Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins - Berger, Lee

n the summer of 2022, Berger lost 50 pounds in order to wriggle though impossibly small openings in Rising Star to see the remains of Homo naledi, a proto-human likely to have coexisted with Homo sapiens some 250,000 years ago. Though the dark, cramped, dangerous underground spaces could spell disaster for Berger, the answers that might lie with the naledi fossils are too critical. It was time to take the risk. 

This exclusive firsthand account by Berger and fellow expedition member John Hawks takes readers inside the suffocating passages of Rising Star to the very places that naledi once traveled. Inside the cave, stand, crouch, and crawl with Berger as he makes shocking new discoveries that expand our understanding of early hominids—discoveries that stand to alter our fundamental understanding of what makes us human.