remains, first identified Klipgat Cave as being of archaeological interest in 1968. In 1969 Frank Schweitzer of the South African Museum started excavating the site. He found the first evidence that Later Stone Age Khoisan inhabited the area some 2000 years ago. This meant that domestic stock-keeping of sheep in the Western Cape dated back at least 2000 years. The excavation also revealed domestic pottery, stone and bone tools, artefacts and ornaments as well as remains of shellfish, fish and other animals eaten by the Khoekhoen/Khoikhoi inhabitants of the time.

The initial finds led to further excavations starting in 1992. This joint venture was led by Fred Grine (State University of New York at Stony Brook), Richard Klein (Stanford University) and Curtis Marean (State University of New York at Stony Brook) together with Dr Graham Avery of Iziko South African Museum and was funded by the USA National Science Foundation. The project was concluded in 1995 and the results were published in the prestigious international Journal of Human Evolution in 1997.

While the top layers of the excavation (Later Stone Age) revealed the pastoral behaviour of the Khoekhoen and finely crafted pottery, the lower (Middle Stone Age) layers contained some stone tools, bones and human teeth. To improve dating accuracy, Middle Stone Age and Aeolian samples are currently being analysed using new luminescence dating techniques, which measure the radioactivity accumulated over time in the surface cracks of single grains of sand.

The Middle Stone Age human remains from De Kelders are among the earliest modern-looking Homo Sapiens in the world. These very rare early remains have been found in only two other South African sites (Klasies River near Humansdorp and Blombos Cave near Still Bay) and in the Middle East. Homo Sapiens have existed from at least 130 000 years ago and the theory is that modern people originated in Africa before dispersing around the world.

The archaeological excavation of Klipgat Cave has come to an end for the time being. Klipgat Cave is inside the Walker Bay Nature Reserve which is under the control of Cape Nature. There are plans to develop the area by rebuilding the steps to the cave, building a wooden walkway and viewing deck. Inside the cave a viewing platform will overlook the different excavated layers and their significance will be explained. Cape Nature is liasing with the Overstrand Municipality, Iziko South African Museum, Gansbaai Tourism, Walker Bay Conservancy, Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Klipgat Action Team with regards the plans for Klipgat Cave.