Remains of child uncovered in Africa’s ‘oldest burial site’
Scientists have uncovered "extraordinary" evidence of what is thought to be the oldest deliberate human burial in Africa, dating to 78,000 years ago.
The remains of a three-yearold child were unearthed at Panga ya Saidi - a cave on the Kenyan coast, with "astonishingly preserved" bone arrangements.
The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Nature, are the earliest known evidence of a ceremonial act of burial by modern humans in Africa and offer new insight into how our ancestors treated their dead.
Professor Nicole Boivin, director of the department of archaeology at the Max Planck
Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, said: "As soon as we first visited Panga ya Saidi, we knew that it was special.
"The site is truly one of a kind. "Repeated seasons of excavation at Panga ya Saidi have now helped to establish it as a key type site for the East African coast, with an extraordinary 78,000-year record of early human cultural, technological and symbolic activities."
Portions of the child's bones were first found in 2013 but it was not until 2017 the remains were fully exposed.
They were too delicate to study in the field so the researchers took the bones to laboratories in Spain to examine them.
Analysis of the two teeth found in the remains revealed they belonged to a child, nicknamed Mtoto, between twoand-a-half and three years old.
Scientists at the National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos, Spain, then began the painstaking task of uncovering the rest of the remains, which included parts of the skull and face, with teeth in the lower jawbone, as well as the spine and the ribs.
Professor Maria Martinontorres, director at CENIEH, said: "The articulation of the spine and the ribs was also astonishingly preserved, even conserving the curvature of the thorax cage.
"This suggested that it was an undisturbed burial and that the decomposition of the body took place right in the pit where the bones were found."