While going through the personal papers of the famous Australian poet, author, and newspaper correspondent Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson, conservators at the National Library of Australia discovered...
Fire, and learning how to control it, greatly altered the course of human evolution allowing our ancestors to cook food, fight off predators and explore colder climates. Defining when humans first...
Every so often, a pandemic emerges that dramatically alters human society. The Black Death (1347 - 1351) was one; the Spanish flu of 1918 was another. Now there’s COVID-19 . Archaeologists have long...
There are various ways researchers can explore the evolution of ancient humans and our relatives. Mapping their movements through genetic migrations , discovering more about what they ate and their...
New research focused on the roasted remnants of rootstalks found in a Lebombo Mountain cave in South Africa suggests early humans brought the plants to the cave to feed to their young and old. A new...
One of the first things many kids – or even adults – may do when they are on a beach or dune is to make patterns in the sand or sculptures in the form of sandcastles. Many generations of humans have...
The world’s largest radio telescope is expected to come online sometime in 2020. The S quare Kilometre Array (SKA) is an internationally sponsored and funded initiative that will include more than...
It may be small enough to sit in the palm of your hand, but even now – nearly 800 years after it was lost to sight in what is now South Africa – the Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe has powerful...
It has always been accepted that Kimberley Mine in Northern Cape, South Africa is the deepest and biggest mine dug by hand. And yet, it isn’t. Jagersfontein Mine claims that title, but this fact has...
A lost city, Kweneng, dating to between 1400 and 1875 lies south from Johannesburg, South Africa at the Suikerbosrand archaeological site and nature reserve. The site has attracted archaeological...
Stone tools that were discovered and examined by a group of international experts showed for the first time that various communities that lived during the Middle Stone Age period were widely...
A paint mixture of ochre and wild bovid milk, possibly from a buffalo or eland or similar animal, was found on a chip of a stone tool dating back 49,000 years in Sibudu Cave, a rock shelter in...
There are many Bakoni ruins around the modern town of Machadodorp in South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province, most of them situated on the hills above the town. The slopes here are covered with terraces...
Created an unimaginably distant time in the past, diamonds are the most coveted and valued of precious stones. The story of the discovery and destiny of the Cullinan diamond, to this day the largest...
The farmstead of General Jan Smuts on the outskirts of Pretoria, is reputed to be one of the most haunted private homes in the country, according to Mr Mark Rose-Christie, raconteur and social...
A significant amount of ancient human remains has been found in a very important cave site in South Africa. Scientists now suggest that Homo naledi was alive between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago, a...