Back from the dead: Another response to the contextual bases of the Rising Star 'deliberate body disposal' hypothesis

The hypothesis that >1500 Middle Pleistocene hominin bones represent the remains of complete corpses deposited deliberately in Rising Star Cave by conspecifics is provocative. This is because intentional handling of dead bodies might imply these hominins had developed a uniquely human sense of mortality salience >235 000 years ago. We assess the contextual bases of this hypothesis and find they do not, in fact, provide its unequivocal support. In sum, critical assessment of relevant geological and taphonomic data disallows falsification of the null hypothesis that the assemblage formed as the result of a non-anthropogenic process(es). Because so, the 'deliberate body disposal' hypothesis remains unsupported.