May 8, 2021 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 tantalizing evidence about our ancestors’ treatment of the dead. Our new study, published in Nature, describes the burial of a two-and-a-half to three-year-old child, nicknamed “Mtoto” (Swahili for “child”), at the Panga ya Saidi archaeological site in Kenya. It is the earliest known