Were the Hill Antechamber and Dinaledi features bodies placed in dug pits and deliberately covered?
Four answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Four answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Four are still possible. Of the two narrower questions under it, none is answered yet.
Answers 4
History
- Val puts forward: bodies were placed or left on the floor or in natural hollows and became covered as the sediment moved and…
- Wiersma et al.: the fossil-bearing sediment forms by autobrecciation and is reworked in place, so hollows and chemical…Against: H. naledi dug hollows in the chamber floor, laid bodies in them and covered them with sediment; some features…
- eLife reviewers puts forward: bodies were buried by gravity-driven slumping or collapse of sediment within the chamber.
- eLife reviewers: reviewers found no demonstrated pit cut, no micromorphology of the disturbed sediment and no full excavation…Against: H. naledi dug hollows in the chamber floor, laid bodies in them and covered them with sediment; some features…
- eLife reviewers: reviewers note articulated elements are commingled with disarticulated ones from the same or different…For: Bodies were placed or left on the floor or in natural hollows and became covered as the sediment moved and…
- eLife reviewers: a 2023 reviewer faulted the first version for not weighing erosion and slumping.For: Bodies were buried by gravity-driven slumping or collapse of sediment within the chamber.
- Martinón-Torres et al.: published critique finds neither dug pits nor deliberate covering demonstrated.Against: H. naledi dug hollows in the chamber floor, laid bodies in them and covered them with sediment; some features…
- Berger et al. puts forward: h. naledi dug hollows in the chamber floor, laid bodies in them and covered them with sediment; some features…
- Berger et al.: articulated, matrix-supported skeletal regions show bodies were covered before soft tissue decayed.For: H. naledi dug hollows in the chamber floor, laid bodies in them and covered them with sediment; some features…
- eLife editors and reviewers: one of the two final reviewers judged the evidence to convincingly show intentional burial.For: H. naledi dug hollows in the chamber floor, laid bodies in them and covered them with sediment; some features…
- Berger et al.: the 2025 paper argues that decomposition on the floor or in a shallow depression is excluded by the spatial…Against: Bodies were placed or left on the floor or in natural hollows and became covered as the sediment moved and…
- Berger et al.: the 2025 paper argues the topography and sediment observations exclude slumping as the cause of rapid…Against: Bodies were buried by gravity-driven slumping or collapse of sediment within the chamber.
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