Cradle of Humankind

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

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

The Cradle of Humankind[1][2][3] is a paleoanthropological site that 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 known 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.

According to the South African Journal of Science, Bolt's Farm is the place where the earliest primates were discovered.[7] Bolt's Farm was heavily mined for speleothem (calcium carbonate from stalagmites, stalactites, and flowstones) in the terminal nineteenth and early twentieth 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 by Raymond Dart 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, provisionally named Homo naledi.

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

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fleminger2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fleminger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wayman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  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 a'Afrika and the Cradle of Humankind". 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.