Gladysvale Cave South Africa

Infobox_protected_area | name = Gladysvale Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind


caption = Map of South Africa
locator_x = 195
locator_y = 98
location = Gauteng, South Africa
nearest_city = Krugersdorp, South Africa
lat_degrees = 25
lat_minutes = 54
lat_seconds =
lat_direction = S
long_degrees = 27
long_minutes = 45
long_seconds =
long_direction = E
area = less than 200 m
established = Incorporated into the Cradle of Humankind1999
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
governing_body = Cradle of Humankind and Private Landowner.

History of Investigations

Gladysvale is the first cave that Robert Broom visited in the Transvaal in his mid-1930's search for a hominid-bearing cave nearer to Johannesburg than Taungcite book|title=Gladysvale - first early hominid site discovered in S. Africa since 1948|accessdate=|author=Berger et al.|authorlink= |coauthors= |date=1992a |format= |work= |publisher=Am. J. Phys. Anthrop.|pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] . He visited Gladysvale after a butterfly collector from the Transvaal Museum reported a "human mandible" in the wall of the cave. When Broom arrived at the cave the mandible was gone. Sterkfontein soon lured Broom ).

Since the discovery of these teeth more than a quarter of a million fossils have been recovered from Gladysvale during excavations conducted by joint teams from the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Zurich and Duke Universitycite book|title=Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind|accessdate=|author=Hilton Barber, B. and Berger, L.R.|authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2001 |format= |work= |publisher=Struik|pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] .

Recovered Fossils

Many thousands of fossils have been recovered from the Gladysvale deposits including rare remains of hominids. From the Gladysvale external deposits, almost a quarter of a million bones have been recovered since excavations began in 1992. There are many millions of bones still in place in the cave. Fossils recovered include antelope, giant zebra, carnivores including extinct wolves, monkeys and hominids attributed to "Australopithecus africanus" and early "Homo".

Tools have also been found with the most spectacular being an Acheulean handaxe (pictured), recovered from 1 million year old sediments.

Geology

Gladysvale has become well known for its exceptional horizontally-bedded stratigraphy and has been the site of the testing of many of the absolute dating techniques which have proved successful on the hard to date breccias of the South African fossil-bearing caves. The site is presently divided into three underground cave systems with the upper cave holding the Gladysvale Internal Deposits and an External Deposit (pictured in 3-D). Gladysvale was one of the first sites in Africa to be 3-D digitally mapped by Peter Schmid and students from the University of Zurich .

Age of the Deposits

The Gladysvale sequence has been dated using faunal methods and absolute methods. At present, the youngest deposits are thought to be around 54,000 years old while the oldest are around 2 million years old.

Other Related Links

Hominids

Australopithecus africanus

Cradle of Humankind

List of fossil sites

Lee Berger

References

External links

[http://www.profleeberger.com/Gladysvale1.html The Gladysvale Homepage]