Oakhurst rock shelter is an archaeological site near the town of George on the southern coast of South Africa. It is set into a sandstone cliff above a stream in a valley forested by towering old yellowwood trees.
Archaeologists first started excavating Oakhurst in the 1930s. What makes the site special is the record of human occupation there, which spans 12,000 years. Not only have rock art, stone tools and ceramic fragments been found there, but also the remains of 46 people. That’s rare: most very old burials found in South Africa (from the last 40,000 years) have been of single individuals.
New technology is making it possible to keep learning more from previously discovered archaeological material. For our own research team, Oakhurst offered an opportunity to reconstruct the genomes of the site’s inhabitants through time, and to assess their genetic relationships to people living in the region today.
