Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs
Posted by: 
TeamTGF
S 26° 00.990 E 027° 44.058
35J E 573478 N 7122282
The site where all human life originates.
Waymark Code: WM1E02
Location: Gauteng, South Africa
Date Posted: 04/16/2007
Views: 228
The ongoing excavations at the site
A mere hour's drive from Johannesburg,
the Cradle of Humankind is a place of major significance. It was here we first
became human. Here where we first stood upright on our own two, rather oddly
shaped feet, explored the uses to which we could put our usefully opposed
thumbs and experimented with more and more sophisticated grunts as we tried to
make sense of our environment. It's also the place where 1.8 million years ago we
first "domesticated" fire.
OK - to be perfectly honest, it's unlikely that these hominids lived only in
the Sterkfontein area - they probably ranged all over southern Africa but, in
order for fossils to be preserved, they need to die under ideal conditions -
ideal conditions for fossil
formation, not ideal conditions for life, obviously. The Cradle of Humankind, with its heavy deposits of limestone, offered
the perfect environment for the preservation of these ancient skeletons.
Since
1947, when Robert Broom discovered the first hominid fossil, who came to be
known as Mrs Ples, literally thousands of fossils have been found at
Sterkfontein and the other sites that make up the Cradle of Humankind.
You can do a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves, where there is a small interpretive
museum, but you'll get more out of a visit here if you take a dedicated tour
with a knowledgeable guide who can tell you about the various discoveries.
The posted coordinates are to the entrance to the cave where Robert Broom
found the fossils.
Extract taken from www.safarinow.com