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Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications

Agustin Fuentes, Marc Kissel, Penny Spikins, Keneiloe Molopyane, John Hawks, View ORCID ProfileLee R. Berger
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.01.543135
Agustin Fuentes
1Department of Anthropology, Princeton University; 123 Aaron Burr Hall, Princeton USA 08455
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Marc Kissel
2Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University; 348 Anne Belk Hall 224 Boone, NC, USA 28608
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Penny Spikins
3Department of Archaeology, University of York; The King’s Manor, York, UK, YO1 7EP
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Keneiloe Molopyane
5Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand; Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
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John Hawks
5Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand; Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
6Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison; 5240 Sewell Social Sciences Building, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI, USA 53706
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Lee R. Berger
4The National Geographic Society, 1145 17th St NW, Washington DC, 20036
5Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand; Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
7The Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW Washington D.C. 20015
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  • ORCID record for Lee R. Berger
  • For correspondence: lrberger@ngs.org
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Abstract

Data from recent explorations in the Dinaledi subsystem illustrates one of the earliest examples of a mortuary practice in hominins and offers the earliest evidence of multiple interments and funerary actions, as well as evidence of the early creation of meaning making by a hominin. The hominin undertaking these behaviors was the small-brained Homo naledi. These data call into question several key assumptions about behavioral and cognitive evolution in Pleistocene hominins. The evidence from Dinaledi push back the temporal origins of mortuary and funerary behaviors and associate the creation of meaning making with a small-brained species and thus challenge key assumptions about the role and importance of encephalization in human evolution. This suggests that the hominin socio-cognitive niche and its relation to meaning-making activities is more diverse than previously thought. The association of these activities in subterranean spaces accessed and modified by the small brained species Homo naledi impacts assertations that technological and cognitive advances in human evolution are associated solely with the evolution of larger brains.

One-Sentence Summary Burials and related meaning making in a small-brained hominin alter our understandings of human evolution.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted June 05, 2023.
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Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications
Agustin Fuentes, Marc Kissel, Penny Spikins, Keneiloe Molopyane, John Hawks, Lee R. Berger
bioRxiv 2023.06.01.543135; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.01.543135
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Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications
Agustin Fuentes, Marc Kissel, Penny Spikins, Keneiloe Molopyane, John Hawks, Lee R. Berger
bioRxiv 2023.06.01.543135; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.01.543135

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