South African paleontologists say they have discovered the world’s oldest burial site containing the remains of a small-brained, distant relative of humans that was previously thought to be incapable of complex behavior.
Researchers led by renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger announced the discovery of several specimens in 2023. Homo naledi A Stone Age tree-climbing hominid was buried about 30 metres (100 feet) underground in a cave system within the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Johannesburg.
“These are the oldest burials in human history, Homo sapiens Scientists say this pushed back the burial date by at least 100,000 years. I have written In a series of preprint papers published in E-Life.​
The discovery calls into question current understanding of human evolution, because it is typically assumed that the development of larger brains enabled complex, “meaning-making” activities such as burying our dead.
The oldest burial sites ever excavated in the Middle East and Africa contain Homo sapiens – and is approximately 100,000 years old.
The South African find by Berger and his colleagues, whose previous publications have been controversial, dates to at least 200,000 BCE.
Importantly, they are also Homo nalediA primitive species at the crossroads between apes and modern humans, it had a brain the size of an orange and was about 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall.
With curved fingers and toes, and tool-wielding hands and feet designed for walking, the species Berger discovered was already upending the notion of a linear human evolutionary path.
Homo naledi “A ray of hopeThe cave system where the first bones were discovered in 2013.
The oval-shaped burial site at the center of the new study was also discovered there in excavations that began in 2018.
Researchers say evidence suggests the hole, which appears to have been deliberately dug and then buried to hide the bodies, contains the remains of at least five people.
“These findings indicate that burial practices are not exclusive to Homo sapiens or other large-brained hominins,” the researchers said.
The burial site is Homo naledi They were capable of complex emotional and cognitive behaviour, the researchers added.
Brain size
Carvings were also found on pillars in a nearby cave, apparently with the surface having been intentionally smoothed, forming geometric shapes including a “crude hashtag figure”.
“That means not only are humans not unique in developing symbolic practices, but they may not have invented such behaviours,” Berger told AFP in an interview.
Such comments are likely to send ripples through the paleontological community, where the 57-year-old has faced accusations in the past of lacking scientific rigor and jumping to conclusions.
Despite Berger’s support in 2015 for his earlier findings, many were hesitant. National Geographicwas the first to express the idea Homo naledi He had far more powers than one would imagine given the size of his head.
“That was hard for scientists to accept at the time. We think it’s all to do with this giant brain,” he said.
“We’re trying to tell the world that that’s not true.”
Although further analysis is needed, the researchers wrote that the discovery “changes our understanding of human evolution.”
“Burials, meaning-making, and even ‘art’ may have much more complex and dynamic nonhuman histories than we previously thought.” Said Agustin Fuentes, a professor of anthropology at Princeton University and co-author of the study.
“If confirmed, this finding could be of considerable importance,” said Carol Ward, an anthropologist at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study.
“We look forward to learning how the disposal of the remains rules out explanations other than intentional burial and to seeing the results of the peer review once it is complete,” she told AFP.
Ward also noted that the paper acknowledges that it cannot be ruled out that the markings on the walls may have been painted by later humans.
© Agence France-Presse
A previous version of this article was published in June 2023.