I saw Homo Naledi in South Africa, but it was in a Box!!

The story begins in 2014 when my long time friend, colleague, and Religion Professor said he was going to South Africa to a professional meeting. He said if I would go with him to the meeting he would stay an extra week and do a fossils tour with me. I jumped at the chance and of course said yes........... Why was I interested in going to South Africa on a fossils tour? Because I had read Professor Lee Berger's book, In the Footsteps of Eve, where he tells his story of how he went from hunting arrowheads on his parents' farm in South Georgia ( which I also did as a teen on the farmlands of South GA, )to attending graduate school in paleoanthropology, to becoming the Chair of the Human Evolution Department at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. And in that position he was the overseer of the famous fossil vault on campus that housed the Taung Child, one of the most important fossils in all of paleoanthropology. Yes, I definitely wanted to go...........And we did. We went in the summer of 2015. The first week of the trip we spent on the Indian Coast, in Durban, South Africa, attending the professional meeting my friend wanted to attend. I did not know before we went that we would be exploring Apartheid at that meeting, and how it ended in South Africa with the Reconciliation Process that took place under Nelson Mandela. I also did not know that in Johannesburg we would visit Soweto and learn more about this very dark history of Apartheid in South Africa. After the meeting we flew from Durban to Johannesburg. The Wits University, in addition to being the overseer of the famous fossil Vault named after former Director of Fossils, Philip Tobias, also owns and oversees the fossil research in the Cradle of Humankind. ( Google all of this if you want the background of this story I am telling.) The Cradle of Humankind, as it is called, is the very well known area of South Africa just north of Johannesburg where there are at least a half dozen Caves where the famous fossils have been found. The most famous cave is named Sterkfontein. We were able to tour this cave and see where Little Foot and Mrs. Ples were found. We futher toured an active archeological dig site and talked with the folks who were digging and researching ancient human fossils there. We also went to the museum in Pretoria, South Africa that housed in their private vault the famous fossil Mrs. Ples. We actually got to see her and touch her! Quite a few days it was!............But to get to the Homo Naledi encounter, due to the graciousness of hosts Dr. Francis Thackery, and Dr. Lee Berger we were allowed to visit the private and secure Phillip Tobias Fossil Vault. We could not believe it!! Accompanied by Dr. Thackery from the Human Evolution Department, and Dr. Berger, Chair of the Department, we walked in and saw in a glass case the famous fossil-- The Taung Child, discovered by Raymond Dart in 1925, which proved that humankind began in Africa and not any other part of the world. Dr. Thackery explained The Taung Child to us. Then Dr. Berger explained a recent fossil find that he had made. It was found in Malapa, South Africa in the Cradle of Humankind. We had heard only a bit about this find because it was so recent. If you want to read about it google, The Skull in the Rock. This find turned out to be a new species and was named Australipithecus Sediba, best known as just Sediba..........So we were so thrilled to see The Taung Child and Sediba we could not think much about anything else. But then came the surpise! Dr. Berger said, "Over here," pointing to plastic containers on the shelves in the vault, "is a new find, but we cannot talk about it yet because it is yet to be publically announced." He went on to say to look for the public unveiling in the September edition of National Geographic Magazine ( this was early August.) So we left South Africa after that week wondering what was in those plastic containers ( I refer to as a Box in the title of this Post) on the long shelves in the fossil vault of Wits University. Come to find out in September when the World was astounded by the find, it was Homo Naledi!!! I will speak more of this greatest find in 50 years in my next post. The point of his post is," Oh my God, we were in the same room with Homo Naledi!" How wild is that?? ( Please feel free to ask a question or make a comment.)