'I am horrified': Archaeologists are fuming over ancient human relative remains sent to edge of space (www.livescience.com)

submitted 1 year ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/archaeology@mander.xyz

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Fragmentary remains of two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, were carried aboard a Virgin Galactic flight on Sept. 8. Departing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the fossils, carried by South African-born billionaire Timothy Nash in a cigar-shaped tube, were rocketed to the edge of space.

"I am horrified that they were granted a permit," Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., wrote in an X thread, noting she would use it as an example in her class about unethical approaches. "This is NOT science."

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[-] Hegar@kbin.social 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So yes, despite the misleading title these priceless remains of our shared hominid heritage made it back, safe in the pocket of an arrogant billionaire.

But why even risk it in the first place? There's absolutely no reward and some risk. That's dumb.

Moreover, this stunt is part of a disturbing trend of scientifically questionable promotion from Lee Burger, who was already a big name within archeology after finding Sediba and now on his way to wider celebrity since Naledi.

Homo Naledi is incredible in almost every regard - location, dates, preservation, number of individuals, morphology. It's nuts.

But recently Burger has been doing things like putting out press releases before peer review, timing them to boost his Netflix show. The latest claims of fire, tools and abstract carved symbols ended up failing peer review but were published anyway. They are full of tests not done, obvious hypotheses not considered, specialists not consulted, numbers that didn't replicate and some weirdly partially obscured images. But he's still out there, getting his conclusions into the public consciousness when they are not scientifically verified.

Yet another publicity stunt with no scientific merit is sure to piss off archeologists.

[-] warbond@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Having only recently seen the show, can you point me to more information about Lee Burger? Is there an agenda there beyond trying to make money?

[-] Hegar@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I don't know anything about agendas.

There's a lengthy video from Gutsick Gibbon that goes over the peer reviews in detail. History Hit has separate interviews with Burger and professor Chris Stringer. If you search for 'homo naledi peer review' you should find some articles.

this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023

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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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