Haasgat Cave
Haasgat Cave is a fossil-bearing breccia filled cavity located about 16km East of the well known South African hominid-bearing sites of Sterkfontein and Kromdraai and about 50km North-Northwest of the City of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site.
Haasgat has been investigated since its discovery in the late 1980s[1]. Since then a series of part-time excavations have recovered many hundreds of fossils, all recoverd from breccia dumps. Excavations have been conducted at Haasgat by the Council for GeoSciences and the University of the Witwatersrand. No significant in-situ work has been conducted[1]. Of the several hundreds of fossils recovered from Haasgat, as of yet no hominin fossils have been found. Many very fine fossils of baboons and other animals, however, have been discovered.
Haasgat is a breccia-filled dolomitic caves that formed in a fissure along a geological fault. It was heavily mined for lime and much of the original deposit has been destroyed[1]. Haasgat has been a dated to 1.0 to 1.5 million years old based on the animals recovered[1]. "Haasgat" means "Hare hole" in Afrikaans.