Homo naledi was a small human relative known from only one place, the Rising Star cave system in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, where its bones date to between about 335 000 and 236 000 years ago. They are the largest collection of a single early human species found in Africa, and they pair a small brain with hands and feet much like ours. Its discoverers argue that it buried its dead and engraved cave walls. Other researchers, and some reviewers of those papers, say the evidence does not show that.
Thirty metres down, through a 20 cm gap
Two cavers, Hunter and Tucker, found the bones on 13 September 2013. The Dinaledi Chamber lies about 30 m below the surface and about 80 m in a straight line from the nearest present entrance, and it was always in total darkness. Reaching it today means climbing a jagged fallen block, then descending about 12 m through a fissure with squeezes as tight as 20 cm. Berger’s team recovered over 1 550 specimens from at least 15 individuals, and at least three more came from the nearby Lesedi Chamber. The species was named in 2015, from the Sotho word for star.
Its small brain suggested an age of 1 to 2 million years. Dating in 2017 gave a far younger answer, so it lived at the same time as larger-brained humans.
An old body plan, late in time
Adults stood about 1.44 m and weighed about 40 to 56 kg. The brain measured 465 to 610 cm³, less than half that of modern people. The shoulders and pelvis resemble those of Australopithecus, with shoulder blades set high and short collarbones, while the hands and feet are like those of Homo. The thumb was strong, built for a precise grip, yet the finger bones are curved, which is read as a sign of climbing. The legs suited long-distance walking with a human-like stride but not endurance running. No tools are firmly linked to the bones, little is known of its diet and habitat, and its place in the family tree is unresolved.
Did it bury its dead?
The idea goes back to 2015, when the team noted that bodies seemed to reach the chamber whole, in a place closed to large predators. In 2023 Berger and colleagues went further in the journal eLife, arguing that bodies were placed in dug pits and covered. They describe two features in which most bones come from a single body, one of them also holding teeth of at least two other individuals, with bones still articulated or at angles they could not hold unsupported, in sediment unlike the surrounding floor. They say slumping, water and carnivores cannot explain the pattern.
eLife publishes papers alongside their reviews instead of accepting or rejecting them. Its 2023 assessment recorded a “strong consensus” among four reviewers that the methods, data and analyses did not support the conclusions. Martinón-Torres and colleagues argued that natural processes had not been ruled out, nor pits shown to be dug and filled. In 2025 Foecke, Queffelec and Pickering reanalysed the sediment chemistry in the 2023 version and found that all sample groups overlapped, with no detectable difference between the supposed graves and the surrounding sediment.
The team revised the paper, reworking the sediment chemistry in answer to such criticism, and now reports trace-element signatures found only with the bones. The final version appeared in September 2025. One reviewer who had criticised the first version now finds sufficient evidence for repeated burials. Another considers the evidence incomplete, pointing to a 2021 study that suggests an easier way in before the fallen block came down, and hopes that independent teams will analyse the site. eLife’s assessment calls it an improved case and leaves the hypothesis open.
Marks on a pillar, and no male marker
The same team reported at least 46 marks, grooves of about 5 to 15 cm, some crossing, on a natural pillar at the entry to a passage into the Dinaledi Chamber. They have not been dated directly: their age is borrowed from the bones, and Homo naledi is named as the maker because it is the only human relative known from that space. eLife rates the study important but incomplete. The team says the lines differ from the natural weathering of the rock beside them. Garate says weathering or animal claws can make similar marks, and one reviewer concluded that nothing refutes the claims and nothing convincingly confirms them.
A 2026 study led by Madupe extracted proteins from 23 teeth of at least 20 individuals and found no male marker. That could mean only females were placed in the cave, or that an isolated population had lost or altered the gene behind the marker.
