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Did Homo naledi dispose of their dead in the Rising Star Cave system?

Authors :
Pettitt, Paul
Source :
South African Journal of Science. Nov/Dec2022, Vol. 118 Issue 11/12, p17-19. 3p.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Human treatment of the dead is one of the most visible and important aspects of our behavioural evolution. Until recently, the deliberate movement of corpses to specific places in the landscape and their deposition there was thought to emerge very late in human evolution, perhaps with the advent of burial by Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals. The remains of Homo naledi in South Africa's Rising Star Cave system potentially revolutionalises that belief: did a small-bodied, small-brained hominin drag parts of corpses into the depths of the cave, and if so, what does this reveal about their cognition? How convincing is the case? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00382353
Volume :
118
Issue :
11/12
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
South African Journal of Science
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
160526849
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2022/15140