CAVE OF BONES - DR. LEE BERGER
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2023
- CAVE OF BONES: A TRUE STORY OF DISCOVERY, ADVENTURE, AND HUMAN ORIGINS
Streaming live here on explorers.org, our UA-cam 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. - Наука та технологія
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.
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.
I think they make a mark when they bury a body mabe?
I listen to UA-cam 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.
I do the same thing and listen to similar. I discovered if something is too boring to my bouncy brain it gets irritated. Relaxation stuff drives it nuts. Anything that it might get too interactive with, like politics, religion, a movie, etc,. keeps it yakking too. Art Bell’s Coast to Coast radio program was the first thing I found to help me. For whatever reason, my brain usually did not feel the need to argue about what guests talked about. it just listened and relaxed and then fell asleep. Since I do not sleep on my back, headphones were a “no” so I had to have the radio right next to my head and low enough not to bother anyone. The radio show ran for about two hours and it was automatically repeated only once. UA-cam works much better since there are a plethora of upliads of subjects that work for me.
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.
I have watched several videos throughout this exploration. This one introduces new and engaging material. Exhilarating developments. Thank you!
Is it possible the cave art might be a sort of map for Naledi to find their way around that part of the cave?
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…
We are not alone. We are not unique, and history has to be rewritten!
I thank you, deeply, for sharing the discoveries in the way you have done!
Fire was a necessity to see at all
wonderful
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.
So good!
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!!!
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.
The smell of the bodies decomposing
Would drift back up through the cave, where they lived..
Possibly??
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.
Mind boggling stuff, Lee is the man.
When will we hear about these molecular results? @1:05:00
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
I loved this!!❤
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.
The scratches on the wall look very similar to the map of the chamber - I wonder if they were intended to show the way to the "burials" ??
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.
Lee, Can you check if the rock tool left traces of rock dust on the wall etchings ?
Man i love this stuff. Thank you!
If you watch the part where they light the fires in the cave you can see a carving on the wall after the second fire up on the wall! You can see it in the low light
This is difficult to digest and at the same time quite extraordinary!
You know, if I were lighting a corridor, I’d want to put in torch holders. Rocks from outside would work.
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.
Yes yes yes
A few thoughts... please.
* I feel we need to do everything in our power to look for and extract DNA from the Naledi bones. And hopefully map the Naledi genome. And compare with known Homo genomes. And/or DNA admixture.
* Culture is not unique to Sapiens. Agreed.
And, I'm curious of how Sapiens and Naledi could have interacted. The clear similarities between the Neanderthal and Naledi scratches/engravings is uncanny.
* The child with rock in hand. I had the images of a group of children being attacked...killed... by some predator. Where adults were unable or too late to drive off... or kill..the predator before it killed several children. The child with stone may have died trying to save the other younger children. Child with stone may have actually driven off the predator. Or killed it. But again, too late to save the younger children. And at cost of own life. But possibly saving some children from the leopard? A lion? A hyena? Who knows.
Homo Naledi. Cool to imagine about.
Dr. Berger & Hawks have been working this site for 10 years. Of course, they've looked for DNA.
Brilliant * ideas...
Or large Snakes 🐍
Going down in there ??!!
Attacking them in their sleep
Or could
They have died suddenly
From carbon monoxide fumes / poisoning??
Still clutching rock in hand
I'm no professional /
Professor
But I think 🤔 outside boxes 📦
The earths atmosphere could have contained much higher levels of poisonous gases from lots of active / erupting volcanos 🌋 .. hence living so deep down in the caves system.
Could
Poisonous contaminated Ash/ dirt / soil have drifted down in there ??!!
Is there any data
to indicate if there were any massive volcano eruptions
Around that time
Where's my comment gone ??
KUDOS 2 the gals that went down there 2 bring all back 2 light.
If they had the foresight to carve from rocks, they probably thought to make torches from wood.
Could this cave site been visited by later more modern humans, could they have done the markings?
Watch DAWN OF HUMANITY. Somehow you missed most of what Dr. Berger shared about access to this part of the cave.
44.50 Can I see an animal like carving on upper right middle? Black lines
At 43:18, does anyone else see a face with the x's?
Does anyone know who that girl was on the team… ??
Im referring to the scratches shown at time marker 43:54.
Might homo sapiens have been depositing Home naledi remains in these caves for some kind of ritualistic reason?
What ? You got DNA markers from those bones ?
dna dna dna dna :) come on sir :)
😅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 ✌️❤️🇬🇧
For real? that will be cool.
I bet
The Pilanesberg volcano 🌋
Had something to do with them
Living/ hiding so deep underground..
And I bet volcano gases / ash had a massive impact on their health
How did they make fire ? Did they just tend the fire they acquired ?
Nature
Lighting ⚡️ = 🔥 😊
Look like that was a name shift hospital of some sort .. keep the sock away so they won’t spread it to the rest 🤷🏽♀️
I wonder if Naledi took their sick as far away from the rest the community. Imagining the sick spread death. Isolate the sick.
Also..
Like the film
The Beach
Plus, the smell of the bodies decomposing
Infectious diseases were not a big problem for humans before 10000 years ago
58.30
Could a flash flood
Of water
Filled upto the dragons back chamber
Trapping them in the rear chamber
The cave system looks the same a toilets U bend..
So water levels would rise up as far as 3 quarters up the dragons back..
Could the # / / \ \ ||
Be marks made from rubbing flints across the same bits of rocks overcand over again to create sparks to light the fires 🔥
Lots of crybabies in the comments. The netflix doc was over-the-top dramatic with its artistic renderings, and of course people slurped it up like it was actual footage. We have no idea what their intentions were and never will. They could have just as likely chucked them in there and tossed dirt over them so their rotting stank didn't attract predators.
well, IMHO, anyTHING that dragged it's dearly departed through that labyrinth of caves was demented, I mean, would modern homo sapien bother with this degree of funereal arrangement?
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...
This doc sounds like a snake oil salesman
wow