Swartkrans

Friday, 23 November 2012

África: Berço da Humanidade / Cradle of humankind

Cradle Sterkfontein - The Time Travelers

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Chicago
Chicago (ⁱ/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in the US state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. The city has around 2.7 million residents. Its metropolitan area, sometimes called "Chicagoland", is the third largest in the United States, with an estimated 9.8 million people. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, though a small portion also extends into DuPage County.
Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, Chicago is listed as an alpha+ global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranks seventh in the world on the 2012 Global Cities Index. The city retains its status as an international hub for finance, industry, telecommunications and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements. In 2008^[update], the city hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors. Among metropolitan areas, Chicago has the 4th largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, ranking just behind Tokyo, New York City, and Los Angeles. Chicago is one of the most important Worldwide Centers of Commerce and trade.

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Gauteng
Gauteng (/ɡaʊˈtɛŋ/ or /xaʊˈtɛŋ/; Sotho pronunciation [xɑ́.ú.ˈtʼè.ŋ̀]) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994. It was initially named Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (or PWV) and was renamed 'Gauteng' in December 1994.
Situated in the heart of the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, with only 1.4% of the land area, but it is highly urbanised, containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. As of 2007^[update], it had a population of nearly 10.5 million, making it the most populous province in South Africa.
The name Gauteng comes from the Sesotho word meaning "Place of Gold", the historical Sesotho name for Johannesburg and surrounding areas. This referred to the thriving gold industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. The Sesotho word is a locative derived from the Afrikaans goud (gold) plus the locative suffix "-ng." When properly pronounced, the first letter of the name Gauteng is a voiceless velar fricative, pronounced similarly to the "ch" in the German achtung or Scottish loch and the same as the Dutch "g" or the Spanish "g" as in gente. This pronunciation is natural in both the Sesotho and Afrikaans languages.

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Johannesburg
Johannesburg (/dʒoʊˈhænɪsbɜrɡ/; Afrikaans: [joˈhɑnəsbʏrx]) 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. The city is one of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the world, and is also the world's largest city not situated on a river, lake, or coastline. It claims to be the lightning capital of the world, though this title is also claimed by others.
While Johannesburg is not one of South Africa's three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court, which has the final word on interpretation of South Africa's new post-Apartheid constitution. The city is the source of a large-scale gold and diamond trade, due to its location on the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills. Johannesburg is served by O.R. Tambo International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Africa and a gateway for international air travel to and from the rest of Southern Africa. More recently Lanseria International Airport has started international flights, and is situated conveniently on the opposite side of the metropolis.

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South Africa
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.

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Swartkrans
Coordinates: 25°55′45″S 27°47′20″E / 25.92917°S 27.78889°E / -25.92917; 27.78889
Swartkrans is a location in South Africa, around 20 miles (32 km) from Johannesburg.
Swartkrans is a farm near to Sterkfontein, notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominid remains. It was purchased by the University of the Witwatersrand 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 humans can be found at Swartkrans.
Fossils discovered in the limestone of Swartkrans include Telanthropus capensis (a variety of Homo erectus), Paranthropus and Homo habilis
Noted paleontologist Robert Broom was a frequent digger. He was followed by Charles Kimberlin Brain (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.

wn.com/Swartkrans

Robert Broom
Professor Robert Broom FRS (30 November 1866, Paisley – 6 April 1951) 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. In 1893 he married Mary Baird Baillie.

From 1903 to 1910 he was professor of zoology and geology at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, South Africa, and subsequently he became keeper of vertebrate paleontology at the South African Museum, Cape Town.

Broom was first known for his study of mammal-like reptiles. After Raymond Dart's discovery of the Taung Child, an infant australopithecine, Broom's interest in paleoanthropology was heightened. Broom's career seemed over and he was sinking into poverty, when Dart wrote to Jan Smuts about the situation. Smuts exerting pressure on the South African government, managed to obtain a position for Broom, in 1934 with the staff of the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria as an Assistant in Palaeontology.
In the following years, he and John T. Robinson made a series of spectacular finds, including fragments from six hominids in Sterkfontein, which they named Plesianthropus transvaalensis, popularly called Mrs. Ples, but which was later classified as an adult Australopithecus africanus, as well as more discoveries at sites in Kromdraai and Swartkrans. In 1937, Broom made his most famous discovery of Paranthropus robustus. These discoveries helped support Dart's claims for the Taung species.

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A Robustus SK 48

Australopithecus Robustus from Swartkrans, South Africa....

published: 14 May 2008

author: TheOtherRDA

África: Berço da Humanidade / Cradle of humankind

Segundo especialistas no assunto, os primeiros habitantes da terra sao oriundos dessa regi...

published: 01 Oct 2010

author: Douglas Oliveira

Cradle of Humankind

Uma visita à caverna onde encontraram o primeiro hominídeo do planeta, perto de Magaliesbu...

published: 06 Jul 2010

author: ralexandrino

Cradle Sterkfontein - The Time Travelers

...

published: 23 Jul 2010

author: JiveMediaOnline

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photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, waves as he embraces Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, after addressing members of the media at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012.

Burma's and America's Ongoing Storms

WorldNews.com

20 Nov 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama's whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and meetings with dignitaries will have to walk a tightrope between either appearing to endorse military juntas or truly being committed to ongoing pro-democracy movements. Specifically at issue is Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, a democratic advocate...(size: 5.0Kb)

photo: AP / Emilio Morenatti

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry arrives at the Supreme Court compound in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

Pakistan's powerful military under scrutiny

Al Jazeera

22 Nov 2012

A new battle is underway in Pakistan with its powerful military front-and-centre, but the fight is not against armed insurgents or ideological extremists - this opponent is a muscle-flexing Supreme Court. For the first time in decades, the military's iron grip over the South Asian country has been challenged, and it remains to be seen if it will...(size: 23.7Kb)

photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza

FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2008 file photo, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the accused gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India.

India hangs gunman from 2008 Mumbai attack

Herald Tribune

21 Nov 2012

MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India's financial capital in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in...(size: 4.5Kb)

photo: AP / Melanie Gouby

People walk past as M23 rebel soldier's take positions near the Heal Africa hospital in the center of Goma, Congo, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012.

DR Congo soldiers surrender to M23

Al Jazeera

21 Nov 2012

Hundreds of government soldiers and police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surrendered to rebels at a stadium in Goma, Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri has reported from the scene. The M23 rebel group, believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million...(size: 18.7Kb)

photo: AP

On March 10, 1973, more than one week after seizing Wounded Knee, S.D., and starting a standoff with federal authorities, members of the Oglala Sioux tribe march to the cemetery where their ancestors were buried following the 1890 massacre at the site.

Amerindians and Politics of Thanksgiving and Black Friday

WorldNews.com

23 Nov 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. I was fortunate to have been raised near an American Indian archaeological spot located on the Great Plains. In elementary school, a fellow classmate would periodically bring and show grinding stones, arrow- and spearheads, stone farming implements, and pictures of what the excavated site may have...(size: 7.1Kb)

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Taste for meat boosted ancestors' brains

Mail Guardian South Africa

09 Aug 2012

Australopithecus also had a varied, omniverous diet, researchers say. (AFP) Our Coverage More Coverage According to research published on Wednesday. research shed light on the diet of early hominims belonging to three different genera, Australopithecus,...(size: 1.7Kb)

Early human ancestors had 'varied diets'

Newstrack India

09 Aug 2012

Tweet London, August 9 (ANI): In a new study, researchers have reconstructed the dietary preferences of 3 groups of hominins in South Africa. The latest research, by an international team of researchers including Professor Francis Thackeray, Director of the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits University, sheds more light on the diet and home...(size: 3.9Kb)

Early human ancestors had more variable diet: Dietary preferences of 3 groups of hominins reconstructed

PhysOrg

08 Aug 2012

The paper titled 'Evidence for diet but not landscape use in South African early hominins' was authored by Vincent Balter from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France; Jose' Braga from the Université de Toulouse Paul Sabatier in Toulouse in France; Philippe Te´louk from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon in France; and...(size: 3.0Kb)

Tobias ‘a scholar and a gentleman’

Independent online (SA)

07 Jun 2012

Leading South African palaeo-anthropologist Professor Phillip Tobias, who died on Thursday, was “a scholar and a gentleman”, the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) said. “Phillip Tobias was truly a scholar and a gentleman, someone who was as loved for his kindness and humility as he was respected for his myriad academic...(size: 3.0Kb)

Tobias’ research ‘revered’: Pandor

Independent online (SA)

07 Jun 2012

Professor Philip Tobias will be revered for his profound research in palaeo-anthropology, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor and Deputy Minister Derek Hanekom said on Thursday. His contribution to research in the fields of genetics, from anatomical studies to palaeo-anthropology, was well known, they said. “It is this contribution...(size: 3.3Kb)

Zuma pays tribute to Tobias

Independent online (SA)

07 Jun 2012

Johannesburg - Leading South African palaeo-anthropologist Professor Phillip Tobias demystified complex science with a tinge of humour, President Jacob Zuma said as he paid tribute to the academic on Thursday. “We have lost a renowned scientist, a scholar and a unique human being. Our country remains eternally proud of his work,” Zuma...(size: 5.2Kb)

Clue to human evolution's burning question

Gulf News

17 May 2012

Cooking is a universal in human culture. The mixing and heating of raw ingredients to make dinner is a fundamental part of our lives, one of the most noticeable things that separates us from even our closest animal cousins. The advantage of this method of preparing food is clear: It makes food tastier, easier to digest and makes the extraction of...(size: 23.0Kb)

Study: Our ancestors used fire a million years ago

Ohio

03 Apr 2012

NEW YORK: When did our ancestors first use fire? That’s been a long-running debate, but a new study concludes the earliest firm evidence comes from about 1 million years ago in a South African cave. The ash and burnt bone samples found there suggest fires frequently burned in that spot, researchers said Monday. Over the years, some experts...(size: 2.7Kb)

Our ancestors used fire a million years ago, study says

New York Daily News

03 Apr 2012

NEW YORK — When did our ancestors first use fire? That’s been a long-running debate, and now a new study concludes the earliest firm evidence comes from about 1 million years ago in a South African cave. The ash and burnt bone samples found there suggest fires frequently burned in that spot, researchers said Monday. Over the years, some experts...(size: 4.0Kb)

Our ancestors used fire a million years ago: Study

Zeenews

03 Apr 2012

New York: When did our ancestors first use fire? That's been a long-running debate, and now a new study concludes the earliest firm evidence comes from about 1 million years ago in a South African cave. The ash and burnt bone samples found there suggest fires frequently burned in that spot, researchers said Monday. Over the years, some experts have...(size: 4.4Kb)

A 1 million-year-old campfire?

The Columbus Dispatch

03 Apr 2012

Science Blog...(size: 6.2Kb)

Ancestors used fire 1 mil. years ago?

Chicago Sun-Times

03 Apr 2012

Million-Year-Old Campfire Could Be One of Humanity’s First

Gizmodo

03 Apr 2012

Andrew Tarantola - Harnessing fire is up there with language and an upright stance in terms of “important milestones in early human development.” And if the findings from a recent excavation are verified, hominids may have been playing with fire for far longer than we previously suspected. A team led by Francesco Berna, an...(size: 2.8Kb)

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Coordinates: 25°55′45″S 27°47′20″E / 25.92917°S 27.78889°E / -25.92917; 27.78889

Swartkrans is a location in South Africa, around 20 miles (32 km) from Johannesburg.

Swartkrans is a farm near to Sterkfontein, notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominid remains. It was purchased by the University of the Witwatersrand 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 humans can be found at Swartkrans. ^[1] ^[2]

Fossils discovered in the limestone of Swartkrans include Telanthropus capensis (a variety of Homo erectus), Paranthropus and Homo habilis

Noted paleontologist Robert Broom was a frequent digger. He was followed by Charles Kimberlin Brain (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 Humankind World Heritage Site.

References [link]

^ "Evidence from the Swartkrans cave for the earliest use of fire". Nature 336 (6198): 464–466. 1988-12-01. DOI:10.1038/336464a0. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v336/n6198/abs/336464a0.html. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
^ Rincon, Paul (22 March 2004). "Bones hint at first use of fire". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3557077.stm. Retrieved 14 June 2011.

The Hunters or the Hunted?: An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy. C.K. Brain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Paperback: ISBN 0-226-07090-5, ISBN 978-0-226-07090-2.

External links [link]

University of Chicago Press page for The Hunters or the Hunted?

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