Earliest known human burial in Africa
María Martinón-Torres
(1, 2)
,
Francesco D’errico
(3)
,
Elena Santos
(4, 5)
,
Ana Álvaro Gallo
(1)
,
Noel Amano
(6)
,
William Archer
(7)
,
Simon Armitage
(8, 9)
,
Juan Luis Arsuaga
(4, 10)
,
José María Bermúdez de Castro
(1, 2)
,
James Blinkhorn
(6, 8, 6, 6)
,
Alison Crowther
(6, 11)
,
Katerina Douka
(6, 12)
,
Stéphan Dubernet
(13)
,
Patrick Faulkner
(6, 14)
,
Pilar Fernández-Colón
(1)
,
Nikos Kourampas
(15, 16)
,
Jorge González García
(17)
,
David Larreina
(1)
,
François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec
(13)
,
George Macleod
(16)
,
Laura Martín-Francés
(1)
,
Diyendo Massilani
(18)
,
Julio Mercader
(6, 19)
,
Jennifer Miller
(6)
,
Emmanuel Ndiema
(6, 20)
,
Belén Notario
(1)
,
Africa Pitarch Martí
(3, 21)
,
Mary Prendergast
(22)
,
Alain Queffelec
(3)
,
Solange Rigaud
(3)
,
Patrick Roberts
(6, 11)
,
Mohammad Javad Shoaee
(6)
,
Ceri Shipton
(23, 24)
,
Ian Simpson
(15)
,
Nicole Boivin
(6, 25, 19, 26)
,
Michael Petraglia
(6, 25, 27, 28)
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 MPI-SHH - Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
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 School of Social Science, University of Queensland
12 The Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, The University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
13 IRAMAT-CRP2A - IRAMAT-Centre de recherche en physique appliquée à l’archéologie
14 The University of Sydney
15 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
16 University of Stirling
17 3D Applications Engineer and Heritage Specialist Digital Heritage and Humanities Collections, University of South Florida, Tampa
18 Department of Evolutionary Genetics
19 University of Calgary
20 Department of Earth Sciences [Nairobi]
21 SERP - Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques
22 Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston
23 UCL - University College of London [London]
24 UTAS - University of Tasmania [Hobart]
25 UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland
26 Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
27 Human Origins Program
28 ARCHE - Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution
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 MPI-SHH - Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
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 School of Social Science, University of Queensland
12 The Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, The University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
13 IRAMAT-CRP2A - IRAMAT-Centre de recherche en physique appliquée à l’archéologie
14 The University of Sydney
15 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
16 University of Stirling
17 3D Applications Engineer and Heritage Specialist Digital Heritage and Humanities Collections, University of South Florida, Tampa
18 Department of Evolutionary Genetics
19 University of Calgary
20 Department of Earth Sciences [Nairobi]
21 SERP - Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques
22 Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston
23 UCL - University College of London [London]
24 UTAS - University of Tasmania [Hobart]
25 UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland
26 Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
27 Human Origins Program
28 ARCHE - Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution
María Martinón-Torres
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 792772
- ORCID : 0000-0002-2750-4554
Francesco D’errico
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 738812
- IdHAL : francesco-derrico
- ORCID : 0000-0002-2422-3079
- IdRef : 033791899
Noel Amano
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 786425
- ORCID : 0000-0002-7871-2230
Juan Luis Arsuaga
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 792771
- ORCID : 0000-0001-5361-2295
- IdRef : 059082097
Stéphan Dubernet
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 750951
- IdHAL : stephan-dubernet
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4278-3501
- IdRef : 188975683
François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 21105
- IdHAL : francois-xavier-le-bourdonnec
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1051-5337
- IdRef : 121786811
Laura Martín-Francés
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 792773
- ORCID : 0000-0001-5853-5014
Julio Mercader
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 796796
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5637-7937
Africa Pitarch Martí
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 792188
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8396-9487
Alain Queffelec
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 312
- IdHAL : alain-queffelec
- ORCID : 0000-0002-9763-7600
- IdRef : 243518625
Solange Rigaud
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 171968
- IdHAL : rigaud-solange
- ORCID : 0000-0002-9108-200X
- IdRef : 158929144
Patrick Roberts
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 793289
- ORCID : 0000-0002-4403-7548
Ceri Shipton
- Fonction : Auteur
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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