On the plane from Johannesburg to Paris recently, I happened to sit next to professor Braga, a very kind and humble man. I was fascinated by his work and could have picked his brain for hours more. It was such a pleasure to meet him.
Finally a serious, grown-up documentary approach on early humans. The automatic English transcription however…….: the simple name Kromdraai was crafted in about 12 different ways! Also I am curious of what Mr. Braga’s colleagues would say about this story. As we know, every anthropologist tries to present his own achievements as big and important as possible.
José Braga conducted his excavations in Kromdraai, South Africa, in 2021. These excavations are part of his ongoing research into human evolution and have provided significant insights into our ancestors.
Erudite and comprehensive look into the complete methodology of discovery and analysis from field to laboratory. A very inspiring story and an amazing contribution to science,
A big part of the problem may have to do with the fact that it was originally produced in French, then the narrative track was replaced with English and someone dropped the ball in the final English edition.
A lot of times bootleg videos have the sound messed up. I don't know anything about how, when, with whom this documentary was produced. Just a suggestion.
Around 6:00 we aren't told why ancient hominids found that area amenable for life over enough time to leave fossils, or other evidence of habitation. Was there a river? A lake? A cave? Humans are characteristically drawn to fresh, running water and rock overhangs, for obvious reasons. Open ground with no topology or hydrology holds no obvious promise. Later we hear that still water, maybe stagnating, was present, and around 18:00 we get a very elegant explanation of how a conical talus was built up in a cave beneath a hole barely concealed in the surface ground above. But that general phenomenon would have been useful to know earlier. In any case, this is a very intriguing documentary. It takes the focus of early human exploration from Olduvai and the Rift Valley to this region further south on the African continent. I am so grateful to have access to such scholarly news and analysis of the paleoanthropology of our time. Professor Braga's focus on neoteny in early human societies is very appealing, and, clearly, a winning strategy that launched our tendentious species on a few million year journey of survival success.
See my above comment... @HarnessOmegaMolecule 0 seconds ago I would also like to mention..we are not allowed to build or do anything on the premesis as it is a "Heritage site" however... the river is now solid sewerage as the sewerage plants that are supposed to service the nearby township of Munsieville have not been operational for 3 years now. The stench is unbearable, we have tried in vain for the last year to get someone to take it seriously but the departments just dont respond. Most of the resorts and getaway tourist venues around us have closed as guests cant be hosted with this smell. The heritage value of The Cradle is, in reality, filthy and its a shame as it really is very beautiful.
If it was even remotely correct perhaps. When 2.5 million years is used, you know it's horsesh-t. Besides, everyone knows that nothing cradled in Africa but from the middle east
The other day, we had guests over from the USA, and decided to visit the Kromdraai area (Now a World Heritage Site). It was very dry and hot so we parked the car on a bridge over the river which runs through the area. Upon opening the window we all felt nauseous, as what used to be a pristine, crystalline clear stream had turned into a torrent of raw sewage. Evidently, according to some locals, the problem began two months ago, and despite numerous attempts to get the authorities in charge to do something about it, and petitions being handed in, nothing has happened so far. The river, which was once brimming with life and which supports all of the water birds , fish and other wildlife, is now dead. I can't see how anything could live in or near the river. If the situation continues without intervention, then I am sorry to say there is an environmental disaster on the way for all residents (human and animal alike) who live anywhere in the drainage area. The river flows directly into Hartebeespoort dam. Aquifer water is being contaminated by the sewage as well - for a region facing climate change challenges, and is relatively short of clean water, this is an extremely perturbing situation. Anyway I thought to post this in the hope that someone can do what needs to be done to stop the sewage leak, wherever it originates from as soon as possible. Investing a little in the environment is surely a logical step in ensuring the economy and people who depend on that environment to survive. No-one can drink sewage water.
@@chrisdab- Nix as yet, unfortunately. Other feeder rivers such as the Crocodile and Jukskei are also heavily contaminated with sewage and industrial waste. Sometimes, even dead donkeys.
The river I am talking about here emerges from the extensive underground lake or aquifer (which is situated between Boons and Kromdraai) just beyond the Sterkfontein caves. If you go to Google Maps you will then be able to follow it's course and see where it joins with another river just before they run into Hartebeespoort dam at the Skeerpoort inlet. What is happening is truly an ecological nightmare.
Tout à fait d accord.Mais en voyant le peu de temps donné par les parents a l education des enfants , je crains que notre espère soit en voie de regression 😢
@@anniedessart5011in the USA, the government is the worst obstacle. No focus on life or trade skills, passing kids who have not earned as much as a high school diploma, on to college, where they either fail, or drop out...or incur debt from loans. And kids who learn the bare minimum, and are not ready to do much more then become podcast creators, or tic tok influancers...it is what happens when every kid gets a trophy. They all start to believe that they deserve the trophy.
Maybe it would be more precise to say that the need to care for the human child ensured the development of humans. The success of the species was still far in the future when the Kromdrai children (both paranthropus child and the human child) were born and died. By the way, this film was very instructive. I enjoyed it a lot.
Yes. And I wonder when Europeans realise that weaning babies too early damages their intellectual development. In north Australia, Aborigines wean at three to four years and it is noticeable that the memories of Aborigines are vast superior to those of westerners. Interestingly, the African author Wilbur Smith once observed that he witnessed a 12 year old African kid absorb a three hour monologue from a Zimbabwe general, then run 60 miles, and regurgitate the monologue, verbatim. Wilbur wondered what it was that we whites do that prevents such memory development. Yet my children were weaned at 3.5 years and have very ordinary memories. A mystery yet to be fathomed.
@@tonyryan43In your eyes my cousin must be an anomaly. He was bottle fed and he was weaned at 3 months old because he had a milk intolerance. Yet he has a photographic memory and can memorise a book by reading it once. So that must have been down to his weaning at 4 years old. 🙃.
Fossil traps. That’s such a wonderful idea. Naturally forming time capsules dating back several million years. Archaeology is a truly fascinating area of study. ❤
A very good documentary. Plain and simple, like a story passed down with an old skull fragment; a relic of some forgotten day. 👍 Eyes on the side, denote prey which need to watch everything everywhere. But predators have eyes in front, to focus on our next meal. Humans scavenged because a free meal is a good thing. But I'm sure they didn't rely solely on luck and berries. Throwing sticks and rocks used from ambush could take down an antelope.
Archaeology is such an act of love towards the human race. Like a love letter to the entire population of this sacred planet. And one of the great things about it is that it is all so factual. Unlike religion?💙
Well, I've been into about 10 different little caves within just a few hundred metres around the Westminster cave (where naledi was found). One of which had a completely virgin section that took my caving partner and I about 30 minutes to squeeze into - a smaller being would happily use it as refuge. I just hate to think how they will destroy the rest of the caves in the area.
Yeah it seems very old. It says Sapiens came out some 100 000 years ago. Research over the last 10 years indicate this is actually 250 000 - 300 000 years ago. This documentary is quite obsolete
@@DoctorMagicUK The human child they found in Komdrai would not be a homo sapiens. There have been a lot of human species afoot before we got to modern man. I would guess that they have not even named the specie that gave birth to this baby.
Beaucoup d'affirmations et de présupposés de mon point de vue. Je vous regarde et je vous écoute remplir cette grille de sudoku, persuadés d'avoir gagné après avoir rempli 3 cases. C'est ça qui est dommage. Mais la recherche de la vérité est toujours admirable. Et pour cela je vous dis bravo.
Needing sunscreen is a non advantageous mutation you people did not come first. Pale skin and eye, straight hair, and the ability to eat cheese and drink milk are all mutations. Having pale skin and a eyes is actually 3 separate genes being turned off.
I live on the edge of the river and have the caves on the premisis, the University excavated all the bone fragments from our caves and then literally disappeared one day, they left the processing office with hundreds of bone fragments with little numbers marked on them, they left most of the tools and equipment, its all still up there. Weve gone through the caves but the supports they left are getting rickety so not going as deep as we used to. There are things in those caves that I dont think the world knows about.
I would also like to mention..we are not allowed to build or do anything on the premesis as it is a "Heritage site" however... the river is now solid sewerage as the sewerage plants that are supposed to service the nearby township of Munsieville have not been operational for 3 years now. The stench is unbearable, we have tried in vain for the last year to get someone to take it seriously but the departments just dont respond. Most of the resorts and getaway tourist venues around us have closed as guests cant be hosted with this smell. The heritage value of The Cradle is, in reality, filthy and its a shame as it really is very beautiful.
@@HarnessOmegaMolecule How incredibly small and selfish minded the supposed caretakers of our world can be. From the scientists who leave their garbage behind, to the bureaucrats who refuse to do their simple duty of human decency. It is mind boggling to me that out of our entire world, this small hole which supposedly shows us why we became humans, is being treated as a garbage and sewer pit! I guess we really haven't evolved that much or that well.
I was enjoying the documentary, but after your report I no longer feel like watching it. How can these "scientists" be so disrespectful to a place like this? A region that should be preserved and cared for for the good of humanity. The South African government needs to regulate these fossil excavation sites, because when these "European" scientists arrive and destroy an environment with so much history, they simply leave without thinking about the consequences of these excavations.😢
Slightly ghoulish to keep repeating how useful the find of the remains of the baby is, without ever acknowledging that it would have been a personal tragedy at the time of death.
i know n place in Kromdraai where is old skeltons that look like rocks. It is on a farm near lionpark of Kromdraa i. We rented a house there we loved walking and fount it
Ce qui fait l'humain c'est les notions de temps exprimées, Paranthrope a disparue a cause de son régime végétarien , qui obligeait les femelles a s'aventurer loin des arbres pour manger , les rendant vulnérables aux grands fauves quand elles portaient dans leurs bras leurs petits
Parcontre ce que je trouve bizard dans ces fouilles comme en Égypte , il y a toujours une caméra A tiens un machoir A tiens un tombeau Bizard enfin ça fait un reportage
No, there have been discoveries of Homo erectus fossils in Turkey. One significant site is the Dursunlu area, where stone tools and fossilized remains attributed to Homo erectus have been found. These finds date back to around 1.2 million years ago..
Can a geologist amateur or pro explain this to me? The deeper the fossil/dirt layer the older it is, right? How is it possible for that to be the case and at the same time, erosion is also happening?
I think this is a unique scenario. In this instance, there was a system of underground caves. The dirt and rock making up the roof/ceiling of these caves was probably all around the same age. Erosion occurred until holes opened up in the roof/ceiling. Once a hole had been opened up, the cave turned into a time capsule. As animals, dirt, rock and debris fell into the holes over hundreds of thousands of years plus, layers built up on the floor of the cave as stuff fell through the whole, with obviously the first stuff that fell through being on the bottom layers of the sediment in the cave, with the most recent stuff laying on top.
Maybe you should watch the beginning of the film once more. Where they explain why Komdrai and the surrounding area is so interesting for this kind of excavating. That places like this exist is almost unbelievable, but I would say that you should not eexpect to find places like this outside Africa. The whole continent has undergone relatively few changes since it broke loose from Gondwana land
I'm not necessarily asking about where they are in the video in particular. I'm asking in general. Meaning everywhere on earth. How can both be happening at the same time?
Look up Stratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy. Erosion and sedimentation are not opposites. Erosion creates sediment that erodes and becomes sediment.. It varies. The K-T boundry can be found 2 meters below the surface in some areas.. 2 kilometers in others. Too many factors to explain Stratigraphy in youtube reply. Be curious!! 🤔👍 Be Well!! 😀
vous pourriez préciser qui est José Braga, et pourquoi vous ne parlez que de lui, alors qu'il s'agit visiblement d'un travail d'équipe. Question subsidiaire : pourquoi n'y a-t-il aucune femme dans les équipes de recherche françaises ?
Une vidéo sur l'Adn des hominidés, disait qu'ils à exister plusieurs genre hominidés un peu partout dans le monde ?. Donc l'Afrique ne peu pas être le seule berceau de l'humanité... Et l'Antartique !!?...
“What caused us to diverge from the other primates?” is where you lost me… Compare a Pygmy mouse lemur to a gorilla then tell me that the rest of the primates (other than us) are remarkably similar.
No, the oldest humanoid finds in Spain come from the Sierra de Atapuerca in the province of Burgos. These fossils, referred to as the remains of the “first European,” are about *1.4 million* years old. Home antecesseor and Homo heidelbergensis,
0:25 "on ignore encore qui était le premier être humain, et comment il est apparu" FAUX! On peut supputer qu'il est apparu à poil, et on est sûr qu'il ne s'appelait pas Jean-Christophe.
Try living in Australia and having the oldest race of stone Age people that still exist being ignored , they won't do any research in Australia because they know it will destroy the out of Africa theory completely
Dear People: please consider that the sewage now surrounding the site and making the area impossible to continue work on, as well as elimination of tourism in the area due to the stench, is perhaps not accidental. Rather, consider that many view the invasion of the resting place of our earliest ancestors a desecration, the carrying off of body parts by foreigners - including babies, an insult, and that future sites may well suffer the same fate.
