Sterkfontein

Walkways for visitors above the old excavation shafts

Memorial plaque for Guglielmo Martinaglia at the Sterkfontein cave system

Sterkfontein ( Afrikaans for "strong spring") is the name of a series of karst caves near the town of Krugersdorp, northwest of Johannesburg in South Africa . The caves are of particular interest for research in the field of paleoanthropology as a number of fossils of early hominids have been found here. Sterkfontein in 1999 became the UNESCO - World Heritage declared and since then the Cradle of Humankind called ( "cradle of humanity").

Excavations in the caves began in the late 1890s after paleontologists were drawn to the attention of paleontologists looking for limestone, working with the Italian Guglielmo Martinaglia, who noticed the fossils. However, it was not until 1936 that students of Raymond Dart and Robert Broom of Witwatersrand University began systematic excavations. These excavations revealed many early hominids. In 1936 a student, Gert Terblanche, discovered the remains of a skull that Broom identified in 1938 as the holotype of the newly described genus Paranthropus and its type species Paranthropus robustus . This find supported Raymond Dart's interpretation that the Australopithecus africanus found near Taung and known as the " child of Taung " was an early ancestor of humans ( hominini ).

During the Second World War the excavations were suspended, after which they were continued by Robert Broom. In 1947 he found the almost complete skull of an adult female (or perhaps also a juvenile male) Australopithecus africanus , which Broom initially gave the new generic name Plesianthropus transvaalensis ("almost human of the Transvaal "). This skull was also known under the acronym " Mrs. Ples " , which is still used today . She or he is estimated to be 2.6 to 2.8 million years old and thus dated to the Pliocene . By surface exposure dating 2003, the age of several sites has been dated to about four million years.

The excavations are continuing and have so far produced more than 500 hominid finds; this makes Sterkfontein the richest localized site in the world for early hominids. The cave has also been known since 1995 for “ Little Foot ”, a skeleton that was initially dated to around three million years, later to around four million years and finally to two million years.

Today the cave is partially open to visitors. A newly built visitor center shows an exhibition about the development of the earth and mankind. Then a path leads to the cave entrance. There are steps up to 60 meters deep. Skeletons cannot be seen, however.

Since 2005 there has been another visitor center ten kilometers northwest called Maropeng ( Setswana for "return to our place of origin"). It is also aimed at children.