South Africa boasts one of the most diverse assortments of early hominid and early human sites in the world. Age, quantity, quality....all can be found at any one of this country's many rich sites. Some of the best are located in limestone quarries. A sedimentary rock, layers of limestone slowly settled over hominid bodies, preserving them for future discovery.
Unfortunately, discovery is no small task. Many of South Africa's most significant discoveries came from the waste material from limestone quarries. While many of these quarries are now protected for research, who knows how much was lost in the commercial extraction of large chunks of limestone?
Another problem is extracting the fossils from the rock. Even though limestone forms in layers, it can be very hard, particularly with breccia--a cement of rocks, dust, sand and other small particles. It can take years of painstakingly delicate work to extract a sample--some will never be removed.
There are dozens of additional sites all over the world with major contributions to the study of human evolution. Since we've only been to some of the ones in South Africa, that's our focus here.
The Cradle of Humankind
(World Heritage Site)
Sterkfontein
When gold fever struck South Africa in the mid 19th century, nobody had any idea that the true wealth of the country lie nearby; completely untouched. Sterkfontein and surrounding sites (12 total, known collectively as "The Cradle of Humankind") boast the largest collection of early hominid fossils in the world. Throughout the 1990s, scientists made the discoveries that have directed much of our current understanding of human evolution and behavior. The Sterkfontein sites are: Bolt's Farm, Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Coopers B, Kromdraai, Plover's Lake, Minaar's, Wonder Cave, Drimolen, Gladysvale, Haasgat, and Gondolin. Among the key discoveries made at these sites are:- Earliest known deliberate use of fire around 1.3m years ago
- The famous "Mrs Ples" & "Little Foot" fossils (australopithecus)
- First known specimen of paranthropus robustus
- Hominids, fauna and plant remains up to 3m years old
- Over 600 known hominid samples, the most in the world
Another of South Africa's richer sites, this cave and limestone quarry yields remains as old as 3.3 million years (including australopithecus africanus). The location includes such sites as: the commercial Limeworks, the Cave of Hearths, Hyena Cave, Buffalo Cave, Ficus Cave, Peppercorn's Cave, Rainbow Cave, and Makapan's Cave. Important discoveries include:
- A nearly complete record of human cultures from the Early Stone Age, Late Stone Age, and Iron Age.
- Fossil remains of early hominids, extinct animals and plants up to 3.3 million years old.
- Numerous Iron Age relics
"Taung Child", australopithecus africanus
Other Important Sites
While Sterkfontein and Makapansgat offer enough study for a lifetime, there are a number of additional sites worth noting; among them are:
- Border Cave (early homo sapiens)
- Klasies River Mouth (early homo sapiens)
- Taung (australopithecus africanus)
- Equus Cave (early homo sapiens)
- Florisbad (early homo sapiens)