What the Oldest Human Burial in Africa Tells Us About Our Ancestors 06/05/2021
A virtual ideal reconstruction of Mtoto’s position in the burial pit. Image: Jorge González/Elena Santos
How did human uniqueness first evolve among our ancestors, setting us apart from other animals? That is a question many archaeologists are grappling with by investigating early records of art, language, food preparation, ornaments and symbols. How our ancestors treated and mourned the dead can also offer crucial clues, helping to reveal when we first developed the abstract thinking needed to fully grasp the concept of death.
Now we have discovered a 78,000-year-old human burial at a cave in the tropical coast of eastern Africa, which provides tantalising evidence about our ancestors’ treatment of the dead. Our new study, published in
Australian researchers help date ancient child’s burial to 78,000 years
By Melissa Coade
Thursday May 6, 2021
Maasai sitting by the ocean on the beach. (Image: Adobe/shangarey)
The earliest known deliberate burial of humans living in Africa has been found in a cave in Kenya, with the discovery of bone fragments of a small child.
The body of a small 2.5-3-year old child, known by researchers as ‘Mtoto’ (‘child’ in Swahili), was buried in the cave near the coast of Kenya, on its side and with legs drawn up to its chest.
The finding at Panga ya Saidi, reported in
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Researchers first discovered portions of the child’s bones during excavations in 2013 and spent the next several years digging and casting the fragile bones in plaster.
“At this point, we weren’t sure what we had found. The bones were just too delicate to study in the field,” Emmanuel Ndiema of the National Museums of Kenya said in a release. “We had a find that we were pretty excited about - but it would be a while before we understood its importance.”
The specimen was then transported to a laboratory for detailed analysis. Researchers were later able to study teeth and confirm the remains belonged to a 2 to 3-year-old human, who was later nicknamed “Mtoto,” which means child in Swahili.
By Alison Crowther, Senior Lecture in Archaeology, The University of Queensland Mohammad Javad Shoaee
Africa is often referred to as the cradle of humankind – the birthplace of our species,
Homo sapiens. There is evidence of the development of early symbolic behaviours such as pigment use and perforated shell ornaments in Africa, but so far most of what we know about the development of complex social behaviours such as burial and mourning has come from Eurasia.
However, the remains of a child buried almost 80,000 years ago under an overhang at Panga ya Saidi cave in Kenya is providing important new details.
The earliest known human burial discovered in Africa Afp, Paris Afp, Paris
A child no older than three laid to rest sideways in an earthen grave 78,000 years ago, legs carefully tucked up against its tiny chest, is the earliest known human burial in Africa, researchers reported Wednesday.
The sunken pit, in a cave complex along the coast of Kenya, was bereft of ornaments, offerings or ochre-coloured clay carvings found in the region s more recent Stone Age graves, they detailed in the journal Nature.
But Mtoto Swahili for child had been wrapped in a shroud with her or his head resting on what was probably a pillow, indicating that the community may have undertaken some form of funerary rite , said lead author Maria Martinon-Torres, director of the National Research Centre on Human Evolution, in Burgos, Spain.