We are applying for a permit to export macro-charcoals from the Later Stone Age layers of Bushman Rock Shelter, to the University of Nice Côte d’Azur to be studied by a PhD candidate, Elysandre Puech, together with her supervisor, Dr. Isabelle Théry-Parisot, a charcoal specialist. The macro-charcoals have been carefully sorted after 3mm sieving during excavation and are from 27 stratigraphic units and 9 hearth-like features rigorously selected among some sub-squares along the Later Stone Age sequence. The main motivation to export this material is the availability, in the Nice laboratory in France, of specific instruments regularly or newly used in the field of charcoal analyses, such as a set of sieves with specific meshes for sampling by size range; a software computer-aided for wood anatomical features measuring; a dendrochronological linear table for tree-ring measurement and a taphonomic charcoal reference collection of different types and parts of wood. These instruments and collection are currently unavailable in South Africa. They will serve to describe both morphologic and taphonomic wood features in the identification of wood taxa, as well as potential particular climatic events and fire wood exploitation. In addition to these specific instruments, the study will be also conducted with the aid of microscopic equipment, including light microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM), both readily available in the University of Nice. This permit application concerns macro-charcoal remains recovered from the site of Bushman Rock Shelter, Limpopo Province, currently housed at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
