Every Homo naledi we know of is female, and the implications are fascinating

But the existence of culture in the hominins that preceded (and sometimes overlapped with) us isn’t really such an extraordinary claim anymore. That’s partly thanks to the evidence from other species like Neanderthals and partly thanks to other evidence at Rising Star that suggest that Homo naledi used fire, something that our species and Neanderthals were also doing by this point in prehistory. They even left behind engravings on the rock, which Berger, Hawks, and their colleagues described in a 2023 paper . Those engravings in Rising Star stayed on Berger’s mind for months afterwards. “Those symbols weren’t meant for us. Whatever they’re meant for, it certainly wasn’t for a Homo sapiens ,” he says. “They were meant either for them to come back to, their descendants to come back to, or some other purpose, but they weren’t meant for us.” Moments after discovery, Lee Berger holds a photographic scale next to a crosshatched engraving in the passage between the Hill Antechamber burial chamber and the Dinaledi Burial Chamber known as Panel A. Credit: Mathabela Tsikoane/National Geographic Moments after discovery, Lee Berger holds a photographic scale next to a crosshatched engraving in the passage between the Hill Antechamber burial chamber and the Dinaledi Burial Chamber known as Panel A. Credit: Mathabela Tsikoane/National Geographic Making first contact “This is our first contact with a—and I think it’s important to repeat this—a non-human species. …