Scientists were stunned by the data on the mysterious fossil people: they buried their dead

These discoveries could change understanding of human evolution, because until now such behavior has only been associated with Homo sapiens and larger-brained Neanderthals, CNN notes.

Fossils belonging to the species Homo naledi were first discovered in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa during excavations in 2013. The cave system is part of South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering an area where scientists have unearthed fossils of many ancient species of human ancestors – remains that help unravel the story of human evolution.

Paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger and his team of “underground astronauts” continued their work in the vast, dangerous caves to better understand extinct ancient human ancestors.

Now, the research team has unearthed the remains of Homo naledi adults and children, who were buried in the fetal position in cave cavities and covered with earth. These burials are older than any known Homo sapiens burials by at least 100,000 years.

While working to identify the cave burials, the scientists also found a number of symbols engraved on the walls of the cave, estimated to be between 241,000 and 335,000 years old, but they want to continue testing for more accurate dating.

Symbols include deeply carved hashtag-like cross-hatching and other geometric shapes. Similar symbols found in other caves were carved by early Homo sapiens 80,000 years ago and Neanderthals 60,000 years ago and were thought to be used as a way to record and share information.

“These recent finds are evidence of intentional burials, the use of symbols, and Homo naledi’s meaning-giving activities. It seems inevitable that, taken together, they indicate that this species of ancient human relatives with small brains performed complex death-related practices, says Dr. Lee Berger. “That would mean that not only are humans not unique in developing symbolic practices, but they may not even have invented the behavior.”

Exploring the maze-like cave system of the Rising Star and its chambers is not for the faint of heart, notes CNN.

So far, the team has mapped more than 4 kilometers of caves that have a vertical depth of 100 meters and expand more than 200 meters in length, says study lead geologist Dr. Tebogo Mahubela, senior lecturer in geology at the University of Johannesburg.

The cave system includes deadly steep descents and tiny passages, such as Superman’s Crawl, a tunnel 40 meters long and 25 centimeters wide that explorers have to crawl on their stomachs, said Dr. Keneylo Molopyane, a National Geographic researcher.

Berger said that he had to lose 25 kilograms to get into the dangerous rooms of the cave in 2022.

“It was the most terrible and wonderful experience of my life,” admits Dr. Berger. “I almost died walking out of there, but it was obviously worth it to make some of these discoveries. But I think the important part of that, however, is that the journey would not be nearly as difficult, I think, for Homo naledi.”

According to Berger, Homo naledi had some similarities to humans, such as walking upright and manipulating objects by hand, but members of this species had smaller heads, shorter stature, and a leaner, more powerful physique.

Homo naledi’s shoulders, which were oriented for better climbing, and teeth bore a resemblance to earlier hominins such as Australopithecus, said Dr. John Hawkes, a professor of anthropology and paleoanthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The researchers found a wealth of Homo naledi fossils throughout the caves, including the remains of very young babies and the elderly, which helped them understand the naledi as a population, Hawkes said. And as the team continued to delve deeper into the caves, it became clear that Homo naledi was very familiar with and used vast parts of the cave system.

When Berger and his team announced the discovery of Homo naledi in 2015, they speculated that the species may have deliberately disposed of its dead in the cave.

But the idea that a small-brained hominin did this was considered a highly controversial hypothesis.

In 2018, the team began to find evidence supporting the idea that Homo naledi deliberately buried their dead. Scientists have found ovals dug into the surface of the caves, resembling holes, and the remains of bodies placed inside in a twisted form.

According to Berger, other burials were dug horizontally into the slopes, and the bodies were placed inside, indicating that the remains did not end up there by other, unintentional means.

“This is not a body that died in a hollow or a hole. It was a whole body that was covered in mud and then decomposed in the grave itself, demonstrating in part that it was buried as a single piece of flesh and blood at the time, but not as a result of some dramatic collapse or something that washed it away. Berger said. “We believe that they have passed the litmus test of human burials or archaic human burials and the most ancient human burials, and therefore we describe them as graves or burials of a non-human species, Homo naledi.”

And then the team found the artifact in the burial and discovered carvings on the wall.

One of the graves contains a stone in the shape of a tool, buried next to the hand of an adult Homo naledi. In the passage above the burials, in the hallway, there is a wall covered with rock paintings.

Deeply carved geometric shapes appear on the walls of dolomite rock, the hardness of which reaches 4.5-4.7 on the Mohs scale, which helps researchers evaluate the resistance of minerals to scratches. Dolomite is about halfway to diamond (at the top of the scale) in hardness, meaning it would take an extremely long time and effort to carve into the walls, Berger said.

The team believes that Homo naledi, not Homo sapiens, is responsible for the carvings, as there is no evidence that humans have ever been inside these caves.

Homo naledi was able to see what they were doing inside the caves using fire. Evidence, including soot, charcoal and charred bones, is scattered throughout the caves, Berger said, suggesting they were actively lighting fires.

Both burials and symbols imply that Homo naledi was capable of meaningful behavior, said Agustín Fuentes, National Geographic researcher, local bioculture specialist and lead author of the third study.

The meaning of the symbols is unclear, and researchers cannot say if they were used as a form of language or communication within a species.

“What we can say is that these are intentionally made geometric patterns that made a difference to the icing,” Fuentes said. “It means that they spent a lot of time and effort and risked their lives to engrave these things in the places where they bury the bodies.”

Fuentes said Naledi’s findings suggest that larger brains may not be the only link to complex behaviors that researchers once assumed were unique to humans.

“So the problem here is that we now know that Homo naledi, in addition to Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans and a few others, behaved in ways that we, even just a few decades ago, thought were unique to ourselves.” , – he said. “This means that we need to rethink the timing of the use of fire, giving meaning and burial of the dead in hominin history.”

Chris Stringer, head of human origins research at London’s Natural History Museum, says that while he had previously been skeptical about claims of Homo naledi’s behavioral complexity and ape-sized brain, “the considerable evidence now presented by Berger and colleagues for possible burials and wall engravings cannot be easily dismissed.”

The findings raise many questions, including whether this behavior was present in an ancient common ancestor that lived much earlier than Homo naledi or humans, and why we have such a large brain, “if human-like behavioral complexity can be achieved with brains less than half that size,” Stringer said.