Border Cave

1941-1942, many Middle Stone Age industries were revealed. In addition, an infant burial was found in the assemblage. This finding lead archeologists to think that there may have been earlier hominid habitation in the Border cave site. Geologist H. B. S. Cooke did geological studies of the Border Cave assemblages. In 1974, a hominid mandible was found during an excavation along with younger MSA layers. In recent years, other archeologists including K. done further excavations that revealed the youngest layers of the MSA to be 49,000 bp Location Border Cave is a cave, which is located within Zululand in South Africa. This is approximately about 400 m from Swaziland. The cave's mouth opens west towards the Lembobo Mountains. These mountains are 650 meters in height and stretch north and south along 35 km wide Loweld plain. At the steps of the mountain, there are steep cliffs and escarpments. The major river of Ngwavuma River cuts through the Lembodo Mountains. The drainage lines in this area flow from west to East and have created many valleys. The Lembodo Mountains consist of many different types of rocks, but most of these types of rock are geomorphic including basalts, and ecca shales. The formation of The Border cave is attributed to differential weathering. Due to the rates of erosion, it has been determined that the large amount of the cave formed during the Pleistocene.