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 tantalising evidence about our ancestors’ treatment of the dead. Our new study, published in Nature, describes the burial of a 2½ to 3-year-old child, nicknamed “Mtoto” (Swahili for “child”), at the Panga ya Saidi archaeological site in Kenya. It is the earliest known
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
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NATHAN, AUSTRALIA According to a
Science Newsreport, calcite crystals and fragments of burned ostrich eggshell and animal bone dated to 105,000 years ago have been unearthed in a rock shelter in southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert, more than 350 miles from the coast. Archaeologist Jayne Wilkins of Griffith University and her colleagues suggest that the eggshells may have been used as water containers, as they are sometimes used by modern hunter-gatherers, or were discarded after the contents were eaten. Some of the animal bones bear butchery marks. The calcite crystals, Wilkins added, are thought to have come from sources located about 1.5 miles from the rock shelter. None of the crystals had been modified for use as tools, and may therefore have held ritual or symbolic significance, she explained. Stone tools and a piece of red pigment bearing scrape marks were also recovered at the site, however. It had been previously suggested that cultural innovation at this time was centered