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Cradle of Humankind

May 01, 2023

For other uses, see Cradle of Humankind (disambiguation).

The Cradle of Humankind[1][2][3] is a paleoanthropological site and is located about 50 km (31 mi) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the Gauteng province. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999,[4] the site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world.[5] The site currently occupies 47,000 hectares (180 sq mi)[6] and contains a complex system of limestone caves. The registered name of the site in the list of World Heritage Sites is Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa.

Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Cradle of Humankind
LocationSouth Africa
CriteriaCultural: iii, vi
Reference915
Inscription1999 (23rd Session)
Extensions2015
Maropeng Visitor Centre

According to the South African Journal of Science, Bolt's Farm is the place where the earliest primate was discovered.[7] Bolt's Farm was heavily mined for speleothem (calcium carbonate from stalagmites, stalactites and flowstones) in the terminal 19th and early 20th centuries.[8]

The Sterkfontein Caves were the site of the discovery of a 2.3-million-year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs. Ples"), found in 1947 by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson. The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull known as the "Taung Child", by Raymond Dart, 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, provisionally named Homo naledi.

Sterkfontein alone has produced more than a third of early hominid fossils ever found prior to 2010.[9] The Dinaledi Chamber contains over 1,500 H. naledi fossils, the most extensive discovery of a single hominid species ever found in Africa.[10]

Etymology

The name Cradle of Humankind reflects the fact that the site has produced a substantially large number of hominin fossils, some of the oldest ever found, dating as far back as 3.5 million years ago.[1][2][3]

History of discoveries

In 1935, Robert Broom found the first ape-man 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 which later were identified as Paranthropus robustus. Also in 1938, a single ape-man tooth was found at the Cooper's 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 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 was also discovered at Swartkrans and dated to over 1 million years ago.[11][12]

In 1966, Phillip Tobias began his excavations of Sterkfontein which are still continuing and are the longest continuously running fossil excavations in the world. In 1991, Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand discovered the first hominid specimens from the Gladysvale site, making this 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", dating to around 3.3 million years ago (although more recent dating suggest it is closer to 2.5 million years ago), was discovered by Ron Clarke. In 2001, Steve Churchill of Duke University 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 Coopers. In 2008, Lee Berger discovered the partial remains of two hominids (Australopithecus sediba) in the Malapa Fossil Site that lived between 1.78 and 1.95 million years ago.

 
Australopithecus africanus (reconstruction)

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 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 over 1,200 specimens of a presently unidentified fossil hominin species. The site is still 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.[13][14][15] Most remarkably, besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of our genus, H. naledi also appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to humans.[16][17] 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, have begun and yielded complete hominid fossil material of its own. It is unknown what the relationship of sites 101 and 102 is.[18][19][20]

 
Tumulus building at Maropeng visitors centre
 
Front of Maropeng

Geological context

The hominin remains at the Cradle of Humankind are found in dolomitic caves, and are often encased in a mixture of limestone and other sediments called breccia that fossilised over time. Hominids may have lived all over Africa, but their remains are found only at sites where conditions allowed for the formation and preservation of fossils.[21]

Visitor centres

 
Australopithecus sediba

On 7 December 2005, South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the new Maropeng Visitors Centre at the site.[22] Per the maropeng.co.za website, visitors can see fossils, view stone tools, and learn about the birth of humankind in the visitors centre. The visitors centre additionally offers a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves and the exhibition at Sterkfontein. 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.)[23][needs update]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Fleminger, David (2008). The Cradle of Humankind. 30° South Publishers. pp. 7–10. ISBN 978-0-9584891-3-3.
  2. ^ a b . Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  3. ^ a b Wayman, Erin. "The Human Evolution World Tour". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  4. ^ "Why is the Cradle of Humankind important?".
  5. ^ "Fossils in the Cradle of Humankind site reignite debate over origins of humans". NBC News. 30 June 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  6. ^ . maropeng.co.za. Archived from the original on 23 April 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
  7. ^ "Research Briefs". South African Journal of Science. 109 (5/6): 1–2. 2013. doi:10.1590/sajs.2013/a0017. ISSN 0038-2353.
  8. ^ Edwards, Tara R.; Armstrong, Brian J.; Birkett-Rees, Jessie; Blackwood, Alexander F.; Herries, Andy I.R.; Penzo-Kajewski, Paul; Pickering, Robyn; Adams, Justin W. (14 January 2019). "Combining legacy data with new drone and DGPS mapping to identify the provenance of Plio-Pleistocene fossils from Bolt's Farm, Cradle of Humankind (South Africa)". PeerJ. 7: e6202. doi:10.7717/peerj.6202. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 6336010. PMID 30656072.
  9. ^ Smith, David (15 January 2010). "Visit to the Cradle of Humankind". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  10. ^ Wong, Kate (10 September 2015). "Mysterious New Human Species Emerges from Heap of Fossils". Scientific American. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  11. ^ Brain, CK; Sillen, A (1988). "Evidence from the Swartkrans Cave for the earliest use of fire". Nature. 336 (6198): 464:466. Bibcode:1988Natur.336..464B. doi:10.1038/336464a0. S2CID 4318364.
  12. ^ Hilton Barber, Brett; Berger, Lee R (December 2004). Field Guide to the Cradle of Human Kind: Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Environs World Heritage Site (First ed.). Cape Town: Penguin Random House. p. 75. ISBN 9781770070653. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  13. ^ "New Species of Human Discovered in South Africa". IFLScience.
  14. ^ Photograph Mark Thiessen, National Geographic (10 September 2015). "This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?". National Geographic.
  15. ^ Berger, Lee R.; Hawks, John; De Ruiter, Darryl J.; Churchill, Steven E.; Schmid, Peter; Delezene, Lucas K.; Kivell, Tracy L.; Garvin, Heather M.; Williams, Scott A.; Desilva, Jeremy M.; Skinner, Matthew M.; Musiba, Charles M.; Cameron, Noel; Holliday, Trenton W.; Harcourt-Smith, William; Ackermann, Rebecca R.; Bastir, Markus; Bogin, Barry; Bolter, Debra; Brophy, Juliet; Cofran, Zachary D.; Congdon, Kimberly A.; Deane, Andrew S.; Dembo, Mana; Drapeau, Michelle; Elliott, Marina C.; Feuerriegel, Elen M.; Garcia-Martinez, Daniel; Green, David J.; et al. (2015). "Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa". eLife. 4. doi:10.7554/eLife.09560. PMC 4559886. PMID 26354291.
  16. ^ Johannesburg, The University of the Witwatersrand. "Homo naledi - Wits University". www.wits.ac.za.
  17. ^ Dirks, Paul HGM; Berger, Lee R.; Roberts, Eric M.; Kramers, Jan D.; Hawks, John; Randolph-Quinney, Patrick S.; Elliott, Marina; Musiba, Charles M.; Churchill, Steven E.; De Ruiter, Darryl J.; Schmid, Peter; Backwell, Lucinda R.; Belyanin, Georgy A.; Boshoff, Pedro; Hunter, K. Lindsay; Feuerriegel, Elen M.; Gurtov, Alia; Harrison, James du G.; Hunter, Rick; Kruger, Ashley; Morris, Hannah; Makhubela, Tebogo V.; Peixotto, Becca; Tucker, Steven (2015). "Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa". eLife. 4. doi:10.7554/eLife.09561. PMC 4559842. PMID 26354289.
  18. ^ "Rising Star Expedition".
  19. ^ "Scientists bag more than 1 000 fossils at Cradle 'treasure trove'".
  20. ^ "Johannesburg Update".
  21. ^ Esterhuysen, Amanda (6 December 2019). "If we are all African, then I am nothing: Hominin evolution and the politics of identity in South Africa". In Porr, Martin; Matthews, Jacqueline M. (eds.). Interrogating Human Origins: Decolonisation and the Deep Human Past. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp. 279–292. doi:10.4324/9780203731659. ISBN 978-0-203-73165-9. OCLC 1128062043.
  22. ^ . News24. 8 December 2005. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Maropeng, which means 'the place where we come from,' is expected to receive over 500 000 visitors annually, according to the Gauteng provincial government.
  23. ^ Cherry, Michael (2015). "Human evolution: The cradle of humankind revisited". Nature. 523 (7558): 33. Bibcode:2015Natur.523...33C. doi:10.1038/523033a. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4446278.

Further reading

  • L.R. Berger and B. Hilton-Barber, Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind (Struik, 2003)

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cradle of Humankind.
 
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Cradle of Humankind.
  • BBC, "Richest human fossil site found in South Africa", 28 November 2013
  • National Geographic, Rising Star Expedition
  • Maropeng – The Cradle of Humankind Official Website
  • UNESCO – Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs
  • Cradle of Humankind Map
  • Human Timeline (Interactive) – Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).

May 01, 2023
cradle, humankind, other, uses, disambiguation, paleoanthropological, site, located, about, northwest, johannesburg, south, africa, gauteng, province, declared, world, heritage, site, unesco, 1999, site, home, largest, concentration, human, ancestral, remains,. For other uses see Cradle of Humankind disambiguation The Cradle of Humankind 1 2 3 is a paleoanthropological site and is located about 50 km 31 mi northwest of Johannesburg South Africa in the Gauteng province Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999 4 the site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world 5 The site currently occupies 47 000 hectares 180 sq mi 6 and contains a complex system of limestone caves The registered name of the site in the list of World Heritage Sites is Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa Fossil Hominid Sites of South AfricaUNESCO World Heritage SiteCradle of HumankindLocationSouth AfricaCriteriaCultural iii viReference915Inscription1999 23rd Session Extensions2015Maropeng Visitor Centre According to the South African Journal of Science Bolt s Farm is the place where the earliest primate was discovered 7 Bolt s Farm was heavily mined for speleothem calcium carbonate from stalagmites stalactites and flowstones in the terminal 19th and early 20th centuries 8 The Sterkfontein Caves were the site of the discovery of a 2 3 million year old fossil Australopithecus africanus nicknamed Mrs Ples found in 1947 by Robert Broom and John T Robinson The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull known as the Taung Child by Raymond Dart 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 provisionally named Homo naledi Sterkfontein alone has produced more than a third of early hominid fossils ever found prior to 2010 9 The Dinaledi Chamber contains over 1 500 H naledi fossils the most extensive discovery of a single hominid species ever found in Africa 10 Contents 1 Etymology 2 History of discoveries 3 Geological context 4 Visitor centres 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksEtymology EditThe name Cradle of Humankind reflects the fact that the site has produced a substantially large number of hominin fossils some of the oldest ever found dating as far back as 3 5 million years ago 1 2 3 History of discoveries EditIn 1935 Robert Broom found the first ape man 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 which later were identified as Paranthropus robustus Also in 1938 a single ape man tooth was found at the Cooper s 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 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 was also discovered at Swartkrans and dated to over 1 million years ago 11 12 In 1966 Phillip Tobias began his excavations of Sterkfontein which are still continuing and are the longest continuously running fossil excavations in the world In 1991 Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand discovered the first hominid specimens from the Gladysvale site making this 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 dating to around 3 3 million years ago although more recent dating suggest it is closer to 2 5 million years ago was discovered by Ron Clarke In 2001 Steve Churchill of Duke University 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 Coopers In 2008 Lee Berger discovered the partial remains of two hominids Australopithecus sediba in the Malapa Fossil Site that lived between 1 78 and 1 95 million years ago Australopithecus africanus reconstruction 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 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 over 1 200 specimens of a presently unidentified fossil hominin species The site is still 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 13 14 15 Most remarkably besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of our genus H naledi also appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber a behaviour previously thought limited to humans 16 17 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 have begun and yielded complete hominid fossil material of its own It is unknown what the relationship of sites 101 and 102 is 18 19 20 Tumulus building at Maropeng visitors centre Front of MaropengGeological context EditThe hominin remains at the Cradle of Humankind are found in dolomitic caves and are often encased in a mixture of limestone and other sediments called breccia that fossilised over time Hominids may have lived all over Africa but their remains are found only at sites where conditions allowed for the formation and preservation of fossils 21 Visitor centres Edit Australopithecus sediba On 7 December 2005 South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the new Maropeng Visitors Centre at the site 22 Per the maropeng co za website visitors can see fossils view stone tools and learn about the birth of humankind in the visitors centre The visitors centre additionally offers a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves and the exhibition at Sterkfontein 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 23 needs update See also EditWonder Cave Cradle of civilization Dawn of Humanity a 2015 PBS film Muldersdrift Recent African origin of modern humans Maropeng Cavemen South Africa field hockey clubReferences Edit a b Fleminger David 2008 The Cradle of Humankind 30 South Publishers pp 7 10 ISBN 978 0 9584891 3 3 a b Cradle of Humankind David Fleminger Archived from the original on 3 February 2020 Retrieved 30 December 2019 a b Wayman Erin The Human Evolution World Tour Smithsonian Magazine Retrieved 30 December 2019 Why is the Cradle of Humankind important Fossils in the Cradle of Humankind site reignite debate over origins of humans NBC News 30 June 2022 Retrieved 21 February 2023 Maropeng a Afrika and the Cradle of Humankind maropeng co za Archived from the original on 23 April 2013 Retrieved 9 April 2010 Research Briefs South African Journal of Science 109 5 6 1 2 2013 doi 10 1590 sajs 2013 a0017 ISSN 0038 2353 Edwards Tara R Armstrong Brian J Birkett Rees Jessie Blackwood Alexander F Herries Andy I R Penzo Kajewski Paul Pickering Robyn Adams Justin W 14 January 2019 Combining legacy data with new drone and DGPS mapping to identify the provenance of Plio Pleistocene fossils from Bolt s Farm Cradle of Humankind South Africa PeerJ 7 e6202 doi 10 7717 peerj 6202 ISSN 2167 8359 PMC 6336010 PMID 30656072 Smith David 15 January 2010 Visit to the Cradle of Humankind The Guardian London Retrieved 20 May 2010 Wong Kate 10 September 2015 Mysterious New Human Species Emerges from Heap of Fossils Scientific American Retrieved 12 September 2015 Brain CK Sillen A 1988 Evidence from the Swartkrans Cave for the earliest use of fire Nature 336 6198 464 466 Bibcode 1988Natur 336 464B doi 10 1038 336464a0 S2CID 4318364 Hilton Barber Brett Berger Lee R December 2004 Field Guide to the Cradle of Human Kind Sterkfontein Swartkrans Kromdraai and Environs World Heritage Site First ed Cape Town Penguin Random House p 75 ISBN 9781770070653 Retrieved 10 September 2016 New Species of Human Discovered in South Africa IFLScience Photograph Mark Thiessen National Geographic 10 September 2015 This Face Changes the Human Story But How National Geographic Berger Lee R Hawks John De Ruiter Darryl J Churchill Steven E Schmid Peter Delezene Lucas K Kivell Tracy L Garvin Heather M Williams Scott A Desilva Jeremy M Skinner Matthew M Musiba Charles M Cameron Noel Holliday Trenton W Harcourt Smith William Ackermann Rebecca R Bastir Markus Bogin Barry Bolter Debra Brophy Juliet Cofran Zachary D Congdon Kimberly A Deane Andrew S Dembo Mana Drapeau Michelle Elliott Marina C Feuerriegel Elen M Garcia Martinez Daniel Green David J et al 2015 Homo naledi a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber South Africa eLife 4 doi 10 7554 eLife 09560 PMC 4559886 PMID 26354291 Johannesburg The University of the Witwatersrand Homo naledi Wits University www wits ac za Dirks Paul HGM Berger Lee R Roberts Eric M Kramers Jan D Hawks John Randolph Quinney Patrick S Elliott Marina Musiba Charles M Churchill Steven E De Ruiter Darryl J Schmid Peter Backwell Lucinda R Belyanin Georgy A Boshoff Pedro Hunter K Lindsay Feuerriegel Elen M Gurtov Alia Harrison James du G Hunter Rick Kruger Ashley Morris Hannah Makhubela Tebogo V Peixotto Becca Tucker Steven 2015 Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber South Africa eLife 4 doi 10 7554 eLife 09561 PMC 4559842 PMID 26354289 Rising Star Expedition Scientists bag more than 1 000 fossils at Cradle treasure trove Johannesburg Update Esterhuysen Amanda 6 December 2019 If we are all African then I am nothing Hominin evolution and the politics of identity in South Africa In Porr Martin Matthews Jacqueline M eds Interrogating Human Origins Decolonisation and the Deep Human Past Abingdon Oxon Routledge pp 279 292 doi 10 4324 9780203731659 ISBN 978 0 203 73165 9 OCLC 1128062043 Mbeki opens Maropeng centre News24 8 December 2005 Archived from the original on 30 September 2007 Maropeng which means the place where we come from is expected to receive over 500 000 visitors annually according to the Gauteng provincial government Cherry Michael 2015 Human evolution The cradle of humankind revisited Nature 523 7558 33 Bibcode 2015Natur 523 33C doi 10 1038 523033a ISSN 1476 4687 S2CID 4446278 Further reading EditL R Berger and B Hilton Barber Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind Struik 2003 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cradle of Humankind Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Cradle of Humankind BBC Richest human fossil site found in South Africa 28 November 2013 National Geographic Rising Star Expedition Sterkfontein and Maropeng visitor attractions website Maropeng The Cradle of Humankind Official Website UNESCO Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein Swartkrans Kromdraai and Environs Cradle of Humankind Map Palaeo Tours Scientist led tours to the Cradle Human Timeline Interactive Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History August 2016 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cradle of Humankind amp oldid 1142690182, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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