3400 BC to 899

Cradle of humankind

Some of the oldest fossils of human ancestors come from caves near Johannesburg, and at Blombos Cave on the south coast people engraved pieces of ochre more than 70,000 years ago. The ancestors of the San lived here as hunter gatherers for tens of thousands of years, painting on rocks across the land. About two thousand years ago Khoikhoi herders brought sheep and cattle.