Book contents
- African Paleoecology and Human Evolution
- African Paleoecology and Human Evolution
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Modern Africa and Overview of Late Cenozoic Paleoenvironments
- Part II Southern Africa
- 6 The Southern African Sites
- 7 Geology, Fauna, and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions of the Makapansgat Limeworks Australopithecus africanus-Bearing Paleo-Cave
- 8 Paleoenvironments and the Context of Plio-Pleistocene Hominins at Kromdraai, South Africa
- 9 Using the Faunal Community to Determine the Local Ecology for Early Hominins at Cooper’s Cave at 1.5 Ma
- 10 The Paleoenvironments of Sterkfontein
- 11 Swartkrans: A Record of Paleoenvironmental Change in the Cradle of Humankind
- 12 Cornelia-Uitzoek: Paleoecology, Archeology, and Geochronology
- 13 The Paleoecology of the Australopithecus africanus Type Site at Taung, South Africa
- 14 Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province: An Early–Middle Pleistocene Paleoenvironmental Sequence for the Interior of South Africa
- Part III Eastern and Central Africa
- Part IV Northern Africa
- Volume References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
10 - The Paleoenvironments of Sterkfontein
Old Questions, New Approaches
from Part II - Southern Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2022
- African Paleoecology and Human Evolution
- African Paleoecology and Human Evolution
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Modern Africa and Overview of Late Cenozoic Paleoenvironments
- Part II Southern Africa
- 6 The Southern African Sites
- 7 Geology, Fauna, and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions of the Makapansgat Limeworks Australopithecus africanus-Bearing Paleo-Cave
- 8 Paleoenvironments and the Context of Plio-Pleistocene Hominins at Kromdraai, South Africa
- 9 Using the Faunal Community to Determine the Local Ecology for Early Hominins at Cooper’s Cave at 1.5 Ma
- 10 The Paleoenvironments of Sterkfontein
- 11 Swartkrans: A Record of Paleoenvironmental Change in the Cradle of Humankind
- 12 Cornelia-Uitzoek: Paleoecology, Archeology, and Geochronology
- 13 The Paleoecology of the Australopithecus africanus Type Site at Taung, South Africa
- 14 Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province: An Early–Middle Pleistocene Paleoenvironmental Sequence for the Interior of South Africa
- Part III Eastern and Central Africa
- Part IV Northern Africa
- Volume References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
Sterkfontein, in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (Gauteng Province, South Africa), lies on a low hill overlooking the Blaaubank River, close to numerous other fossil-rich hominin-bearing sites (including Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Drimolen, Malapa, and Cooper’s Cave; Figure 10.1). Lying within the narrow pre-Cambrian Malmani dolomite formation, the caves contain deposits that record the paleoenvironmental context related to hominin evolution from roughly 3.7 million years until the Upper Pleistocene, as well as the hominins themselves (Broom, 1936; Brain, 1981; Kuman, 1994a; Reynolds and Kibii, 2011; Granger et al., 2015; Val and Stratford, 2015; Stratford, 2017).
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- African Paleoecology and Human Evolution , pp. 92 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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