Case file · Sacred site
Homo naledi burial claims
In 2023 Lee Berger's team claimed the small-brained Homo naledi deliberately buried its dead and carved symbols in the Rising Star cave, more than 240,000 years ago.
2023 CE · -26.02, 27.71 · status: disputed
The account
If correct, it would push mortuary ritual far back before modern humans and into a species with a brain a third the size of ours.
The sceptical view
Peer reviewers and many archaeologists said the evidence for intentional burial and engraving was not yet convincing.