Those of us who studied anthropology in the latter half of the 20th century most likely learned that the birthplace of humankind was East African countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. But for much of that same period, the apartheid regime in South Africa largely prohibited archaeological excavations, at least in part because it didn’t want to unearth any evidence that Blacks and Whites shared common ancestors. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a look at some of the stunning archaeological discoveries that have emerged from South Africa over the past fifteen years. Our guest today is Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane, an archeologist who leads research in an area known as the Cradle of Humankind. In our wide-ranging discussion with Dr. Molopyane, we get a quick anthropology lesson, learn more about discoveries from the region, and explore the historical context of these prehistorical finds.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Keneiloe Molopyane (KM) | 00:17 - Human evolution is very, very complex and you kind of want to view it as a braided stream model. So you have your, your main river, and from your main river comes streams and tributaries. Some link into other streams, some sort of go extinct.

Narrator | 00:39 - Those of us who studied anthropology in the latter half of the 20th century most likely learned that the birthplace of humankind was East African countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. But for much of that same period, the apartheid regime in South Africa largely prohibited archaeological excavations, at least in part because it didn’t want to unearth any evidence that Blacks and Whites shared common ancestors. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a look at some of the stunning archaeological discoveries that have emerged from South Africa over the past fifteen years. Our guest today is Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane, an archeologist who leads research in an area known as the Cradle of Humankind. In our wide-ranging discussion with Dr. Molopyane, we get a quick anthropology lesson, learn more about discoveries from the region, and explore the historical context of these prehistorical finds.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:48 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Keneiloe Molopyane. She is an archeologist and she's based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Keneiloe, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Keneiloe Molopyane (KM) | 02:01 - Hi guys, how are you?

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:03 - So, I just recently visited your site and the area where the excavations have been taking place that have borne some amazing fruit in terms of what we know of early man. Why don't you first explain the findings that have come out of this region from Molapa and the Rising Star cave system, both, um, Homo Naledi and Australopithecus Sediba. Those are fascinating new breakthrough findings from the last couple decades that most people aren't really very aware of.

Keneiloe Molopyane (KM) | 02:41 - Yeah. Uh, sure. I mean, I could, uh, shed some light on, on my research area. Um, so as Alex said, I am an archeologist. Primarily I do hold a PhD degree in biological anthropology. Um, so essentially that means I study skeletons for a living. And then I decided to dive into paleo anthropology, which is ancient skeletons of ancient humans for a living. And one of the best places to do that is a very small region in the province of , which is in South Africa. That's where, uh, Johannesburg is based and this region is known as the cradle of humankind. And now the cradle of humankind is about 45 minutes from both Pretoria and from Johannesburg, which are our two major cities in the halting region. And so in the cray of humankind, it's just, it's dotted with a whole bunch of cave systems. And of those hundreds of, of caves, there are about 13 to 15 that are known as official Hominin fossil bearing cave systems. So you have the famous Doane Cave where the fossil of Mrs. Place came from.