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Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

biorxiv.org

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Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#11

Post by jrumbut »

MilStdJunkie wrote: post #3

Lee Berger's announcement video on the find - it's long-ish, but it's very very interesting if you're into this stuff. https://youtu.be/fFbgQhY4Yxw Something very evocative is the resemblance to Neanderthal cave engravings (@16:45 in the video) - that same theme of cross hatching, with multiple length verticals. As Lee points out, ascribing meaning to these things is going to be pretty much impossible, but it's very…

I found it interesting that they appear to interact with these fossils that look a little like parasites on the rocks.

Obviously this is pure imagination but I wonder if that was why they felt the need to scratch the rock or create lines to block it from spreading.

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#12

Post by revicon »

greatpostman wrote: post #10

The big secret: “Homo sapiens” are hybrid combinations of different species that have long disappeared. “Non human hominids” are frequently groups that mixed with Homo sapiens. Large variances in human populations come from different hybrid compositions

The statement "Large variances in human populations come from different hybrid compositions" seems a particularly provocative statement. Is there a source where this comes from?

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#13

Post by escape_goat »

wsgeorge wrote: post #7
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #6

Are we only calling Homo Sapiens human? Some how I got the idea that all of Homo was human.

I had the opposite idea: colloquially, "human" is us, homo sapiens, and hominid would be our ancestors and closest relations.

There was a shift in how the word 'hominid' was used around the 1990s, largely due to the introduction of genetic classification if I understand correctly. Hominids (humans and close ancestors) used to be considered distinct from Pongoids, which were basically all other great apes including chimpanzees and bonobos. That taxonomy was retired, and all great apes are now considered hominids.

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#14

Post by mjhay »

In light of recent news, this is an extremely misleading choice of title, given that the orginal was "241,000 to 335,000 Years Old Rock Engravings Made by Homo naledi in the Rising Star Cave system, South Africa".

It's not news that non- homo sapien sapiens had things like art, music, an mortuary practices.

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#16

Post by akiselev »

The news is that homo naledi did these things at the same time as humans despite a much smaller brain size, contradicting the social brain hypothesis somewhat. Their cranial capacity was 465-610 cubic cm compared to about 1,300 for humans [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_naledi

Edit: this was a reply to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36345824 and dang moved it (??)

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#17

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

What is interesting is how thoroughly Homo sapiens sapiens displaced all other hominids.

It seemed in the past, intelligence was more of a gentle curve. Now, you have Homo sapiens sapiens with planes, rockets, global communications, rockets, satellites, and then every other species. The most sophisticated modern non-human primate doesn’t seem to rise to the level of intelligence and sophistication ago even early hominids.

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#18

Post by dheera »

I wonder how society would behave if those homonids were still around today.

A lot of society norms are based on our intelligence levels being remarkably approximately equal across all of our species. What if there existed a bunch of beings on Earth that were somewhere in-between a human and a monkey in intelligence, cognitive, and language abilities?

Would they go to school and be a part of the economy and job market, but with some kind of "no hominid left behind" program? Or would they be pets and get free food and rent in return for being cute? Or would they have their own hamlets and kingdoms and fight with our high-tech cities and countries?

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#19

Post by PM_me_your_math »

revicon wrote: post #12
greatpostman wrote: post #10

The big secret: “Homo sapiens” are hybrid combinations of different species that have long disappeared. “Non human hominids” are frequently groups that mixed with Homo sapiens. Large variances in human populations come from different hybrid compositions

The statement "Large variances in human populations come from different hybrid compositions" seems a particularly provocative statement. Is there a source where this comes from?

I don't see how. Many of us have Neanderthal DNA. Objective facts are only considered (falsely) provocative if the provoked has an axe to grind, or a pursuit other than objective truth.

Re: Rock engravings made by Homo Naledi ~300k years ago

#20

Post by AceJohnny2 »

dheera wrote: post #18

I wonder how society would behave if those homonids were still around today. A lot of society norms are based on our intelligence levels being remarkably approximately equal across all of our species. What if there existed a bunch of beings on Earth that were somewhere in-between a human and a monkey in intelligence, cognitive, and language abilities? Would they go to school and be a part of the economy and job marke…

Frankly, they'd either be exterminated, or slaves.

Extermination is likely because humans generally don't like competition. Just look at all the other apex predators/megafauna that have disappeared (or practically so) when humans showed up.

Otherwise, humanity's extensive history of slavery of anything we can de-humanize would apply to any survivors.

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