Scientists have uncovered “extraordinary” evidence of what is thought to be the oldest deliberate human burial in Africa, dating to 78,000 years ago.
The remains of a three-year-old child were unearthed at Panga ya Saidi – a cave on the Kenyan coast, with “astonishingly preserved” bone arrangements.
The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Nature, are the earliest known evidence of a ceremonial act of burial by modern humans in Africa and offer new insight into how our ancestors treated their dead.
Professor Nicole Boivin, director of the department of archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, said: “As soon as we first visited Panga ya Saidi, we knew that it was special.
May 5, 2021 at 11:00 am
A child whose lifeless body was carefully placed in an East African cave around 78,300 years ago has made a grand return.
Researchers who unearthed the ancient youngster’s remains say that they’ve found the oldest known intentional human burial in Africa. The investigators, who report the discovery in the May 6
Nature, have named the ancient youngster Mtoto, a Swahili word that means “child.”
“Mtoto was buried in a sheltered part of a cave that was repeatedly occupied by people over a span of nearly 80,000 years, up to about 500 years ago,” said archaeologist Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, at a May 3 news conference. Local people still visit this spot to worship and conduct rituals.
Finding the Child Grave in the Cave Wasn’t a Straightforward Process
A Nature press release states that María Martinón-Torres of CENIEH (National Research Center on Human Evolution), in Burgos, Spain and her colleagues analyzed the remains of the child which came from Panga ya Saidi, a cave site on the Kenyan coast.
General view of the cave site of Panga ya Saidi. Note trench excavation where the earliest human burial in Africa was unearthed.
(Mohammad Javad Shoaee/
)
Archaeologists from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for the Science of Human History (Jena, Germany) and the National Museums of Kenya (Nairobi) began their excavations at Panga ya Saidi in 2010. Professor Nicole Boivin, principal investigator of that project and director of the Department of Archaeology at the MPI for the Science of Human History, explained how special the site is to the discovery of complex social behaviors in early modern humans. According to a CENIEH press release, Professor B
Bob Weber
Stone tools found at Oldupai Gorge, an African site considered by many to be where humans first appeared are shown in this undated handout photo. To the uninitiated, they look like chipped rocks.
To Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary, they look like two-million-year-old messages from the earliest days of human technology. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Mohammad Javad Shoaee, Arturo Cueva Temprana MANDATORY CREDIT January 07, 2021 - 2:00 AM
To the uninitiated, they look like chipped rocks.
To Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary, they look like two-million-year-old messages from the dawn of human technology. It is really the beginnings of technological dependence, said Mercader, lead author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Nature.