The Cradle of Humankind

A few years ago I participated in the Genographic Project, a collaboration of National Geographic and IBM that starts with the premise that all humans are descended from a common group of African ancestors, and uses DNA to map the migratory routes out of Africa that started some 60,000 years ago. Sure, I already knew that my father's lineage settled in modern-day Ukraine, but to think that I carry that information with me in my DNA and that by analyzing a few of my cheek cells I can be told the route that my ancient ancestors took from Africa to their ultimate destination is absolutely fascinating.

One of the many early hominid fossils at the Cradle of Humankind

At the turn of the millennium, fossil hominid sites close to Johannesburg became the  Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.There are over 200 caves on the site, with more still to be discovered. There are 13 fossil sites which have been extensively examined and some have produced fossils of human ancestors and their relatives. A variety of stone tools used by human ancestors such as axes and scrapers have also been identified. It is known that Australopithecus africanus were present in the Cradle from about four to two million years ago. It is generally thought likely that these hominids (upright walking "apes"), or close relatives of them, were human ancestors. Homo ergaster, present around 1 million years ago is even more likely to be a direct ancestor than Australopithecus.


Near where we are staying for our Corporate Services Corps project is the site of the Nahoon Footprints, the fossilized footprints of a child made some 200,000 years ago in sandstone. Discovered in 1964, large slabs of Nahoon Footprints are now on display in the East London Museum.
 
At the southern tip of the country, unfortunately a little too far for me to visit on this trip, is the more recently famous Blombos Cave. The important findings of the archaeological excavations at Blombos provide proof of the origin of modern intelligent human beings in this area around 77,000 to 133,000 years ago. The Blombos Cave was the home of the first intelligent human beings on earth, the Homo sapiens. They were people who had crossed the divide between animals and humans and had cognitive and conative talents like today's human beings. Since the discovery of the Lascaux caves in France, archaeologists believed that the modern Homo sapiens evolved between 100,000 to 150,000 years ago, but did not develop modern thought processes and behaviours until 40,000 years ago. The findings at Blombos Cave proved this hypothesis wrong.

Blombos Cave near the tip of South Africa

Delicately crafted stone and bone implements discovered there precede the comparable European artefacts by more than 80,000 years. More than 8,000 pieces of ochre, commonly used as colour pigment in artwork, were found in the Middle Stone Age layers of the Blombos cave. The cave was inhabited by successive colonies of these people who were hunting, fishing and gathering seafood in the vicinity. Moreover, these prehistoric occupants painted their bodies red for rituals and carved abstract symbols.  

South Africa, is a treasure trove of early of humanity. Much has come to light only in recent years and one has to wonder how much more natural history wealth lies just beneath the surface of a country whose mining treasures are normally considered to be gold and diamonds. Over the course of 60,000 years my ancestors migrated from Africa through the Middle East, then through Central Asia, and eventually to Canada ... how intriguing it is to think that our DNA is linked and that after just a few hours of travel I am living and working in close proximity to where it all began!