A team led by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger announced Monday that it had unearthed the oldest prehistoric burials yet discovered in South Africa, a discovery that would push back the first traces of burial practices by at least 100,000 years.
“These are the oldest hominin burials ever recorded, predating those of ‘Homo sapiens’ at least 100,000 yearssay the scientists in a series of papers, which have yet to be peer-reviewed before being published in the scientific journal eLife.
“These findings show that mortuary practices were not limited to ‘Homo sapiens’ or other large-brained hominids.”they add.
https://t.co/hg4i750kpk
– Lee R Berger (@LeeRberger) June 5, 2023
The oval tombs, about 30 meters deep, were discovered in the paleontological site of the “Cradle of Humankind”, northwest of Johannesburg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, full of caves and pre-human fossils.
They contain the bones of ‘Homo naledi’, distant cousins of humans, with brains the size of an orange, whose discovery in 2013 by world-renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger had already cast doubt on certain evolutionary theories.
https://t.co/iQTIpKnBir
– Lee R Berger (@LeeRberger) June 5, 2023
The oldest burials discovered to date, particularly in the Near East and Kenya, date from about 100,000 BC and contain the remains of ‘Homo sapiens’, a direct ancestor of humans.
Burials discovered in South Africa date from 200,000 to 300,000 years ago.
During excavations that began in 2018, Lee Berger’s team also found geometric symbols — lines, squares and crosses — on the walls of the tombs.
“This would mean that not only are humans not the only ones developing symbolic practices, but they may not even have invented this behavior,” argues the 57-year-old paleoanthropologist, supported by National Geographic.
Researchers generally associate the mastery of fire, engraving and painting with the large brain size of modern humans, as is typical of Cro-Magnon man.
Source: DN
