When did our ancestors begin to bury their dead? This question has been difficult to answer, especially for Africa, the cradle of Homo sapiens. Now the discovery of the oldest grave in Africa provides a new point in time. In a cave on the Kenyan coast, researchers have discovered the remains of a two-and-a-half to three-year-old child who was buried around 78,000 years ago. His posture and the nature of the pit suggest that the child was tightly wrapped in a shroud and lying on a kind of pillow. This is the earliest evidence of a burial in Africa, but older burials are known from Neanderthals in Europe.
The burial of the dead and the rituals and traditions associated with them are an important part of our human culture. Finds in caves, especially in the Middle East, suggest that the Neanderthals buried their dead around 120,000 years ago. The first representatives of Homo sapiens in Eurasia also buried their dead. But in Africa of all places, the home continent of our species, early burials are extremely rare and often not clearly detectable. Therefore, although Homo sapiens originated there more than 300,000 years ago and developed the first modern behaviors and skills, it is not clear when he began to bury his dead. Possible evidence of this are the 74,000-year-old remains of a child in a South African cave and 69,000-year-old child bones in a flint pit in Egypt. Otherwise there are only a handful of finds that indicate a possible boning of the dead or other subsequent treatments.
78,000 year old bones from a dead child
Now a research team led by María Martinón-Torres from the National Research Center for Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos, Spain, has discovered the earliest clear example of burial in Africa. It was found in the Panga ya Saidi cave near the Kenyan coast. Researchers have already found numerous traces of colonization by Homo sapiens in it. “When we visited Panga ya Saidi for the first time, we knew straight away that this site was something very special,” says co-author Nicole Boivin from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Man in Jena. “Repeated excavations have now helped establish it as a key site for the East African coast, with an exceptional 78,000-year archaeological record of early human cultural, technological and symbolic activities.”
In 2013, during excavations in the cave, scientists came across the first signs of human bones, and in 2017 they uncovered a small pit about three meters below the current cave floor, in which other tightly packed, severely decomposed bones lay. “At that point, we weren’t sure what we’d found. And the bones were just too sensitive to examine on site, ”explains co-author Emmanuel Ndiema of the National Museums of Kenya. Therefore, the team plastered the entire find and transported it to the laboratory for closer analysis. “We started to expose parts of the skull and face, including the lower jaw with some uninterrupted teeth and the connection to the upper jaw,” reports Martinón-Torres. From the anatomical features of the bones, she and her team conclude that it is the remains of a two-and-a-half to three-year-old human child. The find was therefore nicknamed “Mtoto” – Swahili for child. Scientists date the remains to an age of 78,000 years.
Carefully wrapped and buried
Closer investigations of the find layer revealed that the dead child was placed in a specially dug pit and immediately covered with earth again. The microscopic analysis of the bones and the surrounding soil also indicate that the child’s body only decayed in the pit. “All of this indicates that the body was buried intact and that the putrefaction took place right in the pit where the bones were found,” says Martinón-Torres. Since Mtoto’s body was found lying on its right side with the knees drawn to the chest, the research team also assumes that the burial was carefully prepared and that the body was tightly wrapped for it. “What is even more remarkable is that the position of the head in the pit suggests that it could have been lying on a surface, for example on a pillow,” reports Martinón-Torres. This also indicates a deliberate and careful burial.
(Video: CENIEH)
“The find of Panga ya Saidi thus represents the oldest known evidence of an intentional burial in Africa,” states the research team. “It clearly demonstrates that Homo sapiens had developed a complex way of dealing with their dead 78,000 years ago.” At the same time, the burial of Mtoto confirms that the burial of the dead is a cultural practice that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals shared. “This find therefore now raises questions about the origin and development of burial practices between two closely related human species and the extent to which the behaviors and emotions differ from one another,” says Michael Petraglia from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Human History in Jena.
Source: María Martinón-Torres (National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH), Burgos) et al., Nature, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-021-03457-8