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Our Burning Planet

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ANCIENT FOOTPRINTS SERIES

Citizen scientists and San trackers on the trail of our human origins along Southern Cape's stormy coast

Join Don Pinnock and a team of citizen scientists and Ju/’hoansi San trackers on an expedition along Africa's Cape South Coast to find ancient creatures of a drowned world and the origin of our species.
Citizen scientists and San trackers on the trail of our human origins along Southern Cape's stormy coast Photo via SketchyAI

From the shores of what was once a vast (but now inundated) Paleo-Agulhas Plain to Blombos Cave where humans began experimenting with art, this three-part series explores how the first Homo sapiens survived a brutal Ice Age and thrived to become us. But can the team find a 100,000-year-old human footprint?

Part 1: Citizen science, master trackers and deciphering the sands of time

Strange aeolianite formations near Still Bay. (Photo: Don Pinnock)
Strange aeolianite formations near Still Bay. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

Part 2: Blombos Cave and the birth of human intelligence

Expedition organiser Clive Thompson on the path to Blombos Cave. (Photo: Simon Sephton)
Expedition organiser Clive Thomson on the path to Blombos Cave. (Photo: Simon Sephton)

Part 3: An undisclosed coast and the search for the magical human footmark

Jan De Fynck checks a trackway. (Photo: Don Pinnock)
Jan De Fynck checks a trackway. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

 

 

Comments (1)

petersen.michael16 Nov 14, 2024, 07:02 AM

The AI illustration doesn’t make sense. Why would prehistoric human beings have written on a wall with what looks like a proper pen or pencil?