Notice No. 1105

TAUNG NATIONAL HERITAGE SlTE

By virtue of the powers vested in the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) in terms of section 27(7)(a) of the National Heritage Resources Act, 25 of 1999, SAHRA hereby withdraws in its entirety notice number 599 published in Government Gazette number 26344 of 2 1 May 2004.

10 November 2006

By virtue of the powers vested in the South African Heritage Resources Agency in terms of section 27(7) of the National Heritage Resources Act, 25 of 1999, SAHRA hereby declares the Taung Fossil Site situated on the remainder of the Farm Taung 894HN, Taung District, North West Province as a National Heritage Site.

SIGNIFICANCE

Taung Palaeoanthropological Fossil Site is the type locality for the early hominin, Australopithecus africanus, as this was the first site in the world where this species was found. The find, a fossilized skull and lower jaw of a young individual with some humanlike characteristics [Taung child skull], was discovered in 1924 in the Buxton Limestone quarry. Raymond Dart, of the University of the Witwatersrand, who identified the fossil, recognized its importance in understanding our early human ancestors and their relatives in Africa. Similar early hominid fossils are now known from Sterkfontein, the Makapan Valley Limeworks site, possibly at Gladysvale and sites in East Africa. No further hominid fossils were found at Taung because mining destroyed the deposits. The associated animal bones, especially baboons, from the Thabasikwa tufa date the fossil between 2.4 and 2.8 million years old. The area has other important features including stromatolites, stone age sites, historical sites, as well as traditional ties to the land.

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