George Mason researcher debunks popular narrative about ancient human ancestors

Did Homo naledi bury their dead? A Netflix documentary says yes, but new research published by George Mason University anthropology professor Kimberly Foecke says no.

In 2023, researchers working in South Africa on new finds regarding the hominin Homo naledi reported what they claimed to be evidence for deliberate burials by the small-brained species. They conducted extensive media engagement presenting this claim to the public, including a popular Netflix documentary Unknown: Cave of Bones that further amplified the claims. But Foecke, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and fellow researchers have found that the research did not stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Foecke’s paper “No Sedimentological Evidence for Deliberate Burial by Homo naledi—A Case Study Highlighting the Need for Best Practices in Geochemical Studies Within Archaeology and Paleoanthropology,” which is open access in the journal PaleoAnthropology, describes methodological missteps leading to the original conclusion and shows that there is in fact no evidence that Homo naledi buried their dead.

Foecke set out to provide a scientific critique of a specific body of research and to illustrate the need for adherence to methodological and reporting best practices when utilizing geochemical sedimentological techniques. She explained that she attempted to replicate the findings in the original research, which sought to use differences in soil chemistry to identify a burial pit, but she discovered a vast web of errors.

From poor research design through misapplication of simple statistics, the problems continued to multiply. Foecke and her team, which included Alain Queffelec of the Université Bordeaux in France and Robyn Pickering at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, re-analyzed the original data and discovered that none of the soil differences indicating a burial were actually present in the data.

From there, Foecke decided that a broader paper was needed. In addition to correcting the narrative about Homo naledi, she wanted to provide a resource outlining for researchers the correct procedure for using these types of methods to analyze archaeological sites. 

“I hope that this work is able to instill some skepticism in the public when it comes to archaeological research in the public eye,” said Foecke, who is also an archaeometry specialist in the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “We see so often flashy shows with charismatic archaeologists presenting huge claims about the past, but we must hold scientists who communicate with the public accountable to the science itself and ensure that we as a field are doing good work.”