Not Created by our Species

Paleontologists in South Africa said they have found the oldest known burial site in the world, containing remains of a small-brained distant relative of humans previously thought incapable of complex behavior.


Led by renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, researchers said in 2023 they had discovered several specimens of Homo naledi – a tree-climbing, Stone Age hominid – buried about 30 meters (100 feet) underground in a cave system within the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO world heritage site near Johannesburg.​


"These are the most ancient interments yet recorded in the hominin record, earlier than evidence of Homo sapiens interments by at least 100,000 years," the scientists wrote in a series of preprint papers published in eLife.​


The findings challenge the current understanding of human evolution, as it is normally held that the development of bigger brains allowed for the performing of complex, "meaning-making" activities such as burying the dead.​


The oldest burials previously unearthed, found in the Middle East and Africa, contained the remains of Homo sapiens – and were around 100,000 years old.​


Those found in South Africa by Berger, whose previous announcements have been controversial, and his fellow researchers, date back to at least 200,000 BCE.       READ MORE...

Species Buries Dead Before Humans 100,000 Year Ago

A reproduction of the skull of a Homo naledi named Leti, found inside the Rising Star Cave System at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Maropeng, South Africa.   Wikus de Wet/AFP via Getty Images

An extinct species called Homo naledi buried their dead 100,000 years before humans.

These actions were previously thought to be associated with larger-brained species.

The findings challenge previous assumptions about the progress of human evolution.

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Researchers have found that an extinct human species buried their dead and carved symbols on cave walls 100,000 years before humans, challenging previous assumptions about human evolution.

The species, called Homo naledi, had brains about one-third the size of a modern human's, according to CNN.      

Until now, these behaviors had only been associated with larger-brained species such as Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

The research is laid out in three studies accepted for publication in the journal eLife, CNN said.       READ MORE...