Gcwihaba

Gcwihaba is a cave in Botswana located in Okavango Delta region . The Gcwihaba Caves were part of the Kalahari landscape around 2 million years ago, at least for the entire period of the Pleistocene.[1]The name of the cave is a San word and stands for "hyena's lair".[2] The cave is situated 10 km away from the Namibian border.[2] In 1932 it was first shown to a European, Ghanzi region farmer Martinus Drotsky, and the main cavern was named Drotsky's cavern after him.[3] Gwchihaba is a Botswana National Monument under the Monuments, Relics and Antiquities Act, and has been put forward to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.[1][4] It is the type locality of the mineral gwihabaite (IMA1994-011).[5]

Even though nothing was found in the first 50 cm of cave during the excavations to affirm that the cave was settled as a camp, 51 stone artefacts (33 of them made from travertine)  were released in the upper  50 cm of the cave. 50-80 cm of the cave is called The Terminal Pleistocene charcoal layer. More cultural relics were observed in this layer. Bones of African bullfrogs and pieces of ostrich eggshell were among the findings.[6]


References
  1. Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Gcwihaba Caves". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  2. "Cultural Tourism and Livelihood Diversification: The Case of Gcwihaba Caves and XaiXai Village in the Okavango Delta, Botswana". Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change. 2009.
  3. "Gcwihaba caves". Botswana Tourism. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  4. Sporton, Deborah, ed. (2002). Sustainable Livelihoods in Kalahari Environments: A Contribution to Global Debates. Oxford University Press. p. 180. ISBN 9780198234197.
  5. "Gwihabaite". Mindat. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  6. Robbins, L.H.; Murphy, M.L.; Stevens, N.J.; Brook, G.A.; Ivester, A.H.; Haberyan, K.A.; Klein, R.G.; Milo, R.; Stewart, K.M.; Matthiesen, D.G.; Winkler, A.J. (1996). "Paleoenvironment and Archaeology of Drotsky's Cave: Western Kalahari Desert, Botswana". Journal of Archaeological Science. 23: 7–22. doi:10.1006/jasc.1996.0002.


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