But there is a more recent and largely neglected layer to the landscape's history. My colleagues and I set out to investigate some archaeological traces found in part of the Cradle of Humankind. We focused on a stone-walled structure on a hill known as Driefontein; the name also given to the site we studied.

Our findings suggest that the Driefontein stone-walled structure was a residential area. It appears similar to settlements found elsewhere in South Africa's North West province and parts of Botswana dating to between AD 1450 and 1700, though certain features possibly suggest a later date. These findings place the settlement's occupation broadly within the "Tswana" period. This refers to roughly the last 500 years of history when Tswana communities, a southern African ethnic group, arose.

While the prehistoric sequence of the Cradle of Humankind operates at several levels spanning a very long period of time, a disproportionate amount of resources have been allocated to studies concerning human evolution and early stone tool technologies.