Were small-brained early humans intelligent? Row erupts over scientists’ claim

Homo naledi was claimed to be artistic, make tools and bury its dead, but warring experts now ask, where's the evidence?

It was an announcement that astounded the world of science and made headlines around the globe. Researchers reported last month that they had discovered burials, carved symbols and tools made by an ancient species of small-brained humans. The finds, in South Africa's Rising Star cave system, suggested Homo naledi displayed sophisticated behaviour almost a quarter of a million years before modern humans began making graves and art, even though this primitive species had brains little bigger than those of chimpanzees.

The revelations were described online in papers that had still to be peer-reviewed but were nevertheless hailed by the authors as an intellectual revolution, a paradigm shift that challenged previous assumptions about human evolution. Religion and art were in our lineage long before we developed big brains, it was argued.