Question

An anthropologist compares the remains of H. neaderthalensis to earlier hominid species, like H. habilis, and to the contemporary and later species H. sapiens. He believes that H. neanderthalensis were the first hominids to bury their dead. Which of the following would be a valid reason to question the reliability of this idea?

Answer 1

A. Finding a fossil of H. habilis beneath fossils of H. neanderthalensis

B. Finding fossils of H. neanderthalensis skeletons in isolation

C. Finding burial sites of modern H. sapiens in the same region as H. neanderthalensis fossils

D. Finding burial sites of H. habilis on different continents

Answer 2

It may be best to simply unpack each option:

A. a member of H. habilis died and was fossilized in a place where several neanderthals were /later/ died/fossilized. (I'm quite sure neanderthals /did/ have burials). This does not tell us whether or not the H. habilis individual was buried.

B. individual neanderthals died and were fossilized. They may have been buried or not but given H. neanderthalis /did/ (sometimes) bury their dead, these data are immaterial.

C. We don't know the dating of the fossils so we can't say whether this is an indication that H. sapiens buried the neanderthals or what. Either way, the data are immaterial.

D. "Finding BURIAL sites of H. habilis" From the question we are given that H. habilis is older than H. neanderthalis (I don't think they even overlapped in time). Finding the phenomenon repeated on several continents might add to the confidence in the find (larger data set) but it is not central to the argument. These data would indicate that H. habilis were the first to bury their dead, not H. neanderthalis.

Answer 3

what is the answer?

Answer 4

@butternutter The hypothesis is that H. neanderthalis was the first human species to bury its dead. Finding burial sites of H. habilis (older than H. neanderthalis) would refute this hypothesis. Thus, D is correct.