Whips, fedoras and cliff-hangers make for great cinema, but they also shape how we tell real scientific stories. In our Season 2 finale, we trace the “explorer” myth from colonial expansion to modern paleoanthropology: why lone-hero narratives persist, how they erase teams and communities, and what that means for places like Taung. We meet artists, chiefs, and scientists re-centering local voices; unpack how discoveries get narrated (and who gets credit); and ask what inclusive science looks like on the ground.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and the University of Cape Town and draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Special thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Prof. Sheela Athreya, PhD — Biological anthropologist; Associate Professor, Texas A&M University; National Geographic Explorer.
• Dr. Mirriam Tawane, PhD — Paleoanthropologist; National Heritage Council (South Africa); former Curator, Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology, DITSONG Museum.
• Dr. Dipuo Kgotleng, PhD — Senior Lecturer & Director, Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg.
• Kosi Litsukhulele Kueni — Local chief, Buxton (Taung).
• Lungile Keswa — Artist/curator; Taung Skull study group.
• Bahidile "Mike" Dichaba — Community guide, Taung.
• Xola — Community member; Taung Skull study group.

Resources & Links:

ARC: arcdocs.org

HERI: https://www.heriuct.co.za

SAJS Special Issue: https://sajs.co.za/article/view/20667

ARC Angel: http://patreon.com/Arc_org

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Sound bites from:

YouTube: Paramount Movies: INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK | Official Trailer | Paramount Movies

YouTube: CBS Sunday Morning: Almanac: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

YouTube: National Geographic: New Human Ancestor Discovered: Homo naledi (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) | National Geographic

YouTube: Al Jazeera English: Africa: States of independence - the scramble for Africa

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Behind one of science’s greatest breakthroughs lies a darker story of skulls measured, bodies taken, and lives diminished in the name of science. The discovery of the Taung Child helped prove humanity’s African origins, yet it unfolded within a world built on racism, colonial power, and exploitation. From Mapungubwe’s golden treasures to Johannesburg’s mining compounds, we trace how Dart’s legacy entwined brilliance with harm: collecting human remains like specimens, his efforts to claim the body of a young San woman named Kiri-Kiri, and reinforcing systems that dehumanised the people he studied.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and the University of Cape Town.

This series draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Special thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Prof. Rebecca Ackermann, PhD — Biological anthropologist, University of Cape Town; Co-Director, Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI)
• Dr. Lauren Schroeder, PhD — Paleoanthropologist; University of Toronto
• Dr. Mirriam Tawane, PhD — Curator of Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology, DITSONG: National Museum of Natural History (Pretoria).
• Christa Kuljian — Research associate; WiSER (WITS)
• Nashada Ndango - Guide; San Heritage Center !Khwa ttu

Resources & Links

ARC: arcdocs.org

HERI: https://www.heriuct.co.za

SAJS Special Issue: https://sajs.co.za/article/view/20667

ARC Angel: http://patreon.com/Arc_org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arcdocs.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arc_docs/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arcdocs.org

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Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with the University of Cape Town and the Human Evolution Research Institute. Written, produced, and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell. Hosted by Rasmus Bitsch, journalist and podcast creator.

Sound bites from:

YouTube - danaoja - Germany Invades Poland-France and Britain Declares War

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In 1924, a mineworker in Taung likely held the fossilized skull of a three-year-old child before anyone else. That child, later named the Taung Child, would change science forever. Yet the man whose hands first touched the fossil remains unknown, while the credit went to Professor Raymond Dart.

In this episode, Unburied unearths the hidden histories of colonial mining, scientific prejudice, and racial bias entwined with the discovery of the Taung Skull. We trace how exploitation created the conditions for discovery, yet denied recognition to those who did the work. Along the way, we revisit the Piltdown Man hoax that blinded scientists to Africa’s role in human origins, and we confront Dart’s troubling ties to race science.

Through the voices of geologists, anthropologists, historians, and community members, we reveal a story not only about fossils, but about who gets written into history… and who is left out.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and the University of Cape Town.

This series draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Special thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Rieneke Weij, PhD — Geologist, University of Johannesburg
• Dr. Stephanie Baker, PhD — Anthropologist, University of Johannesburg
• Dr. Lauren Schroeder, PhD — Paleoanthropologist, University of Toronto
• Prof. Alan Morris, PhD — Physical anthropologist, University of Cape Town (Emeritus)
• Prof. Rebecca Ackermann, PhD — Biological anthropologist, University of Cape Town; Co-Director, Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI)
• Christa Kuljian — Research associate; WiSER (WITS)
• Bahidile "Mike" Dichaba — Community guide, Taung

Resources & Links:

ARC: arcdocs.org

HERI: https://www.heriuct.co.za

SAJS Special Issue: https://sajs.co.za/article/view/20667

ARC Angel: http://patreon.com/Arc_org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arcdocs.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arc_docs/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arcdocs.org

Sound bites from:

YouTube: The Leakey Foundation: 1973 Louis Leakey Memorial Symposium held by The Leakey Foundation in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences on December 2-3, 1973.

YouTube: ThamesTv: 1960s South Africa | Apartheid | Nadine Gordimer | Industry | This Week | 1968

YouTube: PeriscopeFilm: 1940s SOUTH AFRICA TRAVELOGUE KIMBERLY DIAMOND MINES & GOLD MINES 43254

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100 years ago, a tiny fossil skull in Taung, South Africa rewrote human history. The Taung Skull proved that humankind’s roots lie in Africa, but its story is tangled in colonialism, bias, and forgotten voices.

In this season premiere, Unburied digs into how the discovery of Australopithecus Africanus challenged scientific dogma, reshaped our understanding of human origins, and revealed how power shaped the stories we tell about the past. Featuring the voices of geologists, paleoanthropologists, historians, and the Taung community, we uncover what was celebrated, what was erased, and what this fossil still has to teach us.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and the University of Cape Town.

This series draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Special thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Robyn Pickering, PhD — Geologist, University of Cape Town
• Dr. Lauren Schroeder, PhD — Paleoanthropologist, University of Toronto
• Dr. Stephanie Baker, PhD — Anthropologist, University of Johannesburg
• Christa Kuljian — Research associate; WiSER (WITS)
• Bahidile “Mike” Dichaba — Community guide, Taung

Resources & Links

ARC: arcdocs.org

HERI: heri.co.za

SAJS Special Issue: https://sajs.co.za/article/view/20667

ARC Angel: http://patreon.com/Arc_org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arcdocs.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arc_docs/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arcdocs.org

Support the Show

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review

Become an ARC Angel on Patreon to support our work directly

Follow Us

TikTok: @arcdocs.org

Instagram: @arc_docs

Facebook: ARC Docs

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with the University of Cape Town and the Human Evolution Research Institute. Written, produced, and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell. Hosted by Rasmus Bitsch, journalist and podcast creator.

Soundbites From:

The Leakey Foundation

1973 Louis Leakey Memorial Symposium held by The Leakey Foundation in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences on December 2-3, 1973.

Youtube

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Unburied is back for season 2: The Taung Child.

A century after the fossilised skull of a three-year-old surfaced at the Northern Limeworks in Taung, South Africa, we retrace how a newly found species, Australopithecus africanus rooted human origins in Africa, while exposing the colonial prejudice that shaped its telling. Across four episodes, we trace the unnamed hands behind the find, revisit the Piltdown hoax that blinded Europe to Africa and rejected the Taung Skull, and reckon with the discoverer Raymond Dart’s conflicting legacy. The season dismantles the lone-explorer myth and asks what ethical, collaborative science can look like, on the ground, in public, and in the stories we pass on.

The series is produced in partnership with The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and draws on original research published in the South African Journal of Science special issue, “The Taung Child then and now: Commemorating its centenary in a postcolonial age.”

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with the University of Cape Town and the Human Evolution Research Institute. Written, produced, and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell. Hosted by Rasmus Bitsch, journalist and podcast creator.

Support the Show

● Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave a review

● Become an ARC Angel on Patreon for exclusive content

Follow Us

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arcdocs.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arc_docs/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arcdocs.org

ARC Angel: http://patreon.com/Arc_org

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In this ARC Interview: "What’s Real About Race?" we speak with Dr. Phila Msimang, a philosopher at Stellenbosch University whose research critically assesses the uses and abuses of group descriptors like race and ethnicity in the sciences, and Dr. Tessa Moll, an anthropologist whose work explores medicine, reproduction, and the politics of health in South Africa. Using their collaborative infographic on the shifting history of racial classification, we unpack how race has been invented, imposed, and contested over centuries, and why, though socially constructed, it continues to have very real effects in our lives today.

The infographic

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In his book Letters of Stone professor Steven Robbins tells the deeply moving story of his quest to find out what happened to the family members he only knew from a picture on the wall of his childhood home in South Africa.

In this interview Steven reveals the surprising connections between his family members murdered in nazi death camps, the race science done by people like Rudolf Pöch in the Kalahari and the connections between struggles of land and identity across time and space. All of which is connected to the sleepy town of Williston in the middle of the Karoo.

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This is the first in our new episode format: ARC Interviews — conversations with people whose stories and work challenge the way we see the world.

We begin with Brain Miennies — community leader, activist, and a key voice in Unburied. After sharing the episodes of Unburied with Brain, we sat down with him to reflect on the series, the ongoing struggle for the repatriation of Indigenous ancestors, and why this work is about more than returning bones. It’s about forgotten history, dignity, and ultimately— justice.

Unburied is a production by ARC in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Written, produced and sound designed by Rasmus Bitsch and Neil Liddell.

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