In 2013, deep inside South Africa’s Rising Star cave system, scientists discovered the remains of Homo naledi, an ancient human species with a brain just one-third the size of ours. Yet some evidence suggests they may have intentionally placed their dead there. If true, this would push the birth of burial rituals back hundreds of thousands of years and challenge the idea that complex emotions like grief require big brains. Were these ancient humans performing funerals? Or are we reading too much into the evidence? This is the story of Homo naledi and a discovery that forces us to rethink what it truly means to be human.
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