CAVE OF BONES - DR. LEE BERGER

CAVE OF BONES: A TRUE STORY OF DISCOVERY, ADVENTURE, AND HUMAN ORIGINS
Streaming live here on explorers.org, our KZbin Channel, and our Facebook Live - Monday, September 11th at 7:00 pm ET.
Join The Explorers Club on Monday, September 11th to hear from paleoanthropologist Lee Berger on the groundbreaking discoveries from the Rising Star cave system in South Africa - the remains of two previously unknown hominin species that could change our understanding of human evolution.
In July of 2022, after losing 50 pounds, acclaimed paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer in Residence Lee Berger was able to wriggle through impossibly small openings in the Rising Star cave complex in South Africa - spaces where his team has been unearthing the remains of Homo naledi, a new species and ancient human relative likely to have coexisted with Homo sapiens 250,000 years ago. So what do these new findings all mean? Join Berger on the adventure of a lifetime as he explores the Rising Star cave system and begins the complicated process of explaining these extraordinary finds - all previously known as uniquely defined characteristics of Homo sapiens that force a rethinking of human evolution.
Photo credit: Robert Clark
SPEAKERS
DR. LEE BERGER
Dr. Lee Berger is a world-renowned paleoanthropologist who has spent the past three decades working to uncover the origins of humanity. He is credited with the discovery of Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, two ancient human relatives. Berger’s work has earned him numerous accolades -- including the first National Geographic Society Research and Exploration Prize in 1997, Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year in 2016, and TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2016. Today, he is an honorary professor of anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Explorer in Residence at the Society where he leads the Rising Star program, which is named for the cave system and fossil site in South Africa where he conducts his research. To date, teams under his leadership have recovered more individual hominid remains in sub-equatorial Africa over the last decade than were recovered in the previous 90 years.

[@missilotze2985]

On the subject of why there aren't extraneous rocks bones, etc in the far reaches of the cave...its a sacred space. Tgey deposited their dead in it. People don't typically trash churches and graveyards. And yeah, call them people. They are another variety of human.

[@billeib427]

I wonder if Naledi took their sick as far away from the rest the community. Imagining the sick spread death. Isolate the sick.

[@jbyrd655]

Hankookian self-promotion and speculation surely doesn't lead to credibility -- though Berger's evidence is certainly an order of magnitude above Hancock's outright and deliberate misrepresentation, subterfuge and paltering...

[@katherineozbirn6426]

Sacred doesn't have to mean religious; something that is sacred is important through the sacrifice of attaining or doing it. The place of the sacrifice (achievement or divestment) is honored. The etymology is taken over by semiotics and metaphor. This place of the naledi was sacred; it's not a cathedral, but the intention in their minds was surely similar. To protect the body of the beloved is not just a human trait. Scientists don't have to agree with "sacred," but that it could be so for others must be acknowledge. Things know when things die. Crows and magpies are known to gather at a dead fellow and cry and do their repeated behaviors. Elephants will gather around a dead fellow in similar fashion. Dogs will protect the bodies of their fallen masters. The little pill bugs in the garden gather in one place over time, I have noticed, where they die. Some animals like ants or bees discard the fallen fellow, yet their structures speak for all and one mind they come from. I know Shakespeare called us the paragon of animals, but we are only the best thing going right now. Who knows who will look on us as someone who might look on an anthill and find us interesting but insignificant according to how that species considers itself. Respect does not mean a person must agree in belief.

[@beaulah_califa9867]

I've been following Dr. John Hawks and Dr. Lee Berger since 2008 when they announced Australopithecus Sediba in 2008 at a bunch of Nat'l Geographic Talks/Lectures. I think there was also a PBS special as well. Dr. Hawks gets around quite a bit more than Berger b/c Hawks is the Borghese Professor at the Univ of Wis., Madison. Hawks has a great blog, has done plenty of lectures on PBS, across the globe, for UC CARTA, BBC, etc. In 2013, Drs. Hawks & Berger announced Homo Naledi together as well. Glad to see Lee out and about. This was by far one of his top 10 talks. Dr. Hawks is HIM w/re to teaching & lecturing about human origins, Neandertals, Denisovans, human migrations, and paleogenetics. On Dr. Hawks YT Channel, he has "lab talks" in which he goes over in great detail the fossilized craniums of hominins.. Although Berger didn't mention it, PBS?NOVA created a 2-hour TV special, "The Dawn of Humanity" (2015), re the discovery of Naledi. I highly recommend it.

[@maxplanck9055]

😅homo naledi genome fully sequenced is on the way, this year or next another of the homo genus fully identified genetically after Neanderthals and Homo sapiens ✌️❤️🇬🇧

[@bookwizards]

I assume that they would have been a tribe of hunter gathers if this was so then this cave would possibly have been near their main camp, and groups would have moved around and returned. It could be that for those who died away they would have been returned and due to time and distance they might have considered that the face or head represented that person's memory and would have been returned to "the Ancestors Place". In human societies infant mortality was a constant and I expect that they would have also experienced this, placing these children with grandma in the "Place of the Ancestors" is a question best answered by anthropologists as to how this is handled in human hunter gathering groups.

[@kkdesignservices183]

Can someone explain how these early hominids were climbing down into these pitch black places? For modern men with all many of equipment, it seems incredibly difficult. Were they using torches? How long would those last before burning out? And what about the smoke? What compelled them to venture so deep inside? It is truly remarkable.

[@carriekelly4186]

Thank you for this amazing video. I saw the documentary. I cried at the end because Dr.Berger is so empathetic and able to put himself in the position of homo Denaledi so we can understand the scope of their ancient experiences. I cant stop trying to visualize the meaning of the images carved into the walls. Just ground breaking discoveries of this pre-human beings.

[@emeryulrich4671]

Is it possible the cave art might be a sort of map for Naledi to find their way around that part of the cave?

[@dink8125]

i cried. It is so beautifully wondrous that these entities have been found. And are being treated so thoughtfully & respectfully Thank you, sir! And Thank You to the Team(s) that have worked & are working on this.

[@lindajonesartist]

I listen to KZbin videos to go to sleep by. Astronomy, Geology, Paleontology, etc, are usually so monotonous that it is easy to see how they could be used to go to sleep listening to. But I was rivited by this lecture and could not go to sleep. It is fascinating.

[@Navigator2166]

I have watched several videos throughout this exploration. This one introduces new and engaging material. Exhilarating developments. Thank you!

[@user-yu3og3ii4k]

Dr. Lee Berger, my mind is blown! I have watched several videos on the discovery, and a few lectures on Homo naledi. This reminds me a little bit of Professor Dawkins Christmas lecture "Climbing Mount Improbable" in 1991 (lecture number three). How far up the mountain have we come in the discoveries of pre-humans? I have a 1000 questions I hope will be answered at one point…

[@Davemmmason]

Fire was a necessity to see at all

[@jeffwalls2871]

Umm words cannot describe this. Incredible beyond belief even though I am not there the feelings of what they must be experiencing is incredible. No doubt in my mind we are all interconnected somehow through millennia and beyond

[@morrisjensen1959]

wonderful

[@big1dog23]

You have to wonder if they evolved using caves and tight spaces. They would have been easy prey for animals and other humans, and the ability to navigate these tight spaces would have been a pretty strong "natural" or behavioral selector. So many questions.

[@user-lo9yn6ji6o]

Dr. Berger I’m listening from Loumount, KS near Atchison. I go to Shawnee nearly everyday for work! I’m a nurse. I follow your work!!! Amazing finds and incredible group of scientists!!!

[@davevann9795]

Interesting new ideas about institutional archeology. Problems that are not the data, but trying to fit that data into existing concepts of the archeology community.