Archaeologists uncover evidence of intentional burial, cave engravings by early human ancestor

An entrance to the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star Cave system, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Johannesburg, South Africa. Newly found grave sites and wall engravings have led a team of archaeologists to reevaluate the meaning-making capacity of an early human ancestor, Homo naledi. Photo: Jeff Miller - New observations and excavations in South African caves have found that  Homo naledi , an early human ancestor, intentionally buried their dead and made crosshatch engravings in the cave walls nearby. Fossils of  Homo naledi  were first discovered in these caves 10 years ago by a team of researchers led by paleoanthropologist  Lee Berger , now a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, with key participation by John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other UW-Madison researchers. Their new findings, published across three papers ahead of peer-review by the journal eLife, are now the earliest evidence of mortuary and meaning-making behaviors in human ancestors. Until now, scholars believed that the mental capacity behind complex cultural behaviors like burial and mark-making required a larger brain, like those of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens . And yet,  Homo naledi's  brain was only about one-third the size of humans'.