Hominin Fossil Dig, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, September 2025

. . . . . . Exploring these two cave systems forms the cornerstone of this once-in-a-lifetime itinerary. Not only will you enjoy insight into our earliest ancestors, but this experience also offers the chance to work side-by-side with esteemed archaeologists Prof José Braga, Dr Berhnard Zipfel and Dr Matt Caruana

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At Kromdraai and Sterkfontein – your main exploration sites – WITS Prof José Braga, Dr Bernhard Zipfel & Dr Matt Caruana will indulge participants as they share their in-depth knowledge and practical experiences at one of the most productive palaeo-anthropological sites in the world. The University of the Witwatersrand is the Guardian of these sites and remains actively involved with research and excavation activities.  In turn, these finds are hosted at the fossil vault of the WITS Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI).

On our day visit to The ESI, Dr Bernhard Zipfel will take you on a uniquely in-depth tour of these most valuable hominid treasures.

DAY 1: Arrival in Johannesburg, SA

Your arrival in Johannesburg takes you straight through to South Africa’s flagship fossil landscape . . . The Cradle of Humankind.

But first, welcome to Jozi – our multi-faceted city of Johannesburg.  On our drive-through, you may notice just how life through the integration of cultures has become the norm over time, perhaps more so here than in any other part of Africa.

Truly cosmopolitan, Johannesburg hosts something of everything – a forested city of trees and concrete, urban, industrial & corporate trade, an infusion of culture, entertainment, heritage sites, modern architecture, academic and street-wise, western, traditional and inhabitants from every corner of Africa, poor and polar opposite wealthy.

On the first evening, enjoy a welcome dinner where you will also meet up with your leading researcher, Prof José Braga.

DAYS 2 – 6: Dig Days at Kromdraai

Your first day on-site . . .  and Prof Braga will provide insight into the workings of Kromdraai – a fundamental requirement for comprehending the diverse stages of the excavation process.

Under the supervision of trained Archaeologists, your 5-days experience in the field will encompass everything from excavating and the retrieval of fossils to sampling and sieving sediments, meticulous cleaning and preparation in the lab, theodolite and photogrammetric measuring.  The dig is meticulous, the site is rich, and Explorers have a promising chance of finding both animal and hominid fossils.

The fossil preparation lab is on-site (at the guest house where you will be staying), allowing for easy access to further participation in sorting, cleaning, measuring and marking fossils.

The work days run 8am to 4pm.

DAY 7: WITS Evolutionary Studies

Your first week of exploring The Cradle is complete and today brings a change of scenery as we depart on a morning visit to the academic hub of Palaeo studies in South Africa, WITS (The University of the Witwatersrand).  Your host for this morning is Dr Bernhard Zipfel where you will enjoy a rather exclusive introduction to the “The Laboratory” (also known as “The Vault”).  Bernhard will introduce South Africa’s flagship hominid collection and important discoveries such as the Taung Skull, ‘Little Foot’, Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba.

After a royal lunch at the WITS Club’s Olives & Plates, we’ll head to the innovative Origins Centre (with Dr Tammy Hodgskiss) – home to ancient stone tools, artefacts of symbolic & spiritual significance and some visually striking rock art – followed by a short workshop on the ancient African use of ochre in Southern Africa.

DAY 8: Cradle Boutique Hotel

The weekend comes with a change of scenery as your accommodation changes to that of the Cradle Boutique Hotel.  Saturday starts with an early morning game drive across this ancient cradle landscape followed by a leisurely breakfast back at the lodge.  The rest of the day allows for time out at the lodge where you may want to add another activity to your day such as The Human Origins Tour, The Mapala Museum Experience or perhaps a guided bush walk.  In the afternoon you’re invited to another game drive, followed by dinner and a slow wind-down of the week.

The Cradle Boutique Hotel is located within the Greater Cradle Nature Reserve. The privately owned 9000-hectare Unesco World Heritage Site is a unique ecotourism destination boasting two active Palaeoanthropological sites still unearthing both hominid and animal fossils.

DAY 9: Touring Magaliesberg

An early morning rise is well worth the fresh African bush air and crisp images that you will take in from your Hot Air Balloon Safari, followed by breakfast at your landing site.  From this elevated high . . .  we’re back on the road and on our way to an educational visit at the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre which serves as both a rehab and breeding facility.  Most interestingly they also host packs of endangered wild dog and the very rare King Cheetah.  A lunch stop at Silver Orange Birch is followed by a mid afternoon Harties cableway ride to the top of the Magaliesberg Mountain Range, from where you’ll view one of the largest man-made dams in South Africa, the Hartebeespoort Dam.
Transfer back to the Kromdraai Guest House where you will meet up with Dr Matt Caruana who will lead you into your upcoming week of Sterkfontein explorations under his guidance.

DAYS 10 – 13: The Sterkfontein Dig

Joining in on current excavation activities at this site, your work will add to the more than 500 hominid finds made thus far at Sterkfontein.  Under the close guidance of Dr Matt Caruana, two lab days are included in this expedition where you will contribute to collections, documentation and taphonomy identification process of 6-million-year-old fossils of monkeys, antelope and carnivores, in addition to hominids.  You will join researchers in the caves themselves where you will learn about the geology and paleontology of the location.
The majority of your time onsite will be spent assisting in the important sorting of microfauna found at the site which adds to our knowledge of the animals that called this site home over the millennia.  These work days run 8am to 4pm.
And then the end!  We’ll take in the sentiment with one last farewell dinner . . . celebrated memories!

DAY 14: Tour Africa or Head Home

Your last morning with us in Johannesburg and time to check out and transfer to the airport to head back home has arrived.
HOWEVER . . . . . since you are already in South Africa you may opt to extend your visit to a vacation and experience more of Africa’s finest – Cape Town, The Kruger’s Big 5, The Garden Route, perhaps even the Kalahari Desert.  Kenya’s Masai Mara and Serengetti to view the Great Wildebeest Migration, Uganda or Rwandas wild Gorillas or the beaches of Zanzibar, Mauritius or the Seychelles . .  or anything else you may have in mind!
Email: lynne@safariodyssey.com with your ideas and we’ll organise the rest for you!

A Cradle Hot Air Balloon Safari
Air Ventures

Game Viewing
Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve

Cuisine
WITS Club Olives & Plates

Prof José Braga (WITS ESI)

Prof José Braga, Director of archaeological excavations at Kromdraai and Professor at the University of Toulouse, focuses his research on the nature of humanity’s biological singularities since its emergence in Africa some 2.5 million years ago. He has been conducting field research in South Africa since 1995, studying fossil remains of very old humans, their cousins, Paranthropes and their ancestors, Australopithics. José also conducts long-standing fieldwork at the UNESCO Plio-Pleistocene site of Kromdraai where he discovered new early Paranthropus and Homo remains that fill important gaps in what is currently available in the fossil record. He was awarded two prestigious Erasmus Mundus Programmes.

Dr Bernhard Zipfel (WITS ESI)

Dr Bernhard Zipfel is the Curator of Fossil and Rock Collections at the University of the Witwatersrand. Housed at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, these fossils include Karoo vertebrates, fossil plants and fossil primates (including hominins). He is also responsible for the extensive rock and mineral collections housed in the School of Geosciences.

Bernhard is primarily interested in the origins of hominin bipedalism and the biomechanics and evolution of the human foot, having originally trained and practiced in clinical podiatry.

He was formerly the Head of the Department of Podiatry at the University of Johannesburg (1990-2006), completing his PhD in paleo-anthropology at the University of Witwatersrand in 2004.

Dr Matt Caruana (WITS ESI)

Dr Matt Caruana’s research interest focuses on the excavation and analysis of Earlier Stone Age archaeological sites and assemblages of Oldowan and Acheulian stone tool-making and landscape use in southern Africa.  Currently he is a co-permit holder and co-director of the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans caves, both of which lie within the Cradle of Humankind.

At Swartkrans (2 Million years old), he focuses on the excavation and analysis of fossil and stone tools materials in order to understand the ecological interaction between early hominin, carnivore and ungulate species.  Matt is particularly interested in using statistical modelling, including multivariate and geometric morphometric analyses, to infer behaviour in the deep past.

Kromdraai in the Cradle

Top Features: First members of human genus, Paranthropus robustus type species for the genus Paranthropus, P. boisei, large carnivores.

Period: Early Quaternary (Pleistocene).

Kromdraai forms part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is itself a South African National Heritage Site.  Kromdraai is one of the most prolific hominin-bearing sites in South Africa—and one of the most important. Here, some of the earliest known members of our human genus—Paranthropus robustus—were found in 1938. This is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: Paranthropus robustus and Paranthropus boisei – believed to be the closest relative to the human – the very first Paranthropus were found at this site.  These findings are in conjunction with the presence of various other species such as large carnivores, antelopes, and birds, as well as bone and stone tools.  Kromdraai excavations are akin to opening a time capsule that dates back around 2.3 million years, providing us with a glimpse into a period during the Early Quaternary (Pleistocene).

To this day, Kromdraai continues to yield fossils. To date, almost 29 hominin specimens have been found, as well as over 6,000 fossil assemblages of other animals.

Apart from the very recent discovery of the oldest and most complete skull of a paranthropine in its palaeoenvironmental context (still unpublished and under study), the archaeological findings at Kromdraai also help answer several intriguing questions.  Firstly, the aim is to unravel the factors that set our human ancestors apart and made them distinct within the evolutionary timeline. Additionally, various processes are under investigation, including climatic shifts and other influences, that might shed light on the emergence of the first humans during that ancient period.

Kromdraai’s fossil-rich site holds a high potential for discovering significant specimens, necessitating meticulous excavation procedures.

WITS Evolutionary Studies Institute

Research includes Jurassic paleontological & sedimentological development, deep-time phylogenetic research & Plio-Pleistocene Hominin fossil-bearing deposits.  The ESI hosts some of the flagship fossils found in SA.

The University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) owns some of the most important fossil hominid sites in the world. It has large and internationally-acclaimed fossil collections of ancient dinosaurs, therapsid mammal-like reptiles, plants and fossil hominids.  The WITS Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) is a South African centre of excellence in the palaeosciences and a global hub for the study of the origins of species. The Evolutionary Studies Institute adopts a multidisciplinary approach to research incorporating the disciplines of palaeontology, palaeoanthropology, molecular biology, genetics, geosciences, archaeology, geography, biology, ecology and climatology.

It also preserves a record of Earth from the earliest evidence of life 3.5 billion years ago to the origin of humans and their culture in the last 150 000 years. Wits has a 10 decade long and proud tradition of palaeontological and palaeoanthropological research, and has amassed large and internationally important fossil collections that are utilised by researchers around the world.

The Institute is the hub of multidisciplinary research programmes that map the history of life on Earth through the fossil record, while also exploring the driving mechanisms of biodiversity changes though time.

The Institute combines the strengths of Wits’ Institute for Human Evolution, the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, and many allied disciplines. It aims to expand and extend South Africa’s position as the global leader in the palaeosciences, be an international training centre and a magnet for leading academics.

Wits played a key role in having the Cradle of Humankind declared a World Heritage Site and acquired the Sterkfontein site in the 1960s.

Sterkfontein in The Cradle

Top Features:  Australopithecus, early Homo, Paranthropus & Australopithecus africanus specimens known as Taung Child, Mrs. Ples and Little Foot. ​

Period: Early Quaternary (Pleistocene)

The world-renowned Sterkfontein Caves are home to the oldest and most continuous palaeontological dig in the world.  For many reasons this particular cave system is of special interest to paleo-anthropologists, especially when one considers that it forms part of a collection of sites that has contributed to over 40% of all the world’s human ancestor fossils including numerous early hominin remains found within the caves, which have been attributed to Australopithecus, early Homo and Paranthropus, all of which tell us much about the precursors of modern humans, the Homo sapien.
The most important and most famous of the fossil finds of the greater Sterkfontein area includes “Mrs Ples”, a 2.1-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skull, discovered by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson,  “Little Foot”, an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton that is more than 3-million years old and which was discovered by Prof. Ron Clarke, and finally Australopithecus sediba, an extinct primate species that inhabited southern Africa about 1.98 million years ago and which was discovered by Prof. Lee Berger. Sterkfontein is truly our flagship heritage site and the honoured keeper of these, the treasured finds that continue to tell our story!The most important and most famous of the fossil finds of the greater Sterkfontein area includes “Mrs Ples”, a 2.1-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skull, discovered by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson,  “Little Foot”, an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton that is more than 3-million years old and which was discovered by Prof. Ron Clarke, and finally Australopithecus sediba, an extinct primate species that inhabited southern Africa about 1.98 million years ago.

• 13 Nights’ accommodation including:
• All road transfers
• 10 Days Private presentations & explorations
• Researchers as hosts throughout
• Tour Leader & registered Guide
• 13 x Breakfasts (daily)
• 11 x Lunches
• 9 x Dinners and set beverages (including a welcome & farewell dinner)
• 2 x Bottled waters per day
• Activities as indicated in the itinerary
• Water & re-hydrates on exploration days
• Gratuities, service fees and tips

• All flights
• Lunches & dinners not mentioned
• Beverages not mentioned
• Travel insurance (compulsory)
• Medical insurance
• Items of a personal nature
• Acquiring of ALL travel documentation
  including: a valid passport with the necessary number of clean pages, visas, covid-19 requirements & vaccinations

Please Note:

• Mandatory proof of travel insurance.  
• All other travel necessities / requirements such as health insurances, vaccinations (eg. Yellowfever & Covid-19), valid passports and visas, for travel from point of original departure through to the final destination, are strictly the responsibility of the individual traveller.  No refunds will be granted if the individual traveller failed in securing the necessary requirements timeously.
• Rates remain subject to change until such time that full and final payment has been received and confirmed by Safari Odyssey.
• Rates remain subject to change, based on availability, exchange rates and changes implemented by service providers.

Payments:

• Full Payment is required upon booking.
• A 3.5% credit card fee will be charged per person on the total final invoice. If payment is made via SWIFT transfer, the payer is responsible for all banking transaction fees. Any shortfall will be re-invoiced until the total selling price has been received.

Cancellations & Refunds:

• A 100% fee is applicable for cancellations 3 months or less prior to start date of travel.
• Any banking fees for refunds will be for the account of the individual traveller.