These Netflix Documentaries Are Hits. Scientists Hate Them.

The popular shows are Unknown: Cave of Bones," which explores what could be the worlds oldest graveyard, and Ancient Apocalypse," about an advanced civilization hypothesized to have gone extinct around the last ice age..

It wasnt about making a peer-reviewed journal of a film," said Mark Mannucci, director and producer of Cave of Bones." Theres a tone that I hope we were able to imbue this film with, where these scientists are really asking questions, as opposed to making statements that sound like theyve nailed it.".

In Cave of Bones," paleoanthropologist Lee Berger maintains that extinct human relatives named Homo nalediwith a brain the size of an apesburied their dead in shallow graves in a subterranean cave system in South Africa, where they also carved symbolic wall art by the light of ancient torches..

Cardiff University archaeologist Flint Dibble, who published a critique of Cave of Bones" on YouTube, and other scientists told the Journal that Berger and his team havent presented enough evidence to support that the burials he discusses in the film were intentionally dug and not the result of natural processes, such as erosion..

The lesson for researchers who want to hold platforms like Netflix to a higher scientific standard, Pettitt said, is that they must start a serious conversation with the people who commission and produce these shows. . Ewen, the East Carolina University anthropologist, agreed..

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