Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger and his team published a peer-reviewed paper reexamining a contentious hominin burial ground in South Africa and argued that bodies of Homo naledi were placed in the caves and quickly covered by sediments. The paper addressed previous criticisms and argued that the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa held some of the earliest evidence of funerary practices.
The team’s analysis is that in at least three instances, the bodies were covered with sediments shortly after reaching the cave, which refuted the idea that the bodies fell into the cave and were gradually covered by sediment. The team maintained that this was the simplest explanation for how the bones of numerous Homo naledi ended up deep in a cave system near Johannesburg.
The authors stated that neither gravity and resulting sediment slumping, nor downslope movement of bodies on a talus, nor slow, gradual sedimentation, nor any other natural process previously hypothesized could account for the position and context of the Homo naledi features, the authors said, according to Science Alert.
The Rising Star cave system, located in the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg, contained remains of at least 15 Homo naledi individuals in narrow, dark chambers, away from natural entrances and animal trails. The placement of the remains in these chambers indicated possible intentionality. Berger and his team argued that hundreds of fossils in this cave system were buried consciously and that the species buried their dead intentionally hundreds of thousands of years ago, long before modern humans.
Homo naledi was known to have lived around 240,000 years ago. Early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were thought to have begun burying their dead around 120,000 years ago. The claim that Homo naledi engaged in burial practices earlier prompted other scientists to seek strong evidence, and the debate over whether Homo naledi intentionally buried their dead remains ongoing.
Carvings on the walls and charcoal fragments led the scientists to think the site was intentional, although many researchers argued that the charcoal was not properly dated, the burial pits were not clearly defined, and the engravings might not have been human-made. Some critics suggested that the bodies entered the caves accidentally through vertical shafts or were washed in by water and sediments.
A study in the journal eLife stated that the bodies were placed in the caves and quickly covered by sediments, excluding accidental influence. The authors wrote that they favored transparency in the face of criticisms and considered the hypothesis that Homo naledi was directly involved in the burial process of bodies. Berger and his team persisted in their research and responded to criticisms in 2024 and 2025.
“I’ve been in paleoanthropology for a long time. You can’t do anything interesting without facing some challenging reviews. What we need to support as scientists is for the work to be as transparent as possible, from observation to interpretation. If we can eliminate the culture of fear around releasing new research and data, that would go a long way toward making research more reliable,” said John Hawks, a co-author.
In 2023, Berger and colleagues published preprints on their excavations that drew criticism; earlier in 2024, Hawks addressed critics and explained why the team published results before peer review. The authors said they favored openness in the research process.
The authors argued that Homo naledi may have possessed complex behavior, including ritual practices. They stated that this interpretation challenged traditional views on the development of culture and consciousness in early hominins, and they maintained that intentional deposition remained the most consistent explanation for the remains deep in the cave system near Johannesburg.
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