Talk:Rising Star Cave

Additional sources

Lest it be thought this cave system/expedition was largely undocumented prior to September 2015, and with an eye towards WP:RECENTISM, here are some older/additional sources that may provide useful info and perspective.

• MacKinnon, Katherine C. (2014). "Contemporary Biological Anthropology in 2013: Integrative, Connected, and Relevant". American Anthropologist. 116 (2): 352–365. doi:10.1111/aman.12102.
• Wong, Kate (19 August 2014). "Evolution Rewritten". Scientific American. 311 (3): 36–39. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0914-36.
• Brahic, Catherine (November 2014). "Chamber of secrets". New Scientist. 224 (2997): 40–43. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(14)62292-2.
• Bernard Wood (2015). "Rising Star". Wiley Blackwell Student Dictionary of Human Evolution. Wiley. p. 376–. ISBN 978-1-118-33574-1.

Orientation of passages

In subsection Discovery of fossils in Dinaledi Chamber is a statement that recreational cavers found a narrow, vertically oriented "chimney" or "chute." By the description, this is the Superman Crawl, which, like the Dragon's Back, is nearly horizontal. Is this some geological or speleological convention of which I am unaware, or did someone get dizzy? J S Ayer (talk) 22:08, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

To add to article

To add to this article: information about the geometrical engravings on the walls of certain chambers of the Rising Star cave system, which was released to the public on June 5, 2023. 173.88.246.138 (talk) 22:41, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Done. -- GreenC 01:07, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

carvings

could be to maneuver in the dark via “feeling” the markings on which way to go. And only have to carry very little for one purposeful fire. 2600:1700:7890:69CF:7DFA:56DB:3E4F:ED25 (talk) 14:54, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

That's a fair idea, to explain the origin as bread crumbs, and over time they become more elaborate, the original purpose lost to time. For Wikipedia purposes it's WP:OR but maybe there is a source for this somewhere it doesn't need to be about this particular cave. -- GreenC 16:25, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Merge Proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Merging Underground Astronauts into the Rising Star Cave article: there is quite a bit of overlap between the two articles. Besides the names and affiliations of the researchers and a bit of context, the article is entirely restated in Rising Star Cave. Also, the subject’s notability is questionable: although this nickname has been used by the media, the articles that use this nickname in their titles or text focus on the cave & fossils more than the details of the researchers involved. PaulTheBoatman10 (talk) 11:09, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

Support No reason to separate these topics and agree with the overlap and lack of notability to create a separate article. "Lumping" vs. "Splitting" is always an issue with articles, but unless there is a compelling reason to split, it's better for readers to have the information in one place. -- GreenC 14:04, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

I've copied over the missing information and merged the articles. PaulTheBoatman10 (talk) 16:51, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

@PaulTheBoatman10: Your 'merged' version was missing almost all of the content from Underground Astronauts? – Joe (talk) 08:10, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

@Joe Roe: What content was missing? Rising Star Cave already contained ~90% of the info on Underground Astronauts. PaulTheBoatman10 (talk) 08:17, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Information on their recruitment from the lead and controversy section; the description of their work from the 'The Rising Star Expedition'; any biographical details beyond their names. – Joe (talk) 08:38, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

GreenC, this has been pending for a while and the original proposer PaulTheBoatman10 is inactive. Is this something you're still interested in? Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 19:09, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Joe Roe are you against merging the topic, or only how the merge was done? If the later, would you be willing make the merge in a way you think is best? That way we can close out this merge request and tags. -- GreenC 19:42, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

User:Thebiguglyalien, looks like Joe is not very active either. I went ahead and did the merge addressing the concerns raised by Joe. There was actually a fair amount of material that needed merging so I created a separate sub-section for the Astronauts and deleted the overlap in the main section. Hopefully it worked out. Anyone is free to edit and make adjustments and fine tuning. -- GreenC 20:37, 7 January 2026 (UTC)