Meet Our newest Ancestors Homo Naledi

                                                    Homo Naledi
Domain : Eukarya
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Chordata
Subphylum : Vertebrata
Class : Mammalia
Order : Primates
Family : Hominidae
Sub Family : Homininae
Tribe : Hominini
Subtribe : Hominina
Genus : Homo
Species : Homo Naledi

A team of Paleoanthropologists under Lee Berger went into the Rising Star Cave in Gauteng Province in South Africa in 2013 and till 2016 fossils were found there and these fossils have been proposed to represent he extinct species of the hominin Homo Naledi.

 The Rising Star Cave











The excavation team consisted six paleoanthropologists who were all female and could pass through an openeing only seven inches ( 18 cm ) wide to acess the Dinaledi chamber. Those chosen were Hannah Morris , Marina Elliot , Becca Peixotto , Alia Gurtov , Lindsay Eaves and Ellen Feuerriegel.
They have since been named the Underground Astronauts .
More than 1200 fossils were found in the Dinaledi Chamber and catalouged in November 2013 representing atleast a dozen individuals . Only 20 out of 206 bones of the human body were not found in the chamber.

As of September 2015 fossils of atleast 15 individuals , amounting to 1550 specimens , had been excavated from the cave. About 300 bone fragments were found from the surface of the Dinaledi  Chamber  and about 1250 fossil specimens  were recovered from the chamber's excavation pit . The fossils include skull ,jaws , ribs , teeth , bones of an almost complete foot , of a hand and of an inner ear. The bones of old , young and infant individuals were found .

ARTISTS IMPRESSION OF THE HOMO NALEDI

Anthropologist John D Hawkes from the University of Wisconsin Madinson who was a member of the team stated that the scientific facts are that all bones recovered are hominid except for those of an owl. There is no sign of predation and and there is no predator that  accumulates  only hominids this way and the bones were not accumulated here all at once . There is no evidence of rocks falling into the cave along with the  bones or the bones having been flown here along with water . Lee Berger and his team have suggested that the best hypothesis that these individuals were capable of ritualistic behaviour . They speculate that the placing of dead bodies in the cave was a ritualistic behaviour , a sign of symbolic thought which implies that they had intelligence and were similar to human species

The homo naledi fossils are the largest collection of fossils found of a single species of hominin in Africa and provides information about the early evolution of humans.



Picture Right - Skeletons Discovered

49,000 years ago South Africans used Milk-based Painting

While the use of ochre by early humans dates to at least 250,000 years ago in Europe and Africa,  this sis the first time a paint containing ochre and milk has ever been found in association with early humans in South Africa, said Poala Villa a curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural history and lead study author. The milk likely was obtained by killing lactating members of the bovid family such as buffalo, eland, kudu and impala, she said.

The powdered paint mixture was found on the edge of a small stone flake in a layer of Sibudu Cave, a rock shelter in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Africa, that was occupied by anatomically modern humans in the Middle Stone Age from roughly  77,000 years ago to about 38,000 years ago. Said Villa. While ochre powder production and its use are documented in a number of Middle Stine Age South African sites, there has been no evidence of the use of milk as a chemical binding agent until this discovery.

Cattle were not domesticated in South Africa until 1,000 to 2,000 years ago and Wild South African Bovids are known to separate from the herd when giving birth and usually attempt to hide their young, a behavior that may have made them easy prey for experienced Middle Stone Age hunters. 

Source: University of Colorado

Archaeologists Uncover Entrance Gates, Fortification of Ancient City

The fortifications and entrance of the biblical city of Gath of the Philistines - home of Goliath and the largest city in the land during the 10th -9th century BCE, about the time of the 'Untied Kingdom' of Israel and King Aheb of Israel - has been found by investigators. The excavations are being conducted in the Tel Zafit National Park, located in the Judean Foothills, about halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon in Central Israel. 

The city gate of Philistines Gath is referred to in the Bible (in I Samuel 21) in the story's of David's escape from King Saul to Achish, King of Gath.

Source : Bar-Ilan University