Palaeo-Tours offers the unique opportunity for you to visit the actual fossiliferous deposits at the site of Sterkfontein -- the richest pre-human fossil site in southern Africa!

The first fossils at Sterkfontein came to light as early as 1936 and were the first adult Australopithecines or more specifically Australopithecus. Australopithecus africanus existed only in South Africa between 3.2 to 2.6 million years ago and was a very early hominid (i.e. a species that belongs in our family the Hominidae). It was the adult ape-men fossils from Sterkfontein that helped prove to the world that Africa was the cradle of humankind. Sterkfontein has fossil deposits dating back to almost 3.5 million years ago all the way up to 1.5 million years ago, providing a wealth of information about the different hominid species that existed in this 2 million year interval.

I have provided below a snapshot of some of the firsts yielded by Sterkfontein as well as some of Sterkfontein's major contributions to the study of our early human ancestry below:

·The 1st adult Australopithecine, Australopithecus africanus, that the world had ever seen, discovered in 1936.

· The most complete skull of Australopithecus africanus, or commonly and affectionately known as Mrs. Ples found in 1947.

· The 1st partial skeleton of any early hominid ever found, known only as Sts 14. It was found in 1947 and demonstrated without a doubt convincing proof that these early hominids walked upright, or bipedally.

· The first find of a fossil of our genus, Homo, or more specifically Homo habilis found in 1976. · Geologically earliest record of any hominid (human ancestor) in South Africa at close to 3.5 million years ago.

· Fossils of 500 fossil specimens of one species, including both adults and children. This is a remarkable sample enabling scientists a look at a population of hominids instead of just a single fossil. It has allowed scientists to make inferences about the past demography, the variability of growth and development, the differences between the sexes and a whole host of other insights into this population group known from only 3 sites in the world and only from South Africa.

Sterkfontein has been intermittently excavated from 1936 to 1965, but in 1966 Professor Tobias of the University of the Witwatersrand initiated full-time excavations which for the last 34 years from 1966 to the present have been conducted none stop 5 days a week. This is more than 62 years in total, but it is amazingly still yielding up its secrets. The discovery just recently of the almost complete skeleton of 'Little Foot', which made headlines around the world, bears ample testament to the wealth of information which is still to be gained from the cave deposits at Sterkfontein.

Palaeo-Tours offers the unique opportunity for you to visit the actual fossiliferous deposits at the site of Swartkrans --the second richest pre-human fossil site in southern Africa!

Fossil hominids were found at the Swartkrans cave site as early as 1948, but it seems it has unrightfully, at least in the public domain, taken a backseat to the finds from Sterkfontein. Swartkrans is in its own right, an amazing fossil site dating between 2 to 1 million years ago that has provided its own wealth of information about this period of human evolution. It is worth noting here that each fossil site samples different times and different environments and each provides a piece of the puzzle in our ever-clearer understanding of human evolution.

Swartkrans was dug intermittently between 1948 to 1964, but starting in 1965 full-time excavations were started by Dr. C.K. Brain of the then Transvaal Museum, Pretoria (now known as the NorthernFlagship Institute - Pretoria) which lasted for 21 years until 1986. It has now been left fallow, preserving for future generations a witness section which scientist in the future will be able to excavate.

It is definitely worth noting and listing some of the remarkable finds at Swartkrans, which has provided scientists with a remarkable look into the cultural lifeways of these early hominids. However, before I list some of Swartkrans' firsts, which can be found below, I would like to emphasize its contribution to our study of human evolution.

Swartkrans has provided the largest sample (more than 126 minimum number of individuals) of a different type of fossil hominid known as Australopithecus robustus. This is a very different type of hominid than that found at Sterkfontein, but also only found in South Africa which went extinct around 1 million years ago. Also, Swartkrans has provided the first evidence for the co-existence or species living at the same time of two different types of hominds, Homo erectus and Australopithecus robustus. This was the first indication to the scientific community that hominid evolution did not proceed in a linear fashion from one species to the next to the eventual end at us, Homo sapiens. Instead, it demonstrated that human evolution proceeded in a more bushy arrangement with a number of different species adapting to different environments at different times. In other words, there were a number of different experiments in human evolution, some which succeeded and some that failed and subsequently became extinct.

· The largest sample of Australopithecus robustus in the world.

· The first evidence of 2 species of different types of hominids, Homo erectus and Australopithecus robustus, living at the same time.

· The first and earliest evidence for the controlled use of fire found anywhere at approximately 1 million years ago. It is believed that the hominid which was responsible for this had the cognitive ability to take a burning log back from a naturally caused fire, a veldt fire (a grassland fire), back to the cave, but that it did not have the cognitive ability to make one itself. This is still this is an amazing leap forward for our human ancestors.

· The evidence that hominids used bone tools, which were probably used for digging roots and tubers.

· A wealth of stone tools.

Palaeo-Tours offers the unique opportunity for you to visit the actual fossiliferous deposits at the site of Drimolen -- the pre-human fossil site first to yield a virtually complete skull of Australopithecus!

Drimolen's Eurydice & Orpheus