Of all the places we have visited where hominids and their predecessors creeped or climbed or walked upright, nothing compares to this. The Cradle of Humankind is a bulging treasure chest of both hominid fossils and the fossils of the other creatures who spent millions of years in and around the limestone caves of this area. Limestone caves and caverns contain fossil remains of such wealth as have never been found before, preserved as only caves can do. Sterkfontein is the most famous of these caves.

Here in Sterkfontein the famous Australopithecus africanus fossil, “Mrs. Ples” – 2.1 million years old – was discovered in 1947. Fifty years later, in 1997,  a full Australopithecus skeleton 3 million years old, known as Little Foot, found its way to the light. Its jaw contains 32 teeth in position. The story of its discovery is worth a movie. And those are just two examples – it appears there is no end to the wonders of Sterkfontein.

60 meters underground in the Sterkfontein, I’m wondering how anyone found anything in this dark place, and who even thought to look? Nowadays the cave is lit, with handrails and walkways and guided tours, but it wasn’t always like this. In the history of the Cradle of Humankind credit is given to the limestone miners and quarry operators, that if not for them these caves may not have been noticed. Quarry masters retrieved interesting rocks and passed them on to the scientists, as has happened in many countries. Now mining has ceased and the search forour ancestors has taken over.

The many-branched family tree of modern humans is well-represented in the Cradle.  Australopithecus africanus is the most common, he who roamed the area 3 million years ago. Fossils of saber-toothed cats have been found in the caves of the Cradle – I am thinking early humans were not cat people, given the size of a saber-toothed. Can you imagine? Near Sterkfontein, evidence of humans first controlled use of fire has been discovered – of course the braai-happy South Africans say, where else?

But a recent find is truly phenomenal. In a tight, previously unknown chamber in a well known cave, fossils of an entirely new hominid species were found by recreational spelunkers in a story fit for the ages. In analysis, and considering all the information the fossils present and all the evidence found (or not found), it is theorized that this new species of hominid, Homo naledi, carried their dead into this hard-to-reach chamber. The H. naledi buried their dead, after a fashion. It is mind-blowing. No one would have predicted this level of humanism in such an early Homo species. Isn’t it wonderful that science is shook up by something like this? That it challenges all kinds of preconceived notions of ancient hominids? And no doubt there will be more to come. Even the well-explored caves have chambers no one has seen. What a rush it would be to be the first modern human to see hominid fossils hundreds of thousands of years old. I may want to get into spelunking. . . in my next life.