In 1924, a mineworker in Taung likely held the fossilized skull of a three-year-old child before anyone else. That child, later named the Taung Child, would change science forever. Yet the man whose hands first touched the fossil remains unknown, while the credit went to Professor Raymond Dart.

In this episode, Unburied unearths the hidden histories of colonial mining, scientific prejudice, and racial bias entwined with the discovery of the Taung Skull. We trace how exploitation created the conditions for discovery, yet denied recognition to those who did the work. Along the way, we revisit the Piltdown Man hoax that blinded scientists to Africa’s role in human origins, and we confront Dart’s troubling ties to race science.

Through the voices of geologists, anthropologists, historians, and community members, we reveal a story not only about fossils, but about who gets written into history… and who is left out.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and the University of Cape Town.

This series draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Special thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Rieneke Weij, PhD — Geologist, University of Johannesburg
• Dr. Stephanie Baker, PhD — Anthropologist, University of Johannesburg
• Dr. Lauren Schroeder, PhD — Paleoanthropologist, University of Toronto
• Prof. Alan Morris, PhD — Physical anthropologist, University of Cape Town (Emeritus)
• Prof. Rebecca Ackermann, PhD — Biological anthropologist, University of Cape Town; Co-Director, Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI)
• Christa Kuljian — Research associate; WiSER (WITS)
• Bahidile "Mike" Dichaba — Community guide, Taung

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SAJS Special Issue: https://sajs.co.za/article/view/20667

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Sound bites from:

YouTube: The Leakey Foundation: 1973 Louis Leakey Memorial Symposium held by The Leakey Foundation in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences on December 2-3, 1973.

YouTube: ThamesTv: 1960s South Africa | Apartheid | Nadine Gordimer | Industry | This Week | 1968

YouTube: PeriscopeFilm: 1940s SOUTH AFRICA TRAVELOGUE KIMBERLY DIAMOND MINES & GOLD MINES 43254

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100 years ago, a tiny fossil skull in Taung, South Africa rewrote human history. The Taung Skull proved that humankind’s roots lie in Africa, but its story is tangled in colonialism, bias, and forgotten voices.

In this season premiere, Unburied digs into how the discovery of Australopithecus Africanus challenged scientific dogma, reshaped our understanding of human origins, and revealed how power shaped the stories we tell about the past. Featuring the voices of geologists, paleoanthropologists, historians, and the Taung community, we uncover what was celebrated, what was erased, and what this fossil still has to teach us.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and the University of Cape Town.

This series draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Special thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Robyn Pickering, PhD — Geologist, University of Cape Town
• Dr. Lauren Schroeder, PhD — Paleoanthropologist, University of Toronto
• Dr. Stephanie Baker, PhD — Anthropologist, University of Johannesburg
• Christa Kuljian — Research associate; WiSER (WITS)
• Bahidile “Mike” Dichaba — Community guide, Taung

Resources & Links

ARC: arcdocs.org

HERI: heri.co.za

SAJS Special Issue: https://sajs.co.za/article/view/20667

ARC Angel: http://patreon.com/Arc_org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arcdocs.org

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Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with the University of Cape Town and the Human Evolution Research Institute. Written, produced, and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell. Hosted by Rasmus Bitsch, journalist and podcast creator.

Soundbites From:

The Leakey Foundation 

1973 Louis Leakey Memorial Symposium held by The Leakey Foundation in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences on December 2-3, 1973.

Youtube

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Unburied is back for season 2: The Taung Child. 

A century after the fossilised skull of a three-year-old surfaced at the Northern Limeworks in Taung, South Africa, we retrace how a newly found species, Australopithecus africanus rooted human origins in Africa, while exposing the colonial prejudice that shaped its telling. Across four episodes, we trace the unnamed hands behind the find, revisit the Piltdown hoax that blinded Europe to Africa and rejected the Taung Skull, and reckon with the discoverer Raymond Dart’s conflicting legacy. The season dismantles the lone-explorer myth and asks what ethical, collaborative science can look like, on the ground, in public, and in the stories we pass on.

The series is produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with the University of Cape Town and the Human Evolution Research Institute. Written, produced, and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell. Hosted by Rasmus Bitsch, journalist and podcast creator. 

Support the Show 

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In this ARC Interview: "What’s Real About Race?" we speak with Dr. Phila Msimang, a philosopher at Stellenbosch University whose research critically assesses the uses and abuses of group descriptors like race and ethnicity in the sciences, and Dr. Tessa Moll, an anthropologist whose work explores medicine, reproduction, and the politics of health in South Africa. Using their collaborative infographic on the shifting history of racial classification, we unpack how race has been invented, imposed, and contested over centuries, and why, though socially constructed, it continues to have very real effects in our lives today.

The infographic: https://figshare.com/articles/figure/An_abridged_timeline_of_shifting_racial_classification_in_South_Africa_1652-present/29100497?file=55053449

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In his book Letters of Stone professor Steven Robbins tells the deeply moving story of his quest to find out what happened to the family members he only knew from a picture on the wall of his childhood home in South Africa.

In this interview Steven reveals the surprising connections between his family members murdered in nazi death camps, the race science done by people like Rudolf Pöch in the Kalahari and the connections between struggles of land and identity across time and space. All of which is connected to the sleepy town of Williston in the middle of the Karoo.

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This is the first in our new episode format: ARC Interviews — conversations with people whose stories and work challenge the way we see the world.

We begin with Brain Miennies — community leader, activist, and a key voice in Unburied. After sharing the episodes of Unburied with Brain, we sat down with him to reflect on the series, the ongoing struggle for the repatriation of Indigenous ancestors, and why this work is about more than returning bones. It’s about forgotten history, dignity, and ultimately— justice.

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Written, produced and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell.

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As Rudolf Pöch prepared to leave Southern Africa in 1910, he left behind a legacy of exhumed graves, stolen bones, and silenced voices. But he also left behind a trail — one that leads, unexpectedly, to a small cemetery in Kuruman and a moment of reckoning.

In this final episode, Unburied follows the remains of Klaas and Trooi Pienaar, two ordinary people caught in an extraordinary story. Thanks to the disturbing decisions of Pöch’s assistant Mr. Mehnarto, their bodies — packed in barrels of salt — were preserved and labeled. Unlike the hundreds of others, their names survived.

We follow the global effort to return their remains: from a conference in Vienna that turned into a reckoning, to a ceremonial reburial we are reminded why this matters: “As long as they don’t rest, we can’t rest.”

Unburied is a  production by ARC in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Written, produced and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell.

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In the 1970s, a bookish young man was sorting shelves in a dusty library in apartheid South Africa. He noticed something strange — the way books were classified looked eerily similar to the way people were categorized outside. Years later, he would link that system back to a name few in his community had heard: Carl Linnaeus. 

In this episode, Unburied follows the legacy of racial classification from Sweden to the Kalahari, and into the hands of Austrian anthropologist Rudolf Pöch. With insights from Nama crowned prince Samuel Dawids, anthropologist Alan Morris, historian Ciraj Rassool, and researcher Anette Hoffmann, we trace how systems of knowledge were used to rank, reduce, and collect human beings — all in the name of science.

Unburied is a  production by ARC in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa. Written, produced and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell.

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Inside an archive in Vienna, the grooves of old wax cylinders hold forgotten voices. These are the sonic remains of Rudolf Pöch’s expedition to the Kalahari in the early 1900s.

In this episode, we follow the distorted “language samples” Pöch left behind and the people whose lives — and deaths — they documented. From the field expertise of Xhosi Tshai to the frustrated warnings of Kxara the Elder, we finally get a glimpse into a perspective other than the anthropologist’s. 

With historian Anette Hoffmann, we confront the limits of colonial archives by paying attention to the echoes.

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Written, produced and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell.

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In 1907, an Austrian anthropologist rode into the Kalahari on an oxwagon and left with bones from more than 170 human beings. This episode begins our investigation into Rudolf Pöch — the man who (unwittingly or not) helped pioneer race science, the communities he studied (and exploited), and the legacy of human remains kept in museum boxes today.

We follow Pöch’s trail through the red dunes of the Kalahari, to the archives of Vienna, and into the lives of those living with his legacy. Featuring interviews with community activist Brian Mienies, Rietfontein resident Willie Philander, and historians Walter Sauer and Sophie Schasiepen, this episode asks: why did Rudolf Pöch take all those bones from the Kalahari?

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Written, produced and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell.

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