The guardians of Western civilization are hailing the desecration of ancient graves in South Africa with as much passion as they’ve been damning the demolition of ancient ruins in Syria.
The team is calling this new species of human relative ‘Homo naledi,’ and they say it appears to have buried its dead — a behavior scientists previously thought was limited to humans.
Berger’s team came up with the startling theory just days after reaching the place where the fossils — consisting of infants, children, adults and elderly individuals — were found, in a previously isolated chamber within the cave.
The team believes that the chamber, located 30 meters underground in the Cradle of Humanity world heritage site, was a burial ground — and that Homo naledi could have used fire to light the way.
(CNN, September 10, 2015)
This is the gravesite of our ancient relatives? And this team is treating it like an archeological prize? You’d think, after realizing they were desecrating more than discovering, the leaders of this team would’ve re-consecrated the site out of respect for the dead.
I mean, haven’t we learned enough about prehistoric humans from the discovery of “Lucy” and other humanoid/homonin fossils…?
Alas, self-indulgence, narcissism, and egocentricity have become so normalized that these archaeologists are all over TV patting themselves on the back for what amounts to little more than an expedition in academic vanity.
Frankly, they are celebrating this sacred African “discovery” with as much sensitivity as rednecks might the killing of an endangered African lion. Moreover, in terms of sheer barbarity, I submit that terrorists who demolish ancient ruins have nothing on archaeologists who desecrate ancient graves. Not to mention that the latter should know better.
I’d say our ancient relatives must be rolling over in their graves; but they’re probably too busy worrying now about being excavated from them.
