Unknown: Cave of Bones

Very interesting movie, but take the opinions of the scientists shown in the movie with a grain of salt, since they are everything but objective. Burying a dead body with a tool is far from being evidence of belief in the afterlife, or any belief at all. It's just a sign of respecting the personal property of the deceased and shows, that Homo Naledi was capable of feeling emotionally attached to things, not only showing emotions for other members of their species. Scientists projecting their personal beliefs and views instead of interpreting the facts, sadly that more common than it should be.

These individuals assume the Homo Naledi made this ritualistic climb in a cave to bury their dead. You're not geologists you're archeologists. The whole cave structure could have been different 250,000 years ago. They could have just walked in and walked out, yet you assume way too much with no solid proof. You want to spin a narrative to fit your story. You're scientists get data before you reach a conclusion. Early on you admitted the entrance of the cave collapsed, yet you have no geologists on your team to give you data for your hypotheses. Please look at all possibilities before televising documentaries that are purely speculative.

The subject in itself is very interesting, which helps the documentary, which is also very well produced.

However, I felt that scientists seem too passionate about the subject to give a more balanced or less biased opinion.

In addition, at a certain point the chief scientist passes by a cave location and makes an incredible discovery. However, how many did not pass by there? How could they not see?

The life and culture of Homo Naledi seemed too romanticized to me, with a lot of speculation and no dissenting voices.

That's why everything in the documentary seems to me to be partly scripted, disclosing possibly previous discoveries as if they were made in front of the cameras.

I enjoyed the documentary and particularly appreciated the cartoon scenes that help the viewer understand the cave system and what this species might have been like. There is one aspect that I just find implausible about the theory of how the bones got to their resting spot. These ape/human creatures somehow ventured deep into a cave system with very tight and steep passageways with no light. It would have been pitch black for hundreds of yards AF advanced cave exploration while carrying their dead. They show an example of how you could bring fire into the cave to light the way. Sure that works for an open area, but the 36 ft chute that is super tight and straight down isn't something you could traverse while carrying lit torches. Plus you'd have to go hours in and hours out which would have required lots of wood. They would have been regularly stuck in the cave with no way to see a thing and died in there. Show me one crew going all the way to the end and back using fire as light and I'm on board otherwise this just isn't believable.

It starts off pretty good, but quickly descents into a very speculative realm. At one point they claim that these creatures had to use fire in the cave, otherwise they couldn't find their ways. Right, is this what rodents do when navigating caves? I haven't seen many torch carrying mice lately. Or, who knows, perhaps the cave layout changed in 250k years and used to be light coming from somewhere. All questions that popped in my head, none of which were answered.

There are no counter arguments whatsoever. These people love their jobs, that's obvious, but I'm missing a different perspective. A different take on their theories that could explain the observed as well. Now everything is presented as fact, which it clearly is not.