The Cradle of Humankind is a paleoanthropological site that is located about northwest of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa, in the

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

province. Declared a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 1999, the site is home to the largest known concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. The site currently occupies and contains a complex system of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

caves. The registered name of the site in the list of World Heritage Sites is Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa. According to the '' South African Journal of Science'', Bolt's Farm is the place where the earliest primates were discovered. Bolt's Farm was heavily mined for speleothem (calcium carbonate from stalagmites, stalactites, and flowstones) in the terminal nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Sterkfontein Caves were the site of the discovery of a 2.3-million-year-old

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

'' Australopithecus africanus'' (nicknamed " Mrs. Ples"), found in 1947 by

Robert Broom Robert Broom Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African medical doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University ...

and John T. Robinson. The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery by

Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil found of '' Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct hominin ...

of the juvenile ''Australopithecus africanus'' skull known as the " Taung Child" at Taung in the North West Province of South Africa, where excavations still continue. Nearby, but not in the site, the Rising Star Cave system contains the Dinaledi Chamber (chamber of stars), in which were discovered fifteen fossil skeletons of an extinct species of

hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...

, provisionally named '' Homo naledi''.

Sterkfontein Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for ''Strong Spring'') is a set of limestone caves of special interest in paleoanthropology located in Gauteng province, about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of K ...

alone has produced more than a third of early hominid fossils found prior to 2010. The Dinaledi Chamber contains more than 1,500 ''H. naledi'' bone specimens from at least 15 individuals, the most extensive discovery of a single hominid species ever found in Africa.

Etymology

The name ''Cradle of Humankind'' reflects the fact that the site has produced a substantially large number of

fossils, some of the oldest yet found, dating as far back as 3.5 million years ago.

History of discoveries

In 1935, Robert Broom found the first human fossils at Sterkfontein and began work at this site. In 1938, a young schoolboy, Gert Terrblanche, brought Raymond Dart fragments of a skull from nearby Kromdraai that later were identified as '' Paranthropus robustus''. Also in 1938, a single human tooth was found at the Cooper's Cave site between Kromdraai and Sterkfontein. In 1948, the Camp-Peabody Expedition from the United States worked at Bolts Farm and Gladysvale looking for fossil hominids, but failed to find any. Later in 1948, Robert Broom identified the first hominid remains from

Swartkrans Swartkrans or Swartkranz is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a National heritage sites (South Africa), South African National Heritage Site, located about from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is ...

cave. In 1954, C. K. Brain began working at sites in the Cradle, including Cooper's Cave. He then initiated his three-decade work at Swartkrans cave, which resulted in the recovery of the second-largest sample of hominid remains from the Cradle. The oldest controlled use of fire by Homo erectus also was discovered at Swartkrans and dated to more than 1 million years ago. In 1966, Phillip Tobias began his excavations of Sterkfontein that are still continuing and are the longest continuously running fossil excavations in the world. In 1991, Lee Berger of the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

discovered the first hominid specimens from the Gladysvale site, making it the first new early hominid site to be discovered in South Africa in 48 years. In 1994, Andre Keyser discovered fossil hominids at the site of Drimolen. In 1997, Kevin Kuykendall and Colin Menter of the University of the Witwatersrand found two fossil hominid teeth at the site of Gondolin. Also in 1997, the near-complete ''Australopithecus'' skeleton of " Little Foot", then dated to approximately 3.3 million years ago (more recent dating suggests it is closer to 2.5 million years ago), was discovered by

Ron Clarke Ronald William Clarke, Officer of the Order of Australia, AO, Member of the Order of the British Empire, MBE (21 February 1937 – 17 June 2015) was an Australian athlete, writer, and the Mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012. He was one o ...

. In 2001, Steve Churchill of

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and Lee Berger found early modern human remains at Plovers Lake. Also in 2001, the first hominid fossils and stone tools were discovered ''in-situ'' at Cooper's Cave. In 2008, Lee Berger discovered the partial remains of two hominids ('' Australopithecus sediba'') who lived between 1.78 and 1.95 million years ago in the Malapa Fossil Site. In October 2013, Berger commissioned geologist Pedro Boshoff to investigate cave systems in the Cradle of Humankind for the express purpose of discovering more fossil hominin sites. Cavers Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker discovered hominid fossils in a previously unexplored area of the Rising Star-Westminster Cave System that is assigned site designation UW-101. In November 2013, Berger led a joint expedition of the University of the Witwatersrand and National Geographic Society to the Rising Star Cave System near Swartkrans. In just three weeks of excavation, the six-woman international team of advance speleological scientists (K. Lindsay Eaves, Marina Elliott, Elen Feuerriegel, Alia Gurtov, Hannah Morris, and Becca Peixotto), chosen for their paleoanthropological and caving skills, as well as their small size, recovered more than 1,200 fossil specimens of an unidentified hominin species. As of 2015, the site remained in the process of being dated. In September 2015, Berger, in collaboration with National Geographic, announced the discovery of a new species of human relative, named '' Homo naledi'', from UW-101. Most remarkably, besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of the Homo genus, ''H. naledi'' also appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to later Homo species. In the last days of the Rising Star Expedition, cavers Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker discovered additional fossil hominid material in another portion of the cave system. Preliminary excavations at this site, designated UW-102, had begun by 2013 and yielded complete hominid fossil material of its own. The relationship of site 101 to 102 is not known. File:Australopithecus africanus - Cast of taung child Face.jpg, '' Australopithecus africanus'' (reconstruction) File:Australopithecus sediba.JPG, ''Australopithecus sediba''

Geological context

The hominin remains that fossilised over time at the Cradle of Humankind are found in dolomitic caves, and are often encased in a mixture of limestone and other sediments called breccia. Early hominids may have lived throughout Africa, but their remains are found only at sites where conditions allowed for the formation and preservation of fossils.

Visitor centres

On 7 December 2005, South African President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

opened the new Maropeng Visitors Centre at the site. Per the maropeng.co.za website, visitors may see fossils, view stone tools, and learn about the birth of humankind in the visitors centre. The visitors centre also offers a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves and the exhibition at

. A light, moveable, steel structure known as the Beetle has been placed over the Malapa site, to allow the paying public to view excavations, once they resume at the site. (Digging has been on hold since 2009, when the remains of four '' A. sediba'' individuals were removed.) File:South Africa-Gauteng-Maropeng01.jpg,

Tumulus A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

building at Maropeng visitors centre File:Maropeng visitor centre, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa.jpg, Front of Maropeng File:Maropeng Visitor Centre, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa.jpg, Maropeng Visitor Centre

References

External links

"Richest human fossil site found in South Africa"

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 28 November 2013
Rising Star Expedition
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National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Sterkfontein and Maropeng visitor attractions website

Maropeng – The Cradle of Humankind
Official Website
UNESCO – Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs

Palaeo Tours – Scientist-led tours to the "Cradle"

Human Timeline (Interactive)
– Smithsonian,

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

(August 2016) {{Authority control Geography of Gauteng Paleoanthropological sites Fossil parks Paleontology in South Africa Pleistocene paleontological sites of Africa Prehistoric Africa Tourist attractions in Johannesburg World Heritage Sites in South Africa