Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications

Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, United States
Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, United States
Department of Archaeology, University of York, United Kingdom
Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, United States
The National Geographic Society, United States
The Carnegie Institution for Science, United States

Sep 4, 2025

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89125.3

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Tables

2 figures and 1 table

Figures

Figure 1

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Archaeological evidence of culturally-mediated, meaning-making, behaviors.

Dots represent different sites and the error bars are the maximum and minimum dates when available. This table is a sampling of archaeological sites that have been suggested to show signs of what some call ‘symbolic behavior.’ Delimitating what is and what is not symbolic has been the source of contention for many decades now (Habgood and Franklin, 2008; Mcbrearty and Brooks, 2000; Wadley, 2001; Hopkinson, 2013; Deacon, 1997; Anderson, 2012). Traditionally, archaeologists have defined symbols as objects that have meanings embedded in them. Yet a symbol, by its very nature, must be interpreted within a system of meaning and discerning if something is symbolic becomes difficult without knowing the cultural context within which it has been created (Kissel and Fuentes, 2017). We created this table from the published literature to demonstrate that no matter what we choose to call it, culturally-mediated behaviors predate contemporary humans. Such behaviors are found with *Homo erectus* (Joordens et al., 2014), Neandertals (Radovčić et al., 2015) and other archaic populations (d’Errico and Nowell, 2000; Sirakov et al., 2010; Li et al., 2019). Data is taken from Jaubert et al., 2016; Chazan and Horwitz, 2009; Martí et al., 2021; Li et al., 2019; Sirakov et al., 2010; Joordens et al., 2014; Mania and Mania, 1988; Texier et al., 2013; Radovčić et al., 2016; Hovers et al., 1997; Raynal and Seguy, 1986; Bednarik, 2006; Bischoff et al., 2007; Ronen, 1976; Pettitt, 2002; Vandermeersch and Bar-Yosef, 2019; Toro-Moyano et al., 2013; d’Errico and Nowell, 2000; Bednarik, 1998; Bednarik, 2003; Radovčić et al., 2015; Clark and Kurashina, 1979; Ronen et al., 1998; Watts et al., 2016; Roebroeks et al., 2012; Bednarik, 2005; d’Errico et al., 2009; Wadley et al., 2020; Deino and McBrearty, 2002; Berger et al., 2023a; and Berger et al., 2023b.

Figure 1—source data 1 These are the data used to construct Figure 1.: https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/89125/elife-89125-fig1-data1-v1.xlsx
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Figure 2

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Endocranial volume estimates for hominin cranium.

Error bars represent the maximum and minimum ages for specimens when available. See supplemental material for references. Hawks, 2023. Endocranial volumes for fossil hominins (dataset): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22743980.

Tables

Table 1

Table of evidence of potential mortuary behavior in hominins.

Site	Type of site	Multiple bodies	Type	Skeletal age of specimen(s)	Age Estimate (in ka)	Species	Reference
Krems-Wachtberg	open air	yes	burial	infants	31	Homo sapiens	Teschler-Nicola et al., 2020
Lake Mungo	open air	yes	burial	adults	40	Homo sapiens	Bowler et al., 2003
Taramsa hills	open air	no	burial	child (8–10 yrs old)	45	Homo sapiens	Vermeersch et al., 1998
La Ferrasie	cave	yes	burial	children?	45	Neandertal	Gómez-Olivencia et al., 2018
Shanidar	cave	yes	burial	adults, infants, 2–3 yr old	45	Neandertal	Pomeroy et al., 2020
Mezmaiskaya Cave,	cave	no	burial	infant	45	Neandertal	Golovanova et al., 1999
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1	cave	no	burial	adult	50	Neandertal	Rendu et al., 2014
Dederiyeh Cave,	cave	yes	burial	children	50	Neandertal	Akazawa et al., 1999
Régourdou Cave	cave	no	burial	adult	50	Neandertal	Maureille et al., 2001
Kebara	cave	yes	burial	child and adult	55	Neandertal	Pettitt, 2011
Amud	cave	yes	burial	infant and adults	60	Neandertal	Hovers et al., 2000
Roc de Marsal	cave	no	Burial?	child	70	Neandertal	Maureille and Knüsel, 2022
Panga ya Saidi	cave	no	burial	2.5–3 yrs old	78	Homo sapiens	Martinón-Torres et al., 2021
Qafzeh	cave	yes	burial	children and adults	100	Homo sapiens	Vandermeersch and Bar-Yosef, 2019
Skhul	cave	yes	burial	adults and children	110	Homo sapiens	Ronen, 1976
Tabun	cave	yes	burial	adult (maybe neonate?)	120	Neandertal	Pettitt, 2002
Border Cave	cave	yes	burial	adult and infants	74	Homo sapiens	d’Errico and Backwell, 2016
Sima de los huesos	pit	yes	caching/mortuary behavior	adults and children	500	Neandertal	Bischoff et al., 2007
Moula-Guercy	cave	yes	modification/ mortuary behavior?	adults and children			Defleur et al., 1999
Herto	open air	no	modification/ mortuary behavior?	adult	160	Homo sapiens	White et al., 2003
El Sidron	cave	yes	modification/ mortuary behavior?	adults and children	480	Neandertal	Rosas et al., 2006
Bodo	open air	no	modification/ mortuary behavior?	adult	600	Homo sapiens	White, 1986
Gran Dolina	cave	na	modification/ mortuary behavior?	adult and children	800	Homo sapiens	Fernández-Jalvo et al., 1999
Sterkfontein	cave	no	modification/ mortuary behavior?	adult	1635	Australopithecus	Pickering et al., 2000
Krapina	cave	yes	mortuary behavior	many age ranges	130	Neandertal	Russell, 1987
AL-333	open air	yes	mortuary behavior?	adults, juveniles and infants	3200	Australopithecus afarensis	Pettitt, 2011