Archaeological Sites
About 43km north of Daniëlskuil on the road to Kuruman (and about 43 km south of Kuruman), on the farm "Wonderwerk" (meaning "miracle"), this natural wonder awaits your visit.
The
cave is 139m deep and archaeologically of considerable importance.
The cave is so big, it used to be boasted that a wagon and team of
oxen could turn around in the entrance. An information centre
with colourful displays introduces the rich history of Wonderwerk
Cave.
Archaeological research at this massive cave site has revealed an immensely long record of human and environmental history spanning hundreds of thousands of years. The cave, which is a National Heritage Site, and its surrounds, form a conservation area with several features distinctive of the Kuruman Hills. The site is open to the public and includes an interpretive centre adjacent to the cave. The turn-off to Wonderwerk Cave is well sign-posted about 43 km from Kuruman along the Kuruman-Daniëlskuil road (it is about the same distance from Daniëlskuil): a tarred road leads up to the entrance to the servitude on which the site is situated. An entrance fee is payable at the gateway to the site: visitors will be accompanied by a guide. Accommodation (there are now three chalets sleeping four people each) and refreshments are available by arrangement. Contact
Wonderwerk Cave is an ancient solution cavity, exposed at one end by
hillside erosion, and running horizontally for 139 m into the base
of a low conical foothill on the eastern flank of the Kuruman Hills.
Its geological context is stratified dolomitic limestone of the 2.3
billion year-old Ghaap Plateau Dolomite Formation. Permanent water
sources in the area are presently limited to a seep some 5 km to the
south on Gakorosa Hill and a large sinkhole now known as Boesmans
Gat (meaning "Bushman's waterhole"), about 12 km away.
Research
has shown that bedrock in the front portion of the cave is overlain
by 4 m of deposits consisting of almost horizontal layers of
wind-blown dust with a variable admixture of roof-slabs. Initial
radiocarbon, Uranium-series and palaeomagnetic readings indicate
that the uppermost metre of sediments, 45 m in from the cave mouth,
spans the past 300 000 years, while extrapolation, based on that
result, suggests that the lower levels range back very much further.
Palaeomagnetic evidence recently indicated that the base of the
sequence may reach back as far as 1.77 to 1.95 million years.
If this dating is correct.) The small irregular stone cores
and flakes in those lowest levels could be Oldowan. There is
archaeological evidence of human occupation in all layers, making
this one of the longest inhabited caves on earth.
Archaeological investigations here began in the 1940s, and were continued from the mid-1970s to the present. The McGregor Museum in Kimberley has been responsible for research at Wonderwerk since 1978. Previously, the renowned Maria Wilman, who was director of the museum, recorded the rock paintings in the cave entrance, in 1921. Material from the excavations of the 1940s has been returned to the Northern Cape, and all the excavated material from Wonderwerk Cave is now housed at the McGregor Museum, the province's principal research institution. Current McGregor Museum research is being conducted in collaboration with a team headed by Prof Michael Chazan of Toronto, Canada, and Dr Liora Horwitz of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Information from: McGregor Museum: Telephone: +27 (0) 53 839 2706, email
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