Cradle of Humankind

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The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site first named by Unesco in 1999, about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa.

This site currently occupies 183 square miles (474 km²); it contains a complex of limestone caves, including the Sterkfontein Caves, where the 2.3-million year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs Ples") was found in 1947 by Dr Robert Broom and John Robinson, as well as the Wonder Cave. The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull, "Taung Child", by Raymond Dart, at Taung in the North West Province of South Africa. Excavations continue at the site to this day. In 1997, the near-complete Australopithecus skeleton of "Little Foot", dating to at least 3.3 million years ago, was discovered by University of Witwatersrand palaeoanthropologist Professor Ronald J. Clarke. The controlled use of fire at this site has been dated to over 1 million years ago at Swartkrans.

The hominid remains at the Cradle of Humankind were encased in a mixture of limestone and other sediments called breccia and fossilised over time. Hominids probably lived all over Africa, but their remains are only found at sites where conditions allowed for the formation and preservation of fossils.

On December 7, 2005, South African President Thabo Mbeki opened a new visitor's centre, Maropeng, at the site. [1]

[edit] External links

• Sterkfontein and Maropeng visitor attractions website
• Cradle of Humankind Official Website
• UNESCO - Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs
• Cradle of Humankind Map