REVISITING THE PEOPLE OF WHITCHER’S CAVE, EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA: AN OSTEOBIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

Human remains excavated or collected in southern Africa until the late 1900s are often poorly contextualised and suffer from neglected curational histories. For example, in 1926, F.W. FitzSimons reported that he had excavated 51 human skeletons from Whitcher’s Cave, but little is known about their context and curatorial journeys. Here, we reassess the human remains from Whitcher’s Cave currently curated in the Raymond A. Dart Archaeological Human Remains Collection at the University of the Witwatersrand. We provide a short historical overview and recalibrated previously published radiocarbon dates to situate the remains within the broader Holocene Stone Age sequence. At least 32 individuals, representing adults of both sexes and children, can be recognised in the current collection. Cumulatively, the results of our analyses regarding age, stature and trauma reflect a relatively short-statured, but healthy, hunter-gatherer population living at Whitcher’s Cave from at least ~5000 years ago until ~1800 years ago.