Maryke Horn

Looking at Sterkfontein in a different way

Where and how did our human ancestors live? And how did the landscape influence how they evolved?

The Sterkfontein Caves provide tantalising clues, and it’s researchers like Maryke Horn who toil – often for years – to make sense of them.

Horn, a University of the Witwatersrand PhD candidate, uses geographical information systems (GIS) to virtually map out what the caves looked like when our hominin forebears inhabited what is now called the Cradle of Humankind – hominins such as the famous Mrs Ples, the example of Australopithecus africanus whose near-complete skull was found in April 1947 in Member 4 (M4), one of six distinct geologic groupings at the caves, and the place where Horn works.

“I am currently using 3D GIS and some of the legacy datasets to form a better understanding of the environmental conditions that existed during the formation of M4, and the implications thereof on hominin evolution,” she says.

“The most exciting part for me is being able to visualise assemblages and stratigraphic members using GIS; the ability to see what they probably would have looked like before they were excavated, and virtually ‘un-excavate’ some very important assemblages, is very exciting.”

Horn has worked at Sterkfontein since 2019, when she was a master’s student. “I decided to stay at Sterkfontein for my PhD as it is just such an incredible site and you get to work with amazing researchers,” she says.

Along with the researchers and also her supervisors, Horn spotlights a critical group of colleagues: “The fossil preparation team working in the labs at Sterkfontein forms an essential part of most of the research at the caves. We would have been lost without their incredible work.”

The Cradle of Humankind presents researchers with evidence of several of the pieces of our evolutionary timeline, making it special, says Horn.

“The Cradle is such an important part of prehistory, as there are so many incredible sites documenting very different time periods of the African landscape and human evolution,” she says.

Still, her workplace stands out in the fossil-rich landscape. Horn offers an example: “Sterkfontein is the only site in the Cradle where fossil wood has been discovered, which is pretty cool.”