Archeologists often find some of their greatest discoveries about human history at our ancestors’ burial sites. However, the recent unearthing of a burial site in South Africa has revealed that our species wasn’t the only one to take part in such practices.
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00:00Archaeologists often find some of their greatest discoveries about human history at our ancestors'
00:09burial sites.
00:10However, the recent unearthing of a burial site in South Africa has revealed that our
00:14species wasn't the only one to take part in such practices.
00:17These are the remains of Homo naledi, a distant cousin to humans.
00:21The newest remains were discovered buried some 100 feet underground, and they predate
00:25Homo sapiens by at least 200,000 years.
00:28These Stone Age ancestors were not believed to have had complex cultural activities, such
00:33as burying the dead, with paleoanthropologist Lee Berger telling Agence France-Presse that
00:38would mean not only are humans not unique in the development of symbolic practices,
00:42but may not have even invented such behaviors.
00:44And experts say this calls into question much of our understanding of human evolution.
00:49Homo naledi stood around just 4 feet 9 inches tall and weighed only around 88 pounds.
00:54They also had curved fingers and had brains that were only around the size of an orange.