Taung skull going home
2003-04-06 14:20
Vryburg - The famous Taung skull would be returned to the site of its discovery and would become the major attraction at an improved heritage site to be established next to a lime quarry where it was discovered Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said at the weekend.
The fossilised skull of a five to six year-old child was found by miners in 1924 and shown to archaeologist Raymond Dart, who was teaching at the University of the Witwatersrand at the time.
He identified it as hominid and believed it represented the "missing link" between apes and humans.
His theory was disputed for decades before becoming accepted scientific fact.
Radebe also announced that Transnet, one of the public enterprises he was politically responsible for, would donate R8,4 million to develop under-utilised cultural sites such as that at Taung as well as sport and recreational sites in the nearby Vryburg area.
Speaking at the unveiling of a roadside signpost pointing the way to the existing Taung Skull Heritage Site, Radebe said "it is time that the Taung skull returns to its rightful place". Archaeologists have placed the Taung skull in the species Australopithecus africanus (southern ape of Africa).
Experts say the exact dating of the Taung Skull has always been difficult and they usually estimate that it dates from the Lower Pleistocene era.
That era stretched between 11 000 and 1.8 million years ago and saw the emergence of several human predecessor species as well as small mammals.
The skull is important to scientists who theorise that Africa is the "cradle of humanity".
- SAPA