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Article Dans Une Revue Nature Année : 2021

Earliest known human burial in Africa

1 CENIEH - Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana
2 Department of Anthropology [University College of London]
3 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
4 UCM - Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid]
5 Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida
6 Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, 07745, Germany
7 Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
8 Department of Geography, Royal Holloway
9 SapienCE - SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour
10 Departamento de Paleontología
11 MPI-SHH - Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
12 Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
13 School of Social Science, University of Queensland
14 The Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, The University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
15 IRAMAT-CRP2A - IRAMAT-Centre de recherche en physique appliquée à l’archéologie
16 The University of Sydney
17 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
18 University of Stirling
19 3D Applications Engineer and Heritage Specialist Digital Heritage and Humanities Collections, University of South Florida, Tampa
20 Department of Evolutionary Genetics
21 University of Calgary
22 Department of Earth Sciences [Nairobi]
23 SERP - Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques
24 Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston
25 UCL - University College of London [London]
26 School of Natural Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia
27 School of Social Science, The University of Queensland
28 Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
29 School of Social Science, The University of Queensland
30 Human Origins Program
31 ARCHE - Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution
Ian Simpson

Résumé

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.
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Dates et versions

hal-03345341 , version 1 (08-10-2021)

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María Martinón-Torres, Francesco D’errico, Elena Santos, Ana Álvaro Gallo, Noel Amano, et al.. Earliest known human burial in Africa. Nature, 2021, 593 (7857), pp.95-100. ⟨10.1038/s41586-021-03457-8⟩. ⟨hal-03345341⟩
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