Sterkfontein

Michael Laumanns - 29/11/2015

(Krugersdorp, Western Transvaal) Sterkfontein is a show cave 50 km NW of Johannesburg. Developed in dolomites. Very complex cave system. A thesis on the evolution of the cave was published by Wilkinson (1973). The cave is yet the richest hominid site in South Africa and has the potential to yield a wealth of fossils to scientists for many years to come. The Lincol-Fault Cave System is situated above Sterkfontein, Martini (1982) reported a length of 1,700 m of the Lincoln-Fault Cave System, which is a multilevel system of passages separated by thin chert layers following the bedding until the water table. Important fossil bone breccias. New extensions to Fault cave and Lincoln cave were found and the length of the total system was brought to 1,660 m in 1990 (Boshoff et al. 1990). The link between both cave systems was dug in April 2001 (Martini et al. 2003). It could be argued that Lincoln and Fault Cave are actually not linked because the caves are connected through a narrow, but impenetrable 1.5 m long tube that allows speaking. Map according to Martini et al. (2003).