Humans may call Karonga home

By William Atkins
Saturday, 24 October 2009 19:00

Science - Biology

According to a German-led excavation in the northern part of the African country of Malawi, in a township called Karonga, ancient evidence has been uncovered that may point to that area as to where humans originated.


Karonga is a township in the northern part of the country of Malawi, which is located near the border shared with the country of Tanzania.

The township is located, along the western shore of Lake Nyasa, about 380 miles (615 kilometers) north of the capital city of Lilongwe.

Malawi, formally called the Republic of Malawi, is a country in the southeastern part of Africa.

German paleoanthropologist Friedemann Schrenk, from Goethe University in Frankfurt, leads an excavation project near Karonga of European and African researchers.

In September 2009, two of Schrenk’s students discovered prehistoric tools near Karonga, along with a tooth of a hominid (a member of the family “Hominidae, or “great apes," which also includes humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and their ancestors), about six miles (ten kilometers) outside of Karonga.

Within the southern part of the Great Rift Valley of eastern Africa, the Karonga area may be what Dr. Friedemann Schrenk calls “the cradle of humankind.”

Schrenk states, "This latest discovery of prehistoric tools and remains of hominids provides additional proof to the theory that the Great Rift Valley of Africa and perhaps the excavation site near Karonga can be considered the cradle of humankind.” [Reuters/NewsDaily.com: “Malawi could be the cradle of humankind,” October 23, 2009]

Page two continues.