Swartkrans is a location in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, around 20 miles (32.2 km) from
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
.
Swartkrans is a farm near to
Sterkfontein-References:-References:-References:: : : :...
, notable for being extremely rich in
archaeological materialArchaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, particularly
hominidThe Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
remains. It was purchased by the
University of the WitwatersrandThe University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
in 1968. The oldest deposits present at the site are believed to be between 1.8 and 2 million years old.
Some of the earliest evidence of
controlled use of fire by humansThe control of fire by early humans was a turning point in the cultural aspect of human evolution that allowed humans to cook food and obtain warmth and protection...
can be found at Swartkrans.
Fossils discovered in the
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
of Swartkrans include
Telanthropus capensisTelanthropus capensis is the name given by the archaeologist John T. Robinson to a species of hominids. Robinson discovered fossils of this species in 1949 in Swartkrans, South Africa....
(a variety of
Homo erectusHomo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
),
ParanthropusThe robust australopithecines, members of the extinct hominin genus Paranthropus , were bipedal hominids that probably descended from the gracile australopithecine hominids...
and
Homo habilisHomo habilis is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately at the beginning of the Pleistocene period. The discovery and description of this species is credited to both Mary and Louis Leakey, who found fossils in Tanzania, East Africa, between 1962 and 1964. Homo habilis Homo...
Noted
paleontologistPaleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
Robert BroomProfessor Robert Broom was a Scottish South African doctor and paleontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow...
was a frequent digger. He was followed by
Charles Kimberlin BrainCharles Kimberlin Brain , born in Southern Rhodesia in 1931, is an eminent South African paleontologist who has studied and taught African cave taphonomy for more than fifty years.-Biography:From 1965 to 1991, Dr...
(C.K. 'Bob' Brain), whose excavations at the site inspired his book
The Hunters or the Hunted? in which he demonstrated that instead of being bloodthirsty killer apes, the hominin fossils found at the site were themselves victims of predation by big cats.
Swartkrans is part of the
Cradle of HumankindThe Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site first named by UNESCO in 1999, about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Gauteng province. This site currently occupies ; it contains a complex of limestone caves, including the Sterkfontein Caves, where the 2.3-million...
World Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
.
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