HomeArticlesThe Burial Theory of Homo Naledi Refuted

The Burial Theory of Homo Naledi Refuted

Excerpt from Homo Naledi: The Rising Star of Evolutionary Icons by Heath Henning. This book can be downloaded for free.

 

The National Geographic article stated, “Having exhausted all other explanations, Berger and his team were struck with the improbable conclusion that [the] bodies of H. naledi were deliberately put there, by other H. naledi.”1)Jamie Shreeve, “This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?” Sep. 10, 2015, National Geographic; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/ This indeed was an improbable conclusion to anyone who read the reports released. However, the quick response of The Institute of Creation Research posted September 10, 2015, indicated, “The 15 partial skeletons were found buried in a difficult-to-access South African cave. Their human feet and skulls, plus ritualistic burial, show that Homo naledi—if this name stands the test of time—was likely just another human variety.”2)Frank Sherwin M.A., “Homo Naledi: A New Human Ancestor?,” originally posted Septembet 15: 2015; http://www.icr.org/article/homo-naledi-new-human-ancestor/ Five days later the article was updated to conclude: “Update: Upon closer examination, the skeletal remains given the name Homo naledi show a host of primate characteristics, and evolutionists have pointed out shortcomings with the ritualistic burial interpretation.”3)Frank Sherwin M.A., “Homo Naledi: A New Human Ancestor?,” originally posted Septembet 15: 2015; http://www.icr.org/article/homo-naledi-new-human-ancestor/

The secular evolutionary slanted reports wrote with more reserve than ICR on the initial covering. Posted September 10, Sci-News.com acknowledged the burial theory as a possibility, “Perhaps most remarkably, the context of the find has led the team to conclude that this primitive-looking hominin may have practiced a form of behavior previously thought to be unique to humans.”4)Sci-News.Com, “Homo naledi: New Species of Human Ancestor Discovered” Sep. 10, 2015; http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/anthropology/science-homo-naledi-03224.html The Milwuakee Journal Sentinel September 10 article presented dogmatic evolutionary propaganda:  “Yet researchers are convinced from the number of skeletons—some children, some adults—that Homo naledi placed their dead in the hard-to-reach cave deliberately.”5)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwuake Journal Sentinel, Sep. 10, 2015, 6A The same day post from theguardian.com seemed critical of this deliberate burial option, expressing, “But Berger and his colleagues favor a more radical explanation.”6)Ian Sample, “Homo naledi: new species of ancient human discovered, claim scientist,” 10, September 2015; https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/10/new-species-of-ancient-human-discovered-claim-scientists

The same day ICR posted their update, NovaNext (the very heavily evolutionary slanted arm of PBS) quoted William Junger, a paleontologist at State University of New York, who said, “The chamber is a football field’s length from the caves entrance…. Mortuary rituals wherein pinheads regularly dispose of corpses makes a better headline than we don’t yet have a clue.”7)Nadia Drake, “Why Did Homo naledi bury their dead?” Sep. 15, 2015, NovaNext; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/evolution/why-did-homo-naledi-bury-its-dead/ A month later, theguardian.com recognized in a second post, “Others have criticized Berger for claiming that the remains come from a deliberate burial…”8)Robin McLie, “Scientist who found New Human Species accused of playing fast and loose with the truth” 24, October, 2015; https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/oct/25/discovery-human-species-accused-of-rushing-errors Jamie Shreeve, whose National Geographic article inaugurated all the hype of the new icon understood the claim would stir doubt and attempting to pacify it, wrote:

 

The researchers don’t argue that these much more primitive hominins navigated Superman’s Crawl and the harrowing shark-mouth chute while dragging corpses behind them—that would go beyond, improbable to incredible. Maybe back then Superman’s Crawl was wide enough to be walkable, and maybe the hominins simply dropped their burdens onto the chute without climbing down themselves. Over time the growing pile of bones might have slowly tumbled into the neighboring chamber.

Deliberate disposal of bodies would still have required the hominins to find their way to the top of the chute through pitch-black darkness and back again, which almost surely would have required light—torches, or fire lit at intervals. The notion of such a small-brained creature exhibiting such complex behavior seems so unlikely that many researchers have simply refused to credit it.9)Jamie Shreeve, “This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?” Sep. 10, 2015, National Geographic; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/

 

It would be more creditable if they claimed these pinheads “[w]ith a brain the size of an orange”10)Sara Nelson, “Homo Naledi: New Species Of Ancient Human Discovered In South African Cave,” October 9, 2015; http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/10/homo-naledi-new-species-human-discovered-south-african-cave_n_8115120.html?vm=r&s=1 invented shovels, or even excavators, than to claim they places torches at intervals each time they buried one of the 15 bodies discovered (and encourage us to believe there is more as Berger claims “There are potentially hundreds if not thousands of remains of Homo naledi still down there.”11)Berger as quoted by Sara Nelson, “Homo Naledi: New Species Of Ancient Human Discovered In South African Cave,” October 9, 2015; http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/10/homo-naledi-new-species-human-discovered-south-african-cave_n_8115120.html?vm=r&s=1) and pursued this grueling trek all the while carrying the limp carcass of another evolving primate. Let us consider how the cave has been described for a proper judgement.

The Dinaledi Cave

The Dirks et al., technical paper on the caves “Geology and taphonomy,” desiring to justify their burial theory, reported, “Thus, if hominins were traveling to the chamber, it is assumed that they would almost certainly have required artificial light. …[assuming a scenario of] a catastrophic event during which a large group of animals was trapped in the cave. …would have to explain why the animals chose to penetrate this deep into the cave, into the dark zone, moving away from all entrance points into the cave system.”12)Paul Dirks, et al., “Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa,” Sep. 12, 2015; http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e09561 Of course, they would have to explain why these creatures would penetrate the cave so deep simply to bury their dead, with or without “artificial light.” Especially considering Marina Eliott of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who was involved in the removal of bones, said it was, “some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions ever encountered in the search for human origins.”13)John Noble Wilford, “Homo Naledi New Species in Human Lineage Is Found in South African Cave,” Sep. 10, 2015, New York Times; http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/science/south-africa-fossils-new-species-human-ancestor-homo-naledi.html?_r=0

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “it was dangerous,”14)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 7A “hard to reach cave,”15)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 6A and “so difficult to reach…”16)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 6A NovaNext identified, “The chamber is a football field’s length from the caves entrance…”17)Nadia Drake, “Why Did Homo naledi bury their dead?” Sep. 15, 2015, NovaNext; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/evolution/why-did-homo-naledi-bury-its-dead/ The difficulty consisted of having “to maneuver through the cave’s claustrophobic confines.”18)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 6A The report from foxnews.com said, “Archaeologists had to squeeze through a 10-inch wide gap between underground rocks…”19)Paul Tilsley, “Mass grave of new human relative discovered in South Africa, claim scientists,” September 10, 2015; http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/09/10/mass-grave-new-human-relative-discovered-in-south-africa-claim-scientists.html Other reports said “To pass through one opening, a caver’s rib cage had to be no more than 7 inches from front to back.”20)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 6A The bones were “accessible only through a chute just 18cm wide.”21)Sara Nelson, “Homo Naledi: New Species Of Ancient Human Discovered In South African Cave,” October 9, 2015; http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/10/homo-naledi-new-species-human-discovered-south-african-cave_n_8115120.html?vm=r&s=1 Marina Elliott, who was the first scientist down the chute, said “Looking down into it, I wasn’t sure I’d be Ok,” Elliott recalled. “It was like looking into a shark’s mouth. There were fingers and tongues and teeth of rocks.”22)Jamie Shreeve, “This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?” Sep. 10, 2015, National Geographic; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/

The frightening chute was not easy to get to. First, “The Dragon’s Back Chamber can currently be accessed in two ways, both involving steep climbs along narrow fractures and tight passages…”23)Paul Dirks, et  al., “Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa,” Sep. 12, 2015; http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e09561 Next, “Deep in the cave… a constriction called Superman’s Crawl—because most people can fit only by holding one arm tightly against the body and extending the other above the head, like the Man of Steel in flight. Crossing a large chamber, they climbed a jagged wall of rock called the Dragon’s Back…. Dropping down [a fissure in the cave floor], he found himself in a narrow, vertical chute, in some places less than eight inches wide…. 40 feet down the narrow chute… a passage way led into a large cavity, about 30 feet long and only a few feet wide…”24)Jamie Shreeve, “This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?” Sep. 10, 2015, National Geographic; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/ Imagine, hairy primates with torches (remember hair is very flammable), dragging dead bodies down one of the two steep climbs, through 10 inch height of Superman’s Crawl, up the jagged rock wall called the Dragon’s back, the distance of a football field to a chute 40 feet deep with a 7 inches width which is covered in jagged rocks described as a shark’s mouth to pack their deceased relative like sardines into a small chamber 30 feet long and a few feet wide.

truthwatcher[Image retrieved from National Geographic25)Jamie Shreeve, “This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?” Sep. 10, 2015, National Geographic; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/]

 

The cavers with lights and safety gear only stumbled upon this chute by accident according to one report. “Rick Hunter, 27, and Steven Tucker, 25, had been exploring the Rising Star cave, a place they’d been many times before. At one point, in order to get out of his partner’s way, Tucker maneuvered inside an 8-inch wide crack. He notices a gap where his foot did not touch the ground. He squeezed into the fissure and carefully descended 40 feet to the cave floor. The soil was strewn with bones, including a jawbone with teeth.”26)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 6A These ape creatures would have to “squeeze” through rocks all the way to the chute as these skinny female archaeologists did. “Gurtov, a slender, 27-year-old graduate student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed the tunnel to a narrow opening in the jagged rock, turned her head 90 degrees, and squeezed her body through, She inched down a 40-foot fissure, through cool air and the smell of moist earth, to the cave floor, where she could see, at least, what lay inside the chamber.”27)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Sep. 10, 2015, 6A It is highly improbable that the bodies could have been tossed down this chute according to the description of jagged rock like shark’s teeth; they would not just tumble down into the chamber below. They discovered “the fossils were found in a 30-square-foot section of the Dinaledi Chamber.”28)Paul Tilsley, “Mass grave of new human relative discovered in South Africa, claim scientists,” September 10, 2015; http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/09/10/mass-grave-new-human-relative-discovered-in-south-africa-claim-scientists.html

 

They worked in close quarters; the month long excavation covered a single patch of ground so small it became nicknamed “The Puzzle Box.” Inside it, the delicate bones lay on top of one another like Pick-up sticks.29)Mark Johnson, “Our family tree grows,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sep. 10, 2015, 6A

 

“An exhaustive search by a professional caving team and researches has failed to find any other plausible access point into the Dinaledi Chamber, and there is no evidence to suggest that an older, now sealed, entrance to the chamber ever existed.”30)Paul Dirks, et  al., “Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa,” Sep. 12, 2015; http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e09561

homo naledi[Image retrieved from Huntington Post31)Nelson, Sara. “Homo Naledi: New Species Of Ancient Human Discovered In South African Cave,” October 9, 2015;  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/10/homo-naledi-new-species-human-discovered-south-african-cave_n_8115120.html?vm=r&s=1]

print

References[+]

Heath Henning
Heath Henning
Heath heads the Set Free addictions ministry on Friday nights at Mukwonago Baptist Church and is involved in evangelism on the University of Wisconsin Whitewater campus, offering his expertise in apologetics at the weekly Set Free Bible Study every Tuesday evening. He currently lives in East Troy, Wisconsin with his wife and nine children. Read Heath Henning's Testimony

Related Articles

Other Featured Articles

The Genealogies of Jesus Christ

In Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38, the genealogies of Jesus Christ are recorded. Though skeptics have attempted to accuse the Bible as contradicting itself...

The Word of Faith Heresy