The Good Book Appreciation Society
May 2023
There aren’t many professional or academic disciplines in which Joburg is the go-to destination for the world’s foremost experts looking to make their mark and advance their careers.
But thanks to two astonishing archaeological discoveries, in 2008 and 2013, by teams led by paleoanthropologist Professor Lee Berger, Wits University and its host city Johannesburg (more specifically a 30km square km area of rolling highveld just north of the city, known as ‘the Cradle of Humankind’) has become a global centre of cutting-edge research into the origins of our human story.
‘Almost Human’ tells the fascinating story of how this came about. In a readable, lively and at times gripping account, Berger explains the background, content and enormous scientific significance of these discoveries and the new insights – and questions – they have catalysed.
The story centres around the near-chance discovery of two sets of fossils, Australopithecus sediba (in 2008) and Homo naledi (2013) that together transformed much of the science of hominin archaeology as well as our understanding of our human evolution.
At the time of sediba’s discovery, Berger’s career was in a funk. As director of Paleoanthropology at Wits he was working in the shadow of his predecessor in that position, internationally renowned Professor Philip Tobias. As a ‘field archaeologist’, he was under enormous budgetary and collegial pressure to eschew his field work in favour of ‘analytical archeology’ – laboratory work involving the scientific reinvestigation and analysis of the existing fossil record.
The pressure was proving difficult to resist: Berger’s field work had yielded extremely slim pickings – ‘a handful of hominin teeth’ – in over a decade of field work. All the evidence pointed to the likelihood, as he puts it, that ‘the age of African fossil discovery was ending’.
Then, on a late winter’s day in 2008, while noodling around one of many possible sites he had identified on Google Earth, everything changed. He – or rather his eight-year-old son – stumbled onto a fossil lying in the nearby veld. This turned out to be a part of the biggest single hominin fossil discovery ever made on the African continent – Australopithecus sediba.
A research discipline that had until that point subsisted on mere fragments – an individual tooth here, a skull fragment, mandible or foot there – was fundamentally transformed. The more than 250 skeletal fragments (comprising two near complete skeletons) that have since been excavated (with more to come) revealed an entirely new hominin species, and probably one that was transitional between Australopiths (ape-like, bipedal hominins) and our own genus, Homo.
Incredibly, a mere five years later in 2013, based on an equally serendipitous chain of events (involving a casual discovery by hobby cavers) an even bigger cache of hominin fossils was discovered 13km away. Berger’s excavation of Homo naledi was undertaken by an all-female team of six ‘Underground Astronauts’ (chosen from 60 highly qualified international applicants against a rather idiosyncratic set of criteria, including ‘excellent archaeological and excavation skills…. skinny and preferably small… not claustrophobic… physically fit with some caving and climbing experience.)’
Berger’s account of the process of excavation and incremental discovery, relayed to him and colleagues by video camera, plus the support of over 50 scientists and volunteers, and the complex logistical and technical arrangements required (fibre-linked cameras, portable 3D scanners, intercoms, intricate safety and oxygen systems etc. etc. – reads like a thriller.
The upshot of the find is that, to date, over 1,800 hominin fossils have been recovered (with a lot more to come) from two chambers in the cave, consisting of at least 15 individuals. The deep inaccessibility of the discovery sites, the total absence of any other animal fossils there and the lack of any evidence of predation or scavenging on the fossil remains have led to credible speculation that that the individuals were deposited in the cave deliberately by other members of the naledi group.
Most intriguingly, the dating of naledi to around 300, 000 years ago suggests that a non-human relative of ours, primitive but self-conscious and purposeful, may have lived at the same time as our human ancestors. This opens a pandora’s box of possibilities regarding the origin of our species and the non-linear hominin influences and trajectories that our own evolution drew from.
Berger lucidly summarizes the wealth of scientific information associated with these finds, and makes accessible the inherently complex archaeological story that underpins them.
Almost Human is quietly revealing of – surprise! – the turf wars and the personal rivalries that characterize the field, and the scientific and human issues that underpin them. And it illuminates the extent to which, using these two discoveries, he and his team transformed the highly secretive and proprietorial nature of archaeological research into a more open, collaborative and collegial global research community. With Wits at its centre.
For anyone vaguely interested in exploring our origin story, experiencing the explosion of excitement that accompanied these remarkable discoveries and glimpsing the research questions they have catalysed, Almost Human is a great read.
Paul Zille
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