Deep underground in a complex cave system in South Africa, scientists discovered something that may change what we think we know about the evolution of death rituals. Homo naledi seems to have brought their dead into these remote chambers of the Rising Star cave system and left them there, almost like some sort of burial funeral ceremony.
This is a controversial idea, and many alternatives have been proposed, from flood waters washing the bones in, to dumping or pure coincidence. Whatever the reality, it’s intriguing to think that our smaller-brained relatives may have had the capacity for complex ceremonial behaviour.
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