Cradle of Humankind
Vast limestone cave system where fossil hunters have unearthed some of humanity's oldest known ancestors.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Cradle of Humankind caves near Johannesburg starts with a 1947 dynamite blast, when paleontologist Robert Broom cracked open ancient limestone and pulled a two-million-year-old skull, nicknamed Mrs Ples, from the rubble. It follows Broom's decades-long conviction that humanity began in Africa, and a museum drawer, decades later, holding a box mislabeled as monkey bones. Listen for what a patient researcher spent fifteen years freeing from the stone.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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