Dr. Molly Clark recently visited South Africa in order to relocate and assess the Middle Stone Age site, Holley Shelter. Holley Shelter is located in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is an important archaeological site pertaining to the origins of modern humans. The Middle Stone Age in South Africa      The Middle Stone Age (MSA) in South Africa occurred between 300,000 years ago to roughly 25,000 years ago. It is defined by a switch from core tools to flake tools. During the MSA, the dominate technology was the manufacture of stone tools made from flakes, and included flake-blades, retouched points, notched tools, and adzes.      The MSA was largely ignored by researchers until the discovery of H. sapiens sapiens at such sites as Klasies River Mouth (Singer and Wymer 1983; H. Deacon 1988, 1995; Grine et al 1998) and Border Cave (Beaumont et al 1978; Miller et al 1999). Based on fossil and DNA evidence, it has been proposed (Cann et al 1987; Foley and Lahr 1992; Ambrose 1998) that anatomically modern humans first evolved in southern Africa at around 200,000 years ago and then migrated outward to the rest of the world. If this single origin model is accepted, then it is hypothesized that evidence for modern behaviour, such as the use of symbols (language), sexual division of labour, nuclear families, big game hunting, bone tools, and the use of marine resources, should appear in southern Africa at a relatively early date (Clark 1999, 2000; McBrearty and Brooks 2000).      In other words, one of the main focuses in Middle Stone Age archaeology is to try and understand not only how people physically evolved into anatomically modern humans, but also how human behaviour evolved, specifically our use of symbols. As humans, all cultures are based on the use of symbols, such as language, clothing, and art, to express not only our ideas, beliefs and values, but also to express our personal identity. It has been said that all human behaviour is symbolic behaviour (White 1988). It is our prolific use of symbols which truly sets us apart from our primate relatives. Due to the importance of symbols in all cultures, MSA archaeology is interested in learning more about how and why we evolved this behaviour. The Importance of Holley Shelter      Holley Shelter is significant as it contains both a long MSA sequence and excellent bone preservation. Although the site was originally excavated by Gordon Cramb in the 1950's, access to the site has been limited since then. Recently as part of a National Science Foundation Grant (BCS-0443536), I relocated Holley Shelter, assessed the amount of archaeological deposit, and examined the artefact collection. I determined that the site possesses a substantial amount of intact archaeological deposit with excellent bone preservation throughout the entire sequence.Analysis of the extant collection indicates that this site contains early MSA deposits dating from approximately 60,000 to 200,000 years ago. Based on the estimated age of the site, Holley shelter may contain substantial evidence pertaining to the origins of modern behaviour as well as the possibility to recover the fossil remains of anatomically modern humans.   History of archaeological excavations at Holley Shelter      Holley Shelter was originally excavated by Gordon Cramb, an avocational archaeologist, who worked sporadically on the site from 1948 to 1965. Cramb excavated the site in four large arbitrary spits and he worked in two distinct areas of the site, an initial trial trench area in the north of the shelter and a lager main unit in the south. Cramb published two short articles on his finds, both of which discussed the significance of the lithic industry (Cramb 1952, 1961). An intrusive 20th century human burial was removed from the site, and the skeletal material was analyzed and published by Toerien (1961). Although Cramb invested a considerable amount of time excavating this site, the publications on the material were lacking in several respects. A map of the site showing the size and location of the excavations was never published, nor did the publications clearly present the artifact assemblage or the stratigraphic association of the artifacts. As part of my research this summer, I made a map of the site as it currently appears and tried to identify the areas where Cramb excavated. This will allow archaeologist to determine what part of the shelter has not been disturbed, and where it would be best to excavate in the future. This work was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Grant # BCS-0443536).