Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information Faculty and Staff Publications
Earliest Known Human Burial in Africa
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Keywords
Archaeology, Biological anthropology, Palaeontology
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03457-8
Abstract
The origin and evolution of hominin mortuary practices are topics of intense interest and debate1–3. Human burials dated to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) are exceedingly rare in Africa and unknown in East Africa1–6. Here we describe the partial skeleton of a roughly 2.5- to 3.0-year-old child dating to 78.3 ± 4.1 thousand years ago, which was recovered in the MSA layers of Panga ya Saidi (PYS), a cave site in the tropical upland coast of Kenya7,8. Recent excavations have revealed a pit feature containing a child in a flexed position. Geochemical, granulometric and micromorphological analyses of the burial pit content and encasing archaeological layers indicate that the pit was deliberately excavated. Taphonomical evidence, such as the strict articulation or good anatomical association of the skeletal elements and histological evidence of putrefaction, support the in-place decomposition of the fresh body. The presence of little or no displacement of the unstable joints during decomposition points to an interment in a filled space (grave earth), making the PYS finding the oldest known human burial in Africa. The morphological assessment of the partial skeleton is consistent with its assignment to Homo sapiens, although the preservation of some primitive features in the dentition supports increasing evidence for non-gradual assembly of modern traits during the emergence of our species. The PYS burial sheds light on how MSA populations interacted with the dead. The earliest known human burial in Africa, that of a young child, is dated to around 78,000 years ago.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Nature, v. 593, p. 95-100
Scholar Commons Citation
Martinón-Torres, María; d’Errico, Francesco; Santos, Elena; Gallo, Ana Álvaro; Amano, Noel; Archer, William; Armitage, Simon J.; Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Castro, José María; Blinkhorn, James; Crowther, Alison; Douka, Katerina; Dubernet, Stéphan; Faulkner, Patrick; Fernández-Colón, Pilar; Kourampas, Nikos; González García, Jorge; Larreina, David; Bourdonnec, François-Xavier Le; MacLeod, George; Martín-Francés, Laura; Massilani, Diyendo; Mercader, Julio; Miller, Jennifer M.; Ndiema, Emmanuel; Notario, Belén; Martí, Africa Pitarch; Prendergast, Mary E.; Queffelec, Alain; Rigaud, Solange; Roberts, Patrick; Shoaee, Mohammad Javad; Shipton, Ceri; Simpson, Ian; Boivin, Nicole; and Petraglia, Michael D., "Earliest Known Human Burial in Africa" (2021). Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information Faculty and Staff Publications. 26.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/dhhc_facpub/26
