Is This The Oldest Known Burial Site That Doesn’t Belong to Humans?

Amaze Lab

Archeologists often find some of their greatest discoveries about human history at our ancestors’ burial sites. However, the recent unearthing of a burial site in South Africa has revealed that our species wasn’t the only one to take part in such practices.

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00:00Archaeologists often find some of their greatest discoveries about human history at our ancestors'

00:08burial sites. However, the recent unearthing of a burial site in South Africa has revealed

00:13that our species wasn't the only one to take part in such practices. These are the remains

00:18of Homo naledi, a distant cousin to humans. The newest remains were discovered buried

00:23some 100 feet underground, and they predate Homo sapiens by at least 200,000 years. These

00:28Stone Age ancestors were not believed to have had complex cultural activities, such as

00:33burying the dead. With paleo-anthropologist Lieberger telling Agents France Press, that would mean

00:38not only are humans not unique in the development of symbolic practices, but may not have even

00:43invented such behaviors. And experts say this calls into question much of our understanding

00:47of human evolution. Homo naledi stood around just 4 feet 9 inches tall and weighed only

00:52around 88 pounds. They also had curved fingers and had brains that were only around the size

00:58of an orange.

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