Palaeontology

New findings help to further cement Homo Naledi cave burial theory

By T.K. Randall
September 16, 2025

Image: Homo Naledi Facial Reconstruction
Credit: Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) et alii / CC BY 4.0 (adapted) Back in 2013, a team of researchers headed up by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger discovered 1,500 bones from at least 15 individuals in the Rising Star cave near Johannesburg, South Africa.

What made the discovery so significant is that these bones, which belonged to a species of extinct hominin known as Homo Naledi, seemed to have been deliberately buried in the ground in some of the remotest and most difficult to access parts of the cave.

This suggested that Homo Naledi had engaged in mortuary practices some 240,000 years ago - a time long before even modern humans had done so.

The significance of the discovery was so great that the findings became subject to a great deal of scrutiny, with some researchers arguing that the bones had likely ended up in the cave due to natural processes such as flooding.

Now, though, another study has found compelling supporting evidence pointing to the likelihood that the deliberate burial theory is most likely to be correct.The expedition, which involved 28 researchers from six countries, discovered several new burials within the cave system that also appeared to have been placed there deliberately.

It is easy to understate the significance of Homo Naledi's behavior - they had intentionally buried the remains of their deceased in the ground 100,000 years before our own species.

It raises questions over the evolution of intelligence and hominin evolution as a whole.

What else could our ancestors have been capable of ?

We may only now be starting to lift the lid.


Source: The Debrief

Tags: Homo Naledi