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Meet the 800-Year-Old Golden Rhinoceros that Challenged Apartheid South Africa
4 April, 2019 - 17:09 ancient-origins

Meet the 800-Year-Old Golden Rhinoceros that Challenged Apartheid South Africa

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...
The Big Hole, Kimberley, South Africa
17 March, 2019 - 01:04 Michelle Freson

Kimberley Mine is Better Known as ‘The Big Hole’, but Was it Cursed?

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 digitally-developed 3D satellite image of Kweneng
7 February, 2019 - 22:57 micki pistorius

Was the Lost African City of Kweneng Linked to Gold Trading?

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...
Insert: Example of a Howiesons Poort stone tool found at the Klipdrift Shelter. Background: Overview of Klipdrift Complex From Sea. (Credits Magnus Haaland). Experts have found that similar tools were found hundreds of kilometers away in the Stone Age in South Africa.
10 November, 2018 - 01:50 ancient-origins

Social Ties in Stone Age South Africa: Experts Find Stone Tools Connected Far Away Communities

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...
Prehistoric rock art using ochre paint on a cave wall in Drakensberg, South Africa
27 September, 2018 - 22:59 Mark Miller

Prehistoric Man in South Africa Made Milk-based Paint 49000 years ago

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...
Bakoni ruins in the hills of Machadodorp
27 June, 2018 - 13:46 Robin Whitlock

Research on Bakoni ruins of South Africa debunks colonial perceptions of primitivism

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...
Main: The rough Cullinan Diamond (public domain). Inset: One of the nine stones it was cut into (public domain)
5 January, 2018 - 17:35 micki pistorius

Find of a Lifetime: 3,106-Carat Diamond Worth US $2 Billion Takes Its Place in History

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...
Smuts house
17 December, 2017 - 18:57 micki pistorius

Former Home of South African Statesman Rumored To Be Haunted

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 reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans.
10 May, 2017 - 23:02 Theodoros Karasavvas

New Stash of Mysterious Homo Naledi Bones Shows They Coexisted with Homo Sapiens

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...
A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans.
25 April, 2017 - 22:55 Mark Miller

Pre-human Species with Orange-Sized Brains May Have Used Teamwork and Buried Their Dead

Which came first in pre-human species’ communication and teamwork—larger brains or the folds and ridges of the brain that fostered language and empathy? Some scientists studying a possible human...
A photo inside the Sunland Big Baobab.
8 April, 2017 - 18:58 dhwty

Fancy Sipping a Pint in a 1700-Year-Old Tree? You Can at The Baobab Tree Bar

The Sunland Big Baobab is a bar nestled inside the hollow of a baobab tree. This bar is located on the Sunland Farm in South Africa. As baobabs begin to hollow on the inside as they age, empty...
Paleolithic Jewelry: Still Eye-catching After 50,000 Years
1 November, 2016 - 20:49 ancient-origins

Paleolithic Jewelry: Still Eye-catching After 50,000 Years

By Tamara Zubchuk | The Siberian Times Beads made from ostrich eggs buried in the Siberian cave around 2,000 generations ago reveal amazing artistic (and drilling) skills of our long-ago ancestors...
Has a Legendary Gem from a Sacred Jewish Breastplate Been Rediscovered?
16 September, 2016 - 14:45 Alicia McDermott

Has a Legendary Gem from a Sacred Jewish Breastplate Been Rediscovered?

After being lost from the pages of history for about a thousand years, a legendary gemstone may find its way back home. An anonymous owner of what may be a very important religious artifact is ready...
Mapungubwe Hill viewed from the north, The gold rhino of Mapungubwe.
14 March, 2016 - 02:52 dhwty

Looking for Clues on the Hill of the Jackal: The Rich African Kingdom of Mapungubwe

Mapungubwe is an Iron Age archaeological site in the southern part of the African continent. This city, which is located on the northern border of modern day South Africa with Zimbabwe and Botswana,...
A Homo Naledi Foot (a) Dorsal view (b) Distal view of the cuneiforms and the cuboid in which the reconstruction of the transverse arc is observed (c) Middle view showing the moderate longitudinal arch. Scale in centimeters.
9 October, 2015 - 00:46 ancient-origins

The Feet and Hands of Homo Naledi were Similar to those of Modern Humans – Could this be the Evolutionary Link Paleontologists Were Waiting for?

Homo Naledi brings new surprises that could change the history of evolution for modern humans. Is this finally one of the missing links in human evolution that paleontologists have been waiting for?...
A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans.
10 September, 2015 - 17:48 lizleafloor

Astonishing new species of ancient human ancestor found in burial chamber

A major discovery out of South Africa is set to change our whole understanding of ancient human ancestors and evolution claim scientists. The bones of new species of human relative have reportedly...

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