Sterkfontein

Modern excavation of the caves began in the late 1890s by limestone miners who noticed the fossils and brought them to the attention of scientists.

In 1936, students of Professor Raymond Dart and Dr. Robert Broom from the University of the Witwatersrand began concerted excavations. The caves yielded the first adult Australopithecine, substantially strengthening Dart's claim that the skull known as the Taung Child (an Australopithecus africanus) 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 1984, Peter Verhulsel who was a member of cave diving expedition researching one of the caves was lost and ultimately starved to death after three weeks in the cave as rescue groups could not find him.{{Cite web |title=Scuba diver lost in cave dies waiting for rescue - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/11/12/Scuba-diver-lost-in-cave-dies-waiting-for-rescue/7366469083600/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=UPI |language=en}}

In 1997, a nearly complete skeleton of a second species of Australopithecus (StW 573) was found in the caves by Ronald J. Clarke; extraction of the remains from the surrounding breccia 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.

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 and 2.01 Ma based on a combination of Uranium–lead dating and palaeomagnetic analysis and electron spin resonance dating{{sfn|Herries|Shaw|2011}}{{sfn|Pickering|Kramers|2010}}{{sfn|Herries et al.|2010}}{{sfn|Herries et al.|2013}} 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{{sfn|Herries|Shaw|2011}} and belongs to a second species of australopith, Australopithecus prometheus. In contrast, surface exposure dating of sediments indicate that skeleton StW 573 has an age of approximately 4 million years.{{sfn|Partridge et al.|2003}} While the flowstone 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{{sfn|Bruxelles et al.|2014}} has little firm basis.{{sfn|Balter|2014}} The palaeomagnetic analysis {{sfn|Herries|Shaw|2011}} 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 {{Mya|1.8|1.5|Mya}} 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.{{sfn|Curnoe|2010}} No stone tools were associated with the fossil, but StW 53 has evidence for stone tool cut-marks.{{sfn|Pickering|Clarke|Heaton|2004}} Member 5 contains Oldowan and Acheulian stone tools as well as specimens of early Homo and Paranthropus and is dated to between 1.6 and 1.1 Mya.{{sfn|Herries|Shaw|2011}}

In 2022 cosmogenic nuclide dating found that the bulk of Member 4 is 3.4 million years old."{{Cite journal |last1=Granger |first1=Darryl E. |last2=Stratford |first2=Dominic |last3=Bruxelles |first3=Laurent |last4=Gibbon |first4=Ryan J. |last5=Clarke |first5=Ronald J. |last6=Kuman |first6=Kathleen |date=2022-07-05 |title=Cosmogenic nuclide dating of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein, South Africa |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=119 |issue=27 |pages=e2123516119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2123516119 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9271183 |pmid=35759668|bibcode=2022PNAS..11923516G }} 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.

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

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{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web|title= Sterkfontein Caves, Zwartkrans, Krugersdorp District 9/2/233/0004|url=http://www.sahra.org.za/node/19143|publisher=South African Heritage Resources Agency|access-date=16 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111134658/http://www.sahra.org.za/node/19143|archive-date=2014-11-11}}

{{Cite web | title = Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa | work = UNESCO World Heritage Centre | date = n.d. | access-date = 2018-08-23 | url = https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/915 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502084307/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/915|archive-date =2019-05-02 }}

}}

{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}

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• {{cite journal | last = Curnoe | first = D.

| title = A review of early Homo in southern Africa focusing on cranial, mandibular and dental remains, with the description of a new species (Homo gautengensis sp. nov.)

| journal = HOMO: Journal of Comparative Human Biology | year = 2010 | volume = 61 | pages = 151–177

| pmid = 20466364 | doi=10.1016/j.jchb.2010.04.002 | issue=3

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• {{cite journal | ref = {{sfnref|Herries et al.|2010}}

| last1 = Herries | first1 = A.I.R.

| last2 = Hopley | first2 = P.J.

| last3 = Adams | first3 = J.W.

| last4 = Curnoe | first4 = D.

|author5=Maslin, M.A.

| title = Letter to the editor: Geochronology and palaeoenvironments of Southern African hominin-bearing localities—A reply to Wrangham et al., 2009. 'Shallow-water habitats as sources of fallback foods for hominins'

| journal = American Journal of Physical Anthropology | volume = 143 | issue = 4 | pages = 640–646 |date=December 2010

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• {{cite journal|last1=Herries|first1=Andy I.R.|last2=Shaw|first2=John|title=Palaeomagnetic analysis of the Sterkfontein palaeocave deposits: Implications for the age of the hominin fossils and stone tool industries|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=60|issue=5|year=2011|pages=523–539|issn=0047-2484|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.09.001|pmid=21392817|bibcode=2011JHumE..60..523H }}
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• {{cite journal|last1=Partridge|first1=T. C.|first2=D. E. |last2=Granger|first3=M. W. |last3=Caffee|first4=R. J. |last4=Clarke|title=Lower Pliocene Hominid Remains from Sterkfontein|journal=Science|volume=300|issue=5619|year=2003|pages=607–612|issn =0036-8075|doi =10.1126/science.1081651|pmid=12714736|bibcode=2003Sci...300..607P|s2cid=2461219|ref ={{sfnref|Partridge et al.|2003}} }}
• {{cite journal | last1 = Pickering | first1 = T.R.

| last2 = Clarke | first2 = R.J.

| last3 = Heaton | first3 = J.L.

| title = The Context of Stw 573, an early hominid skull and skeleton from Sterkfontein M2: taphonomy and palaeoenvironment

| journal = J. Hum. Evol. | year = 2004 | volume = 46 | pages = 277–295

| doi = 10.1016/j.jhevol.2003.12.001 | pmid = 14984784 | issue=3

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• {{cite journal | last1 = Pickering | first1 = R.

| last2 = Kramers | first2 = J.D.

| title = Re-appraisal of the stratigraphy and determination of new U-Pb dates for the Sterkfontein hominin site, South Africa

| journal = Journal of Human Evolution | year = 2010 | volume =59 | pages = 70–86

| pmid = 20605190 | doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.03.014 | issue=1

| bibcode = 2010JHumE..59...70P

}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|Sterkfontein Caves}}

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