Homo naledi: Ancient Human Ancestors Who May Have Buried Their Dead!
Deep within the Rising Star cave system in South Africa, archaeologists have uncovered what could be the earliest known evidence of deliberate burial carried out by a non-human species of early hominin. The species in question, Homo naledi, lived more than 240,000 years ago, and researchers now believe these small-brained ancestors may have engaged in cultural mortuary practices long before modern humans or Neanderthals.
Photo Credit: L. R. Berger et al., eLife (2025)
The story begins in 2013, when anthropologist Lee Berger and his team from the University of the Witwatersrand launched an ambitious excavation. The Rising Star caves are notoriously difficult to access, with tight shafts plunging up to 30 metres underground. To reach the fossil chambers, Berger recruited particularly slim and athletic researchers capable of squeezing through the winding passages.
What they uncovered was extraordinary: over 1,500 fossil fragments representing at least 15 individuals from a previously unknown species, later named Homo naledi. One chamber, dubbed the “Puzzle Box,” contained fossils so well preserved and oddly arranged that they appeared to have been deliberately placed.
Subsequent excavations in 2017 and 2018 in the Hill Antechamber and the Dinaledi Chamber added further weight to the theory. Researchers found clusters of teeth and intact skeletal remains, some still connected in life-like positions, such as a foot attached to a leg. Importantly, sediment analysis showed no signs that water or geological movement had transported the bones into these spaces.
Instead, the evidence points towards deliberate placement and burial. The remains seem to have been covered with sediment before they could decompose fully, suggesting purposeful activity rather than chance. Crucially, the chambers show no evidence of having been used for daily living, strengthening the idea that the caves were reserved as mortuary sites.
Until recently, deliberate burial was thought to be a uniquely human behaviour, tied to symbolic thought, ritual, and perhaps spiritual beliefs. Neanderthal burials challenged that assumption, but the case of Homo naledi pushes the origins of mortuary practice back even further, possibly by more than 100,000 years.
Photo Credit: L. R. Berger et al., eLife (2025)
This is all the more surprising given that Homo naledi stood just over four feet tall and had brains only a third of the size of ours. Despite this, they had hands and feet remarkably similar to modern humans. Carrying bodies into such deep, dark caves would have required cooperation, planning, and probably the use of fire for light, behaviours once thought far beyond their cognitive abilities.
Whether their motivations were practical, such as keeping corpses away from predators, or emotional and symbolic, the act itself suggests a level of sophistication we did not expect from such an ancient species.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Archaeologists continue to debate what counts as definitive evidence of cultural burial. Many earlier claims, particularly concerning Neanderthals, have been reconsidered in light of new evidence. Yet the Rising Star findings are hard to dismiss, given the sheer number of individuals, the lack of animal disturbance, and the clear separation of the remains from natural cave sediments.
At present, the Rising Star caves are the only known site where Homo naledi fossils have been found. Beyond these burials, little is known about their daily lives or culture. But if the evidence holds, it forces us to rethink one of the qualities long thought to define us as human, the act of honouring the dead.
The discovery of Homo naledi hints that symbolic or ritual behaviour may run much deeper in our evolutionary past than we ever imagined.