Lawrence Robbins challenged Coulson's claims in 2007, noting the cave is properly called Rhino Cave due to a rhino painting inside. Radiocarbon dating of cave deposits returned only 15,000 years. Some indentations on the snake rock are fresh while others are covered by flowstone—specific dating couldn't be confirmed. Excavations revealed normal habitation tools too. 🦏
Scientific Controversy: Dating Challenges and Site Misidentification
BotswanaTheory
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Lawrence Robbins published a response paper in 2007 challenging Coulson's 70,000-year-old claims
- The site was previously documented by Robbins in 1995-1996 with published findings in 1998
- The cave is properly called Rhino Cave due to a rhino painting inside, not Python Cave
- Coulson's identification of an elephant painting was disputed - experts say it is a rhino
- Geometric paintings inside the cave went unmentioned by Coulson
- Radiocarbon dating of organic material from cave deposits returned ages of only 15,000 years
- Some indentations on the snake rock are fresh while others are covered by flowstone - dating to one specific period cannot be confirmed
- Excavations revealed scrapers, hammerstones, grindstones, flakes, and cores consistent with normal habitation
Sources
Pottery from the White Paintings Rock Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswanaresearchgate.net
This paper takes the results from the morphological analysis of Middle Stone Age material from Rhino Cave and White Paintings Rock Shelter, Botswana, by L.H. ...
[PDF] ~.THE DIGGING STICK - The South African Archaeological Societyarchaeology.org.za
In the next few years a team led by Larry Robbins and Alec Campbell began the preliminary research that established that Rhino. Cave was used by ...
Curren t Anthropology - The University of Chicago Press: Journalsjournals.uchicago.edu
Alternative Pathways to Complexity. Mediterranean and Red Sea Paleoclimate. Neanderthal Demographic Estimates.
Geometric rock art along the Luangwa Valley escarpment, Zambia ...academia.edu
This thesis explores the tradition of red geometric rock art from Zambia and its association with Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeology.
Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone ...researchgate.net
New data from the sites of Rhino Cave, Corner Cave, and ≠Gi in northwest ... Lawrence H Robbins · George A. Brook ...
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