Swartkrans Cave

Useful Information

Location:	On Swartkrans farm. 9.5 km north-west of Krugersdorp. 1 km west of Sterkfontein Caves. (-26.017315, 27.723673)
Open:	closed. [2023]
Fee:	closed. [2023]
Classification:	Karst Cave dolomite limestone.
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	half day
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	C. K. Brain and A. Sillen (1988): Evidence from the Swartkrans cave for the earliest use of fire. Nature 336, 464-466. C. R. McMahon and J. F. Thackery (): Plio-Pleistocene Hyracoidea from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa. S. Afr. J. Zool. 29(1): 40-41. online J. Lesnik, J.F. Thackeray (2007): The efficiency of stone and bone tools for opening termite mounds: implications for hominid tool use at Swartkrans, South African Journal of Science, vol.103 n.9-10 Pretoria Sep./Oct. 2007. online C. K. Brain, V. Watson (1992): A guide to the Swartkrans early hominid cave site, Annals of the Transvaal Museum 35(25): 343-365. pdf
Address:	Maropeng, R400, 1911, Tel: +27-14-577-9000. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1948	part of a mandible was found by Broom in a cave near Swartkrans.
1949	a cranium 1.5 to 2 million years old was found.
1948 to 1964	was dug intermittently.
1965 to 1986	full time excavations by Dr. C. K. Brain of the then Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
1999	inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
2011	cave closed to the public.

Description

Swartkrans Cave is a rather small cave, which was open to the surface about 500,000 years ago. At this time the cave was a pit into which hominid remains were washed by the rain. After some time the cave was completely filled with sediments which protected the lower levels from being destroyed. The cave was a very productive archaeological site. Most of the hominid remains were from Australopithecus robustus. The excavations at Swartkrans Cave was mostly done by Robert Broom, a Scottish physician and devotee of Raymond Dart.

Histological and chemical analyses of fossil bones of a hartebeest (a kind of antelope) from the cave showed that the remains had been subjected to temperatures similar to those of being cooked at a campfire. To proof this fact, the whole process was reconstructed, which is called experimantal archaeology. This finding is the worlds' oldest remains of a hominid using fire, either Australopithecus or Homo erectus. This fact made the site world-famous.

The main excavations were made by Dr. C. K. Brain from the then Transvaal Museum, Pretoria. They took 21 years. Today most of the finds are shown at this museum, which is now called Natural History Museum. In the early 1990s, they equipped the site with a visitor route with a series of 25 numbered beacons along a pathway around the site. The museum offered regular visits.

After the cave was listed on the UNESCO WHL a massive restructuring of tourism was started. The cave is today part of the Cradle of Humankind lable with the Official Visitor Center at Maropeng which organized tours to Sterkfontein and Swartkrans caves. However, it seems they have completely stopped the tours to Swartkrans for undisclosed reasons. The cave is not mentioned any more and the only page about visits to the cave, lists dates in 2011, which obviously was the last year in which the cave could be visited, as this page was never updated.