"These are the oldest burials ever recorded in hominids, predating the burials of Homo sapiens by at least 100,000 years," the scientists say in a series of pre-print papers, which have yet to be peer-reviewed before publication in the scientific journal eLife.
"These findings show that mortuary practices were not limited to Homo sapiens or other hominids with large brains," they add.
The oval burials located about thirty meters underground were detected on the paleontological site of the "Cradle of Humanity", northwest of Johannesburg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and full of caves and fossils of pre-humans.
They contain bones of Homo naledi, distant cousins of man, with brains the size of an orange and whose discovery in 2013 by Lee Berger had already challenged certain theories on evolution.
The oldest tombs discovered so far, especially in the Near East and Kenya, date from about 100,000 years before our era and house the remains of Homo sapiens, direct ancestor of man.
Burials unearthed in South Africa date from -200,000 to -300,000 years ago.
During the excavations started in 2018, Lee Berger's team also found geometric symbols, lines, squares and crosses, traced on the walls of the tombs.
Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger stands in front of the main entrance to the Rising Star cave system of the "Cradle of Humanity", northwest of Johannesburg, on May 11, 2023 © Luca Sola / AFP / Archives
"This would mean that not only are humans not the only ones who have developed symbolic practices, but they may not even have invented such behaviors," says the 57-year-old paleoanthropologist supported by National Geographic.
Researchers generally associate the mastery of fire, engraving or painting, with the large size of the brain of modern man, as typically in Cro-Magnon man.
© 2023 AFP