PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Agustin Fuentes AU - Marc Kissel AU - Penny Spikins AU - Keneiloe Molopyane AU - John Hawks AU - Lee R. Berger TI - Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, <em>Homo naledi</em>, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications AID - 10.1101/2023.06.01.543135 DP - 2023 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2023.06.01.543135 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/06/05/2023.06.01.543135.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/06/05/2023.06.01.543135.full AB - 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 StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.