ESRF in Netflix documentary

The documentary explores the work of US-born and South Africa-based palaeoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger, who is best known for having discovered two new species of early human relatives – Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi.

“Unknown: Cave of Bones” follows Berger’s journey from the discovery of the world’s oldest, non-human graveyard in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, to his quest to prove that an ancient, small-brained, ape-like creature practiced complex burial rituals, potentially changing everything we know about hominid evolution and the origins of belief.

A long-time ESRF user, Berger first brought the two-million-year-old fossilised remains of A. sediba to scan at the ESRF in 2010. The resulting data, along with that from subsequent scanning efforts, have been used in a large number of scientific and popular publications, and have resulted in significant breakthroughs in understanding the origins of humanity.

In February 2022, Berger brought A. sediba to the ESRF once again, this time accompanied by the specimen of a H. naledi child’s skeleton and other objects, potentially tools, embedded in a large block of rock. The fossils were scanned at EBS flagship beamline BM18, with the process and extraordinary results featured in the documentary.

"I came to this place, this amazing gigantic machine, because it's the only machine on the planet that can take this child in a plaster jacket and scan it down to a millionth of a metre so we can determine whether it is [buried with] a tool,” said Berger.

The official Netflix trailer can be seen below: