The key question: why?
WHAT drew these creatures with ape-sized brains to this dark chamber 90m from the entrance of the cave could have been an understanding of the finality of death, or even a belief in an afterlife.
“Once you have eliminated the probable you have the improbable – they were dis- posing of their dead in the chamber,” Professor Lee Berger, of Wits University, who led the team that discovered the new species, said.
He said the scientists had ruled out the possibility that carnivores had dragged these hominids into the chamber because there were no other prey items found, nor predator teeth marks on the bones.
Also there was no evidence that water had moved the fossils or that there was another entrance to the chamber.
Scientists also found no evidence that the possibly hundreds of individuals at the site died in a single event.
Finding their way to the dark chamber also raises the possibility that Homo naledi might have used fire. Whether this theory is correct is linked to the age of the bones.
But Berger and his team have been unable to date the fossils because of the structure of the cave and absence of animal fossils at the site.
“If they were disposing of their dead, it suggests that they had an idea that something came afterwards, that they had a concept of an afterlife,” Wits University anthropologist Professor Robert Thornton, who did not work on the project, said.
To achieve their task would have required cognition and team work, he said.
Such behaviour could
mark the origins of human culture, with them taking part in ritualised behaviour.
“Clearly you are not going to spend time dragging bones into a dark cave if they don’t mean anything to you,” he said.
Some scientists have cautioned that further investigation needs to be made before it can be accepted that Homo naledi was in fact participating in a death ritual.
“I can’t imagine them doing what took modern spelunkers with climbing equipment and lighting to do,” palaeoanthro- pologist Professor Fred Grine, of Stony Brook University, said.
“I’d like to see further excavation of the site and investigation of the cave system.”
Professor John Hawks, part of Berger’s team, said: “[Disposing of the dead] is not the way we might imagine it – highly symbolic or highly spiritualistic.
“It is repeated social behaviour that puts them in a special place. We would be surprised if a chimpanzee did that . . . it is very far beyond what a chimpanzee could do.”
Dr Gerrit Dusseldorp, of the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Anthropo- logical Research, said the idea of disposing of the dead was not impossible, but highly improbable.
He said: “It’s logistically problematic to get into this cave, especially for such primitive people . . .
“No markings on the rock were presented suggesting repeated entry into the cave.”
However, world-renowned naturalist Bob Brain, who previously unearthed 140 000 fossils near the Cradle of Humankind, said: “It’s the most likely hypothesis. I think these must have been deliberately put in there.”