Abstract
A new fossil site was discovered in the Rising Star Cave in 2013 in the Cradle of Humankind
in South Africa. This site which has yielded 1550 hominin bones so far is considered to be one
of the richest palaeoanthropological sites in the world. The deposition of the fossils in a remote
part of the cave system, approximately 100 m from the entrance, has resulted in a great deal of
speculation. The relative inaccessibility of the site and the number of fossil bones it contained
and the fact that virtually all these bones were those of a single species of hominid led to the
conclusion that the bones were not deposited because of natural sedimentary processes, but
that these phenomena were evidence of purposeful disposal or even burial of the dead by
hominins. If this assumption is true, it would be the earliest evidence of a metaphysical
awareness in humankind. The tenuous evidence on which this hypothesis rests will be
discussed and a more plausible alternative explanation where water and gravity were
responsible for the deposition of the remains is forwarded.