South Africa
Finding ancient fire use in the Rising Star cave system
The study of the underground landscape enters a new phase with evidence of charcoal and burned animal bone in deep chambers.
![A piece of charcoal upon a brown surface with tiny rodent bones visible](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/12/Charcoal-from-Rising-Star-Chamber.jpg)
How old is the "early Homo sapiens" skull from Florisbad?
Introducing a new preprint in which I examine critically the evidence for a skull thought to be contemporary with Homo naledi.
![Three skulls in oblique view](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/01/neo-florisbad-jebel-irhoud-1-oblique-compared-1.jpg)
Evidence of cooking rhizomes from an early Middle Stone Age context in Border Cave, South Africa
Border Cave has exceptional preservation of plant remains, giving a window into the diets of hominins.
![View from inside a cave looking at railing and sandbags](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/01/border-cave-wikipedia.jpg)
Return of the “amazing” Boskops
Bringing some scientific reality to an excerpt from a book that tries to revive the myth of an ancient, large-brained race of humans.
![Photo of the Boskop skull fragments next to a drawing of a reconstruction](/content/images/size/w1460/2023/04/boskop-broom-1918-composite.jpg)
The “amazing” Boskops
A book tries to revive the myth of a large-brained ancient race in southern Africa. It was wrong in 1958 and remains wrong today.
![Photo of Boskop skull fragments next to a line drawing of the reconstructed skull](/content/images/size/w1460/2023/04/boskop-broom-1918-composite-1.jpg)
Did giant humans walk the Middle Pleistocene earth?
A National Geographic documentary program prompts questions about some fossils from South Africa with large body size estimates.