Did this ancient race really bury its dead before modern humans? : Science alert

Evidence continues to mount against interpreting a cave filled with ancient human bones as a sacred burial ground, used long before modern humans began burying their dead.

The Rising Star Cave The formation in South Africa contains the remains of an unusually large number of individuals of the human race Homo is a star It lived about 300,000 years ago, and their strange deposition continues to puzzle scientists.

Then, last year, the bomb was dropped. The team, led by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand, reserved the jaw-dropping claim that the burials were intentional, which would be popularized by it. A Netflix documentary of its own.

If true, the discovery is revolutionary. Standing at the evolutionary junction of humans and the great apes, Homo star Not considered capable of such complex cognitive operations.

Now, a new team of researchers led by anthropologist Kimberly Focke of George Mason University has performed a new analysis of those findings, and finds that the conclusions reached by Berger and his colleagues are untenable based on the available evidence.

„We found deep structural problems in data analysis, visualization, and interpretation, along with misuse and abuse of statistical methods in evaluating data. When analyzing data, we show that the presented data accurately reflects the composition of the samples. The standards do not support the interpretations, conclusions, and claims made by the authors of the same data. ,” Foecke and his colleagues write in their paper.

„We believe the preprint represents an example of how data analysis has been greatly influenced by early narrative.”

Berger’s discovery was Controversial from the start. Paleoanthropologist – Who is no stranger to controversy – Accused of using the journal’s open publishing policy eLife Paper appeared in this, which allows non-peer-reviewed papers to appear with peer review.

Later, after further analysis published in a peer-reviewed paper, the researchers found that the evidence he cited for intentional burials was highly selective. And not enough to achieve extraordinary results.

Now, Focke and his colleagues have gone to great lengths to compile the evidence and reasoning behind the researchers’ findings through Berger’s team’s thesis. They carefully evaluated the analysis and interpretation of Berger et al. Answering their research question; They attempted to replicate the experimental results of Berger et al. claim to have achieved; Then, finally, they assessed whether or not data acquisition followed established standards and best practices.

In all three areas, the researchers found, Berger and his colleagues’ work fell far short of meeting the standards needed to support the report’s conclusions.

Berger’s team analyzed soil samples from the cave, examining the chemical composition and particle size of the dirt, with the assumption that if the remains in the cave were intentionally buried, the soil above them would be different from the soil below.

Focke and his team found that the paper’s description of the process lacked important details on soil analysis, making the data acquisition method unclear. More importantly, Focke and his colleagues were unable to replicate the findings. Their soil analysis showed no significant difference between the dirt on the body and the dirt in other parts of the cave.

Can’t say that Homo star The dead were not buried. We don’t have enough evidence that they did, and many scientists are skeptical of claims to the contrary.

University of Johannesburg geochemist Tepoko Makhubela, a member of Berger’s team, agrees that some of the criticism is justified. Michael Price said in Science. He says the paper is a work in progress and the team is making revisions. However, it can be reasonably argued that those revisions should be made before a piece of research reaches publication status.

And it behooves all of us to approach such extraordinary claims with caution.

„I hope this work can raise some doubts among the public when it comes to archeology in the public eye.” Focke says.

„We often see flashy shows with charismatic archaeologists making big claims about the past, but we need scientists communicating with the public to hold science accountable and make sure we’re doing a good job as a field.”

The findings are published Paleoanthropology.