Paleontologists in South Africa say they have found the world’s oldest burial site.
It contains the remains of a distant human relative, previously thought to be incapable of complex actions.
According to a group of experts led by renowned paleontologist Lee Berger, they have unearthed the skeletal remains of Homo naledi, a tree-climbing human species that lived in the Stone Age, had a brain the size of an orange, and was 1.5 meters tall.
The remains were found about 30 meters underground in a cave system near Johannesburg. The area is called the cradle of mankind and has been granted world heritage status by the UN organization Unesco.
The study has not yet been peer-reviewed, but a preliminary version has now been published in the journal Elife.
These findings challenge current perceptions of human development. The general assumption is that it was greater brain development that led humans to perform more complex and meaningful actions, such as burying the dead.
In the past, buried remains of Homo sapiens – modern humans – have been found in the Middle East and Africa and are estimated to be at least 100,000 years old. The one now found in South Africa is believed to be at least 200,000 years old.
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