Sterkfontein (
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...
for ''Strong Spring'') is a set of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
caves of special interest to
paleo-
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...
s located in
Gauteng
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
province, about northwest of
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
in the
Muldersdrift
Muldersdrift, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, is a picturesque rural area situated 27 km north-west of the CBD of Johannesburg, between Johannesburg and the Magaliesberg mountain range. The area falls under the West Rand District ...
area close to the town of
Krugersdorp. The archaeological sites of
Swartkrans and
Kromdraai
Kromdraai Conservancy is a protected conservation park located to the south-west of Gauteng province in north-east South Africa. It is in the Muldersdrift area not far from Krugersdorp.
Etymology
Its name is derived from Afrikaans meaning "Cro ...
are in the same area. Sterkfontein is a
South African National Heritage Site and was also declared a
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
in 2000. The area in which it is situated is known as the
Cradle of Humankind
The Cradle of Humankind is a paleoanthropological site and is located about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the Gauteng province. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, the site is home to the largest concentration of h ...
.
The Sterkfontein Caves are also home to numerous wild African species including ''
Belonogaster petiolata'', a wasp species of which there is a large nesting presence.
Numerous early
hominin
The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas).
The ...
remains have been found at the site over the last few decades. These have been attributed to ''
Australopithecus
''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Australo ...
'', early ''
Homo
''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely rela ...
'' and ''
Paranthropus''.
History of investigations
Modern excavation of the caves began in the late 1890s by limestone miners who noticed the
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s and brought them to the attention of scientists.
In 1936, students of Professor
Raymond Dart and Dr.
Robert Broom
Robert Broom FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow.
From 1903 to 1910, he ...
from the
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...
began concerted excavations. The caves yielded the first adult
Australopithecine
Australopithecina or Hominina is a subtribe in the tribe Hominini. The members of the subtribe are generally ''Australopithecus'' ( cladistically including the genera ''Homo'', '' Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus''), and it typically inclu ...
, substantially strengthening Dart's claim that the skull known as the
Taung Child
The Taung Child (or Taung Baby) is the fossilised skull of a young '' Australopithecus africanus''. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa. Raymond Dart described it as a new specie ...
(an ''
Australopithecus africanus
''Australopithecus africanus'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfontei ...
'') was a human ancestor. There was a pause in excavation during World War II, but after the war Dr. Robert Broom continued excavations. In 1947, he found a nearly complete skull of an adult female (
STS 5) ''A. africanus'' (or possibly that of an adolescent male). Broom initially named the skull ''
Plesianthropus transvaalensis'' (''near-man'' from
Transvaal), but it became better known by its nickname, ''
Mrs. Ples''. Mrs. Ples is now defined as a member of ''A. africanus''.
In 1997, a nearly complete skeleton of a second species of ''Australopithecus'' (StW 573) was found in the caves by
Ronald J. Clarke
Ronald John Clarke is a paleoanthropologist most notable for the discovery of "Little Foot", an extraordinarily complete skeleton of ''Australopithecus'', in the Sterkfontein Caves. A more technical description of various aspects of his descri ...
; extraction of the remains from the surrounding
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...
is ongoing. The skeleton was named ''
Little Foot'', since the first parts found (in 1995, in storage) were the bones of a foot. Excavations continue to this day, and finds now total some 500 hominids, making Sterkfontein one of the richest sites in the world for early hominids. The Palaeo-Anthropology Scientific Trust (PAST), a non-profit trust fund established in 1993, sponsors over 90% of the research undertaken at Sterkfontein and was instrumental in its nomination as a World Heritage Site.
Dating of the deposits
The Member 4 deposits containing the ''Australopithecus africanus'' fossils have been dated to between 2.6 and 2.0 Ma, with the Sts5 "Mrs. Ples" fossil estimated to date to between 2.05–2.01 Ma based on a combination of
Uranium–lead dating and
palaeomagnetic
Paleomagnetism (or palaeomagnetismsee ), is the study of magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called ''paleomagnetists.''
Certain magnetic minerals in rocks ...
analysis and
electron spin resonance dating The StW 573 partial skeleton (''
Little Foot'') was recovered from a separate infill at the site within the confines of the Silberberg Grotto. It is estimated to be around 2.6–2.2 Ma based on a combination of uranium-lead dating and palaeomagnetic analysis and belongs to a second species of australopith,
Australopithecus prometheus
"Little Foot" (Stw 573) is the nickname given to a nearly complete Australopithecus fossil skeleton found in 1994–1998 in the cave system of Sterkfontein, South Africa.
Originally nicknamed "little foot" in 1995 when four ankle bones in a mus ...
. In contrast,
surface exposure dating of sediments indicate that skeleton StW 573 has an age of approximately 4 million years. While the
flowstone
Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleot ...
dated in the uranium-lead dating has been shown to have formed later than the fossil, an age estimate of ~3 Ma suggested by the same authors has little firm basis. The palaeomagnetic analysis remains the most credible age estimate based on the current data as it included work on both sediments and speleothem.
A slightly younger deposit (StW 53 infill) dated to between has revealed the remains of a specimen of early ''Homo'' (StW 53). StW 53 has been described as similar to ''
Homo habilis'' or as a novel new species ''
Homo gautengensis''. No stone tools were associated with the fossil, but StW 53 has evidence for stone tool cut-marks. Member 5 contains
Oldowan and
Acheulian
Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...
stone tools as well as specimens of early ''Homo'' and ''Paranthropus'' and is dated to between 1.6 and 1.1 Mya.
In 2022 cosmogenic nuclide dating found that the bulk of Member 4 is 3.4 million years old."
The team responsible for this work, which includes Clarke, says: "These results place nearly the entire ''Australopithecus'' assemblage at Sterkfontein in the mid-Pliocene, contemporaneous with ''Australopithecus afarensis'' in East Africa." They say this discredits the assumption that ''A. africanus'' descended from ''A. afarensis.''
Gallery
File:Sterkfontein Caves 19.jpg, Entrance to the Silberberg Grotto containing '' Little Foot''
File:SterkfonteinCaves2.jpg, The underground lake in the Sterkfontein Caves. One diver has died in the lake
File:SterkfonteinCaves3.jpg, A view down toward the lake in the caves
See also
*
Cradle of Humankind
The Cradle of Humankind is a paleoanthropological site and is located about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the Gauteng province. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, the site is home to the largest concentration of h ...
*
List of caves in South Africa
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
Muldersdrift
Muldersdrift, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, is a picturesque rural area situated 27 km north-west of the CBD of Johannesburg, between Johannesburg and the Magaliesberg mountain range. The area falls under the West Rand District ...
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
Maropeng Visitors Centre Palaeo-Anthropology Scientific Trust
{{Authority control
Archaeological sites in South Africa
Caves of South Africa
Landforms of Gauteng
Limestone caves
Mogale City Local Municipality
Paleoanthropological sites
Pleistocene paleontological sites of Africa
South African heritage sites
Tourist attractions in Gauteng
Archaeological sites of Southern Africa