Did a'small-brained ape-man' species that went extinct create a complex society thousands of years before we did?
The species has been named Homo naledi by the scientists
One of the greatest archaeological riddles in the world will be resolved by scientists.
Experts are examining if a group of 'ape-men' were able to develop a complex human-like civilisation, possibly thousands of years before our own species, Homo sapiens, was able to do so. They are doing this using an unmatched range of tests.
According to the scientists' evidence, a sophisticated "ape-man" civilisation with some beliefs and behaviours that are typically only linked with modern humanity first appeared in southern Africa some 300,000 years ago.
The fact that the now long-extinct species functioned in a number of crucial ways similar to current humans while also appearing to have been able to do so with brains barely a third the size of ours adds to the enigma.
The discovery has been met with excitement by some scientists but with scepticism from others
Key concepts of how the scientific community perceives human evolution are in danger of being overturned by the discovery and current research.
These "ape-men" with little brains may have been able to achieve seven amazing feats, according to the evidence so far:
-Consider the possibility of an afterlife, or the idea that life exists in some way after death.
-An afterlife is said to take place in some form of "underworld" that is situated below (rather than on or above) the world of the living. That suggests that they may have created an extremely primitive understanding of cosmology.
-Imagine the possibility of them really burying their dead in the "underworld."
-Give burial goods to deceased community members, an apparent conduct that suggests they may have thought the dead would be able to use them in some way in the afterlife.
-Conduct possible rites, including funeral feasts, within their "underworld."
-Create primitive artwork (abstract designs) to surround at least one of the burial chambers' entrances in the "underworld."
-Construct a rather sophisticated lighting system (either a series of little fires or torches) to allow them to access their "underworld" and transport their deceased there.
Despite its small brain size, the creature had very well-developed human-like frontal lobes
In what is now the north-east of South Africa, their "underworld" was situated deep underground in the elaborate subterranean structure known as Rising Star Cave. It took 130 meters of underground travel to get to the main room, which contained what appeared to be tombs.
Some scientists have responded to the revelation with delight, while others have expressed skepticism.
"We are aware that the information we are uncovering is contentious since it is completely fresh. The leader of the Rising Star Cave investigation, Professor Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand and palaeoanthropologist for National Geographic, recently released a detailed National Geographic book on the discoveries, entitled Cave of Bones. "We are deploying every type of investigative technology available to ensure that the maximum amount of additional evidence can be found," Professor Berger said.
Although preliminary scientific studies have already been conducted, numerous additional tests are currently being planned to either confirm or modify original findings.
The creature's brain size, which is only slightly larger than that of a chimpanzee, is the most contentious feature of the species, which scientists have given the moniker Homo naledi.
In order to better comprehend the anatomy and organization of the species' brains, a major component of the current inquiry will be a more in-depth examination of the species' skull fragments discovered in the cave complex. At least 30 people's remains have so far been discovered there, and it's possible that many more will be recovered over the following months and years.
The team lays out fossils of H. naledi at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Evolutionary Studies Institute
The creature had highly well-developed frontal lobes that resembled those of a human, which is the specific region of the brain known to be involved with planning and language, despite having a modest brain size.
The researchers will need to present further proof that brain size is not necessarily important in terms of cognitive capacity in order to make the discovery less contentious. That would mean destroying literally centuries' worth of scientific knowledge.
The evidence at this point in the inquiry is compelling enough to conclude that Homo naledi bodies were intentionally carried into the cave system and buried there. The data thus far indicates that living individuals of that species are accountable for achieving it.
One Homo naledi person, a child, appears to have been purposefully interred with a burial good—possibly a tool—in his or her right hand.
There are currently further excavations planned that could uncover more grave goods in other Homo naledi graves.
Any such findings would support the hypothesis that Homo naledi had an understanding of life beyond death.
The investigation's main focus will be dating the hearths that were used to prepare food, including antelope, in the underground complex's total darkness. To conclusively prove that the hearths were created during the Homo naledi epoch, dating them is essential. The enamel on the teeth of those antelopes and other animals may be dated using a technique called electron spin resonance. In addition, the archaeologists will attempt to utilize a different method of dating to establish the age of a layer of solidified lime that covers some of the hearths.
A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans
The people who cooked the antelope and other meats also appeared to have purposefully shattered the lengthy bones of those animals, maybe to obtain the very nutritious marrow from within. The breaks in the bones will be subjected to microscopic examination in an effort to establish that they were intentionally shattered with a stone tool rather than occurring accidently.
In-depth geomorphological and other examinations of the cave rock walls where engravings have most likely been found will play a significant role in the inquiry as well. First, the archaeologists must establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that the patterns that appeared to be engraved on those walls were not produced by erosion or other natural processes.
They will next need to provide evidence that they were created using tools.
Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the researchers hope to determine the age of the calcite patches that formed inside the apparent carvings after they were carved using uranium series dating.
Additionally, researchers will be searching for any Homo naledi DNA remnants connected to the carvings or any other objects stuck to the cave walls. This is due to the fact that it is known that occasionally pigment and spit that may have contained DNA was used to produce other, albeit much less ancient, Stone Age artwork.
"We are currently preparing to conduct the most extensive and ambitious scientific examination on alleged prehistoric engravings. According to rock art expert Genevieve von Petzinger, co-leader of the Spanish-based archaeology team, the First Art Team, which is examining the engravings in Rising Star Cave, "if we can confirm that the patterns on the rock face were most likely made by Homo naledi, they will overturn scientific thinking on the evolution of symbolic thought."
The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife
The Homo naledi 'underworld's' challenging accessibility is one of its most outstanding features. Today, getting there requires traveling 130 meters below in 30 minutes, crawling through spaces that are only 15 to 20 centimeters high for about 12 meters, and then descending an almost vertical 12-meter-long "chimney" with an average width of 20 centimeters.
The cave complex's geomorphological investigations indicate that Homo naledi's time would have found it to be almost as difficult. Therefore, it would have required great resolve and perhaps even ideological vision for them to embark on such a difficult underground expedition with corpses, firewood, firebrands, and possibly antelope and other meat.
There is no obvious alternative above ground entry to the main burial chamber, which has a 10 meter high ceiling and is located about 35 meters below the surface of the earth.
Many scientists will find it very difficult to accept the discovery's probable implications—that "ape-men" may have held religious and even cosmological beliefs on life after death—because they are so revolutionary.
The line separating our species, Homo sapiens, from our 'ape-man' antecedents and forebears is very significantly blurred.
However, if the forthcoming studies support those revolutionary implications, they might also offer interesting new light on the fundamental causes of the thoughts and beliefs that modern humans still hold today.
The majority of people on earth still hold the belief in an afterlife, and historical and ethnographic data clearly demonstrate that many ancient human cultures held the cosmological belief that the afterlife was situated beneath the world of the living (rather than on it or, in the manner of heaven, above it). The fact that it is a worldwide notion may be telling.
Ancient Sumerians from southern Iraq believed in an underworld named Kur, which means "earth/ground" or "mountain," from at least the fourth millennium BC. The Duat was the name of the underworld in ancient Egypt, and the Diyu and Difu, which are Chinese terms that literally translate to "Earth Prison" and "Earth Mansion," respectively, had a similar connotation. While the ancient Maya, Aztecs, and Incas in the Americas, as well as the ancient Celts, Greeks, and Romans in Europe, the Polynesians of the Pacific, the Inuit of the Arctic, and the peoples of Japan and Korea, all had an understanding of the underworld, there is the ancient Hindu concept of the Patala (literally, "that which is below the feet"). Hell is still a notion in Christianity.
The apparently complex funerary culture of Homo naledi is remarkable because it is the first instance in which archaeologists have found proof of such behavior being used by a species other than ourselves, Homo sapiens.
It's interesting to note that many modern human (Homo sapiens) tribes, from the Stone Age to the present, buried or left their dead in caves, as did several Neanderthal and Homo heidelbergensis communities. If there were no natural caves nearby, people even built artificial ones in numerous ancient civilizations all across the planet.
Rising Star Cave's secrets are still being investigated, and this will probably reveal some exciting new information about the distant beginnings of human cognition and belief.
National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger and leader of the excavation expedition, inside the Rising Star cave in South Africa where fossil elements belonging to H. naledi, a new species of human relative, were discovered
Since Homo naledi was probably certainly not a direct predecessor of ours, the final consequence may change how we perceive prehistory dating back several million years.
The parallels in belief could be accidental or inherited from even earlier prehistory because Homo sapiens and Homo naledi were likely descended from a common parent species long before either species existed.
Recent zoological research has started to show that a number of high intelligence animal species (elephants, chimpanzees, monkeys, magpies, dolphins, and others) appear to have death-related 'rituals', such as standing guard over the dead and, in some cases, covering the dead with leaves and other material. Future studies on this type of animal behavior may reveal further information about the extremely remote origins of contemporary human and pre-modern human funeral behavior.
The Rising Star Cave investigation is multidisciplinary and international, involving archaeologists, physical anthropologists, geomorphologists, and other scientists from South Africa, the United States, Canada, China, Nigeria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. It is currently the focus of a one and a half hour Netflix documentary called Unknown: Cave of Bones.
In a series of trips over the past ten years, many hundreds of Homo naledi bones have been discovered in the cave network. The engravings and the evidence for the intentional interment of Homo naledi people in the cave have just recently been made public. Today, Tuesday, September 9, 2023, the in-depth book Cave of Bones, which is available on the website, was released.
