| Cooper's Cave Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind | |
| Map: | South Africa Gauteng |
| Relief: | 1 |
| Location: | Gauteng, South Africa |
| Nearest City: | Krugersdorp, South Africa |
| Coordinates: | -26.0128°N 27.7458°W |
| Established: | Incorporated into the Cradle of Humankind 1999 |
| Governing Body: | Cradle of Humankind and private landowner |
Cooper's Cave is a series of fossil-bearing breccia filled cavities. The cave is located almost exactly between the well known South African hominid-bearing sites of Sterkfontein and Kromdraai and about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa and has been declared a South African National Heritage Site.[1]
Cooper's Cave is now recognised as the fifth richest hominid site in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (behind Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Drimolen and Kromdraai) and one of the richest sites for early hominid stone tools of the Developed Olduwan culture. Excavations are still underway at Cooper's and are currently being directed by Christine Steininger and Lee Berger of the Institute for Human Evolution and the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Cooper's Cave has provided a rich tool assemblage that has been provisionally assigned to the Developed Olduwan. Cooper's is arguably the second richest early stone tool site in the Cradle of Humankind area.[2]
Cooper's is a series of breccia-filled dolomitic caves that formed in fissures along geological faults.[3]
Cooper's D has been dated by uranium-lead methods (Robyn Pickering, U. Melbourne) to between 1.5 and 1.4 million years ago. Cooper's A, based on the animals recovered, is thought to be about the same age.[4]