A 2021 study describing the oldest known burial by modern humans in Africa hints that burying one’s dead has deep roots in our species. ScienceMagArchives
Some 78,000 years ago, a community in East Africa laid to rest a child of about 3 years old. Its caretakers dug a shallow pit, curled its small body, and may have rested its head on a pillow before committing the body to the earth. A new study describing the excavation of the child's grave reveals the oldest known evidence of modern humans in Africa burying their dead.
The new grave was found in 2013 under the rocky overhang of a cave called Panga ya Saidi along the coastline of southeastern Kenya. Archaeologists and local workers noticed an unusual, pit-shaped undulation of sediment within the walls of one of their trenches. When they inspected it, a small bone fell out—and promptly turned to dust.
Scientists used computerized tomography to peer through layers of sediment to reveal the delicate fossils within.A technique that tells scientists when sediments were last exposed to light revealed the remains were deposited about 78,000 years ago, making this the. Emmanuel Ndiema, an archaeologist at the National Museums and one of the study's co-authors, named the child Mtoto, after the same word in Swahili. The remains have since been returned to the National Museums.
Nearly half of such ancient burials involve children, Petraglia points out. Dying young may have been seen then, as now, as particularly tragic, prompting the community to commemorate the death."Here we have a child where the legs are pulled up to the chest, in a small pit—it's almost like the womb," Petraglia says.
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