Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for Strong Spring) is a set of limestone caves of special interest to paleo-anthropologists located in Gauteng province, about 40 km (23 miles) Northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of Krugersdorp.
Sterkfontein is a South African National Heritage Site and was also declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 and the area in which it is situated, was named the Cradle of Humankind.
Numerous early hominin remains have been found at the site over the last few decades. These have been attributed to Australopithecus, early Homo and Paranthropus.
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.
It was not until 1936 that students of Professor Raymond Dart and Dr. Robert Broom from the University of the Witwatersrand began concerted excavations. In 1936, the Sterkfontein caves yielded the first adult Australopithecine, substantially strengthening Raymond 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. R. Broom continued excavations. In 1947 he found the almost complete skull of an adult female (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS_5 STS 5) A. africanus (or possibly that of an adolescent male). Robert 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 1997, a near 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 site 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.
