Oldest human burial discovered in Africa
A child perhaps 2-1/2 or 3 years old buried in a shallow grave under the sheltered overhang of a cave
Reuters
May 06, 2021
The remains of a child roughly age 3 who lived about 78,000 years ago and was found in a burial pit at a cave site in Kenya called Panga ya Saidi, the oldest-known human burial in Africa, are seen in an undated virtual reconstruction. PHOTO: REUTERS
It is a scene that exudes sadness: a child perhaps 2-1/2 or 3 years old buried in a shallow grave under the sheltered overhang of a cave, head resting on a pillow and the upper part of the body carefully wrapped in a shroud.
Archeologists discover evidence of earliest known human burial in Africa
06 May 2021 The cave site of Panga ya Saidi, in Kenya s Kilifi County is seen in this undated photograph.
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 on Wednesday.
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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.
The grave of a three-year-old child who lived 78,000 years ago has been found in Kenya and is thought to be the earliest known burial of a human in Africa.
Dubbed Mtoto, Swahili for child, the individual was interred in the foetal position with their knees drawn up to their chest. The gender of the child remains unknown.
Excavations at the site revealed the body was buried deliberately in a small pit with a pillow, wrapped in a shroud, and left untouched until scientists found it in 2013.
Mtoto has physical characteristics similar to modern Homo sapiens but retains some archaic features which reveals their close genetic links to distant African ancestors.