An international team of researchers, led by Professor Lee Berger – The Centre for Exploration of the Deep Human Journey at Wits University’s director – have revealed the skull of a Homo Naledi child discovered in the Rising Star cave in Johannesburg.
Rising Star Cave System entrance
The partial skull and teeth of the child are believed to have been about four years old and died nearly 250 000 years ago. Berger elaborated on this extraordinary find: ‘Homo Naledi remains one of the most enigmatic ancient human relatives ever discovered.’ The child has been given the name Letimale.
The remains were found in a passage that is only 15cm wide and 80cm long, more than 30m from the cave’s opening. What’s more, a mere stone’s throw away from this tight space is an area dubbed the ‘Chaos Chamber’, where 1 550 specimens from at least 15 H. Naledi were discovered, with this excavation remaining the largest collection of a single hominid species found in Africa.
The find adds to almost 2 000 bones and teeth of H. Naledi recovered from Rising Star since the first fossils in the cave system in 2013. Analysis of the skull, which include six teeth and 28 skull fragments, revealed that the child died between four and six years old.
The child discovery was part of an effort in 2017 and 2018 to explore the cave thoroughly, where the team mapped more than 300 square metres of new passageways, and described the labyrinth cave system, describing it in a recently published study in the Journal of PaleoAnthropology
Visual representation of Letimela
This discovery raises more questions about how Letimela’s skull was found in such a remote location: ‘The discovery of a single skull of a child in such a remote location within the cave system adds mystery as to how these many remains came to be in these remote, dark spaces of the Rising Star Cave system,’ Berger added.
Scientists are speculating that the remains may have been deliberately placed, brought in by other H. Naledi as a way of intentionally disposing of their dead. ‘We can see no other reason for this small child skull being in an extraordinarily difficult to reach and dangerous positioning’ said Berger in an interview with National Geographic.
Pictures: Wikus De Wet
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