Unknown: Cave of Bones

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Unknown: Cave of Bones

2023

1h 33m

Documentary

History

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Popcornmeter

75%

Tomatometer

8 Reviews

58%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

In South Africa's Cradle of Humankind, Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger has found the world's oldest graveyard -- and it's not human. If Lee and his team can prove that this ancient, small brained, ape-like creature practiced complex burial rituals, it will change everything we know about hominid evolution and the origins of belief.

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Brandon Yu

New York Times

As the team unearths evidence, the documentary offers a ripe window into the process of scientific discovery.

Jul 17, 2023

Full Review

Archi Sengupta

LeisureByte.com

It’s an emotional and hopeful dip into the pool that is history and the curious case of early “humans” who had the ability to have deeper thought processes than we could’ve imagined.

Rated: 3.5/5

Jul 5, 2024

Full Review

Robert W. Butler

Butler's Cinema Scene

The result is a haunting, unexpectedly moving dreamlike experience that leaves the viewer in quiet awe.

Rated: B

Sep 14, 2023

Full Review

Ready Steady Cut Staff

Ready Steady Cut

For someone who digs archaeology and/or has a specific interest in prehistory, then this documentary has a ton of information that will no doubt excite. For anyone else, the few moments that make this documentary interesting are few and far between.

Rated: 2.5/5

Jul 31, 2023

Full Review

John Sooja

Common Sense Media

The recent finding of a new hominid is compelling, but a lot of this documentary is only about a handful of discoveries.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 27, 2023

Full Review

Graeme Tuckett

The Post NZ

Unknown: Cave of Bones is a well put-together and quite compelling thrash at some archaeology that is still going on today. There's a lot here to be engrossed by.

Jul 20, 2023

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Giovanni A

If you value facts and backed by scientific method avoid this. it's just conjectures presented as truths.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

05/21/25

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David H

Fantastic. Why would pre-historic hominids drag their dead far underground, through tight, dark passages that are almost inaccessible even now? And what can we really understand about them by sifting through their remains? The science, the excavation methods, the personalities involved, the challenges interpreting what's found are all very well presented, I thought.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/21/24

Full Review

J W

A tad dramatized and one of the guys was ultra cheesy/cringey each time he was on camera. It was alright.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

12/13/23

Full Review

Gretchen G

Entertainment not exposition; confronting the various perspectives countering this endeavor would have lent it more credibility. Overall, sad to see the compromise of scientific method and critique/collaboration/consensus of the scientific community for the sake of entertainment. Ironically, it may have had more "entertainment" value if it did.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

12/07/23

Full Review

William P

It was a great experience, to think there was a species capable of using fire and burying their dead with trinkets in one location 200,000 years before humans is just amazing. Just goes to show us that we're not as wise in our historical knowledge as we thought.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/04/23

Full Review

Genevieve G

Loved it! It's enthralling, fascinating and all these beautiful women and men who dare to think and study our past are quite frankly inspiring

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/02/23

Full Review

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Director

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Synopsis

In South Africa's Cradle of Humankind, Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger has found the world's oldest graveyard -- and it's not human. If Lee and his team can prove that this ancient, small brained, ape-like creature practiced complex burial rituals, it will change everything we know about hominid evolution and the origins of belief.

Director: Mark Mannucci
Distributor: Netflix
Genre: Documentary, History
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 17, 2023
Runtime: 1h 33m

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