The University of Johannesburg centre of Anthropological Research hosted a public discussion with Dr Marina Elliot, on Homo Naledi and the Rising Star Cave.
The discussion was held at the UJ library on 7 April, and was attended by students, guest speakers and academics. The Centre of Anthropological Research, Professor Thea de Wet introduced guest speakers Dr Martina and Dr Matt Caruana.
De Wet went through the history of the discovery of Homo Naledi and the significance of its discovery. She said that in October 2013 Dr Martina was chosen along with five other women for the job, and they discovered 1350 fossils of a new species, Homo Naledi.
“Another excavation in March 2014 headed more material and now they have 1530 specimens. The announcement of the discovery was made last year September, and got extensive media attention. The project was also featured in the National Geographic magazine,” said Professor De Wet.
Dr Martina shared her experience and the science of what they discovered since then.
“One of the reasons I was interested, is that it is part of my anthropology and archaeology training, I have excavation experience in relatively extreme environments. The cave was very remote and difficult to get into. They chamber itself was about 200 metres away from the nearest outside entrance and about 30 metres underground, but to get there you have to navigate through a very narrow hallway sideways.,” explained Dr Elliot.
She described how they worked in pairs of two or three using just toothpicks and small brushes for five to seven hours a day.”Once we had collected all the material, we documented it, wrapped it up and put it into special containers. Once the material was brought up to the the surface, it went into the science tent and got protectively repackaged to be taken to Wits University,” she said.
“We discovered rare bones in the fossil record, which is really exciting. We discovered that Homo Naledi was deliberately disposing of their dead in this space and we are aware it is something that will be debated for sometime. Our findings also lead us to believe that this species is not a human population but ironically this population did what we thought only humans did,which is dispose of their dead,” said Dr Elliot.
She concluded that people have access to an open journal of Homo Naledi findings on eLife and on MorphoSource.
Related articles:
Homo Naledi–new species of human ancestor discovered
Watch: New species of human relative discovered in South Africa
