In the fetal position and curled up in alcoves buried at the end of a network of narrow galleries, about thirty meters underground, distant cousins of man in the state of fossils were found in burials during excavations begun in 2018.

The explorers found that the tombs had been filled with the earth originally dug to form the holes, proof according to them that the bodies of these pre-humans were voluntarily buried.

"These are the oldest burials ever recorded in hominids, prior by at least 100,000 years to the burials of Homo sapiens," they say in a series of pre-print articles, which have yet to be peer-reviewed before publication in the scientific journal eLife.

The excavations took place at the "Cradle of Humanity" paleontological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located northwest of Johannesburg.

The oldest tombs discovered so far, especially in the Near East and Kenya, date from about 100,000 BC and house remains of Homo sapiens.

South African burials date from -200,000 to -300,000 years ago. They contain bones of Homo naledi (star in the local language), a small hominid about 1.50 m high and with an orange-sized brain.

The species, whose discovery in 2013 by American paleoanthropologist Lee Berger had already challenged linear readings of humanity's evolution, still remains a mystery to scientists.

With characteristics of both million-year-old creatures, such as primitive teeth and climbers' legs, Homo naledi also has feet similar to ours and hands capable of handling tools.

Small brain

"These findings show that mortuary practices were not limited to Homo sapiens or other hominids with large brains," the scientists say.

This theory, which goes against the commonly accepted idea that death consciousness and related practices make human, was already evoked by Lee Berger when he introduced Homo naledi to the world in 2015.

The hypothesis then created an uproar and many specialists questioned the scientific rigor of the American media, supported by National Geographic.

"It was too much for scientists at the time," Berger told AFP. They remain "convinced that all this is related to our big brain and that it happened very recently, less than 100,000 years ago," he explains.

"We are about to tell the world that this is not true," triumphs the 57-year-old explorer, who goes even further.

Geometric symbols, carefully traced with a sharp or sharp tool, have been found on the walls of the tombs. Squares, triangles and crosses were, according to him, intentionally left on smoothed surfaces, probably to make them more legible.

"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," Berger said.

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

Carol Ward, an anthropologist at the University of Missouri, believes that "these findings, if confirmed, would have considerable potential significance."

"I look forward to learning how the disposal of the remains rules out other possible explanations than intentional burial, and to seeing the results once they have been peer reviewed," she told AFP.

Further analysis still needs to be conducted. But already, Berger's team announces that it will be necessary to "rethink a whole series of hypotheses about hominids and human evolution".

For a long time, researchers have associated the ability to control fire, engraving or painting, with the cerebral power of modern man, as typically in Cro-Magnon man.

"Burial, the creation of meaning and even art could have a much more complicated and non-human origin than we thought," predicts Agustín Fuentes, an anthropologist at Princeton University and co-author of the findings.

© 2023 AFP