Animism: 78,000 Years Old Deliberate Burial of a Human Child in Kenya, Africa

78,000 Years Ago

“Mtoto’s burial, to experts it is believed the child was around three years old when they died and was likely wrapped in a shroud and had their head on a pillow. Besides the seemingly deliberate position of the body, the team noticed a few clues that suggested the child was swaddled in cloth, possibly with the intention of preserving the corpse. They also speculate the body was placed in a cave fissure — known as funerary caching — before being covered with sediment.” ref, ref

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Scientists find Africa’s oldest human burial, a child from 78,000 years ago

“The discovery of a deliberately buried toddler may offer new insights into the Middle Stone Age, a key period in the human timeline. A cluster of 78,000-year-old bones found at the mouth of a Kenyan cave represents the earliest known human burial in Africa, shedding light on how our ancient ancestors interacted with the dead. The remains belong to a Middle Stone Age child believed to have been between 2.5 and 3 years old. The bones of the toddler, whom scientists nicknamed Mtoto (“child” in Swahili), come from the Panga ya Saidi cave complex in coastal southeast Kenya. The excavation site has yielded a rich trove of historical artifacts, including beads made from seashells and thousands of tools that reflect technological shifts from the Middle Stone Age to the Later Stone Age.” ref

“When archaeologists found Mototo’s highly decomposed remains, they couldn’t immediately identify them as human. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the National Museums of Kenya detail how they came to conclude, through microscopic analysis of the bones and the surrounding soil, that the skeleton in a cave’s shallow circular pit belonged to a child who’d intentionally been laid to rest.” ref

“Deliberate burial of the dead is so far confined to just Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, setting us apart from all other ancient hominins, and any other animal,” Nicole Boivin, an archaeological scientist, and director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, tells me. “Study of mortuary and burial practices gives us insight into the evolution of our own species, our thoughts, emotions and cosmological beliefs, and what it means to be human.” ref

“Earlier hominins also treated the dead in special ways. For example, the archaic human species Homo Naledi appears to have placed bodies in the back of South Africa’s Rising Star Cave about 300,000 years ago. That’s a practice referred to as funerary caching. Mtoto’s case, in contrast, demonstrates a more complex process through evidence of a purposefully excavated pit followed by an intentional covering of the corpse. The child appears to have been prepared for a tightly shrouded burial, placed on one side with knees drawn toward the chest. Even more notable is that the position of the child’s head suggests it rested on some sort of support, like a pillow. That indicates the community may have performed a mourning rite.” ref

The archaeologists first came upon parts of the bones in 2013, and four years later, discovered the burial pit about 10 feet (3 meters) under the cave floor. “At this point, we weren’t sure what we had found,” says Emmanuel Ndiema of the National Museums of Kenya. “The bones were just too delicate to study in the field. So we had a find that we were pretty excited about, but it would be a while before we understood its importance.” ref

“Once they made plaster casts of the remains they brought those to the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain, for further study. It was there the team started uncovering parts of the skull and face, which still had some unerupted teeth in place. “The articulation of the spine and the ribs was also astonishingly preserved, even conserving the curvature of the thorax cage, suggesting that it was an undisturbed burial and that the decomposition of the body took place right in the pit where the bones were found,” says professor María Martinón-Torres, director of the center.” ref

“The origin and evolution of human mortuary practices are subjects of intense interest and debate, as they can help reconstruct the past by illuminating details on cognition, migration, social strata, disease, religion, and more. Evidence of burials of both Neanderthals and modern humans in Eurasia date back earlier in the Middle Stone Age, to as far as 120,000 years ago. But evidence of burials in Africa have been scarce, and hard to attach exact dates to.” ref

“It is great to have such a well-dated example of a modern human from Africa being buried,” says Professor Andy Herries, head of archaeology at Australia’s La Trobe University, who isn’t affiliated with the Nature study. “I think, however, that the find, while being very important, perhaps raises more questions than it answers.” ref

“Questions, for example, about whether humans of the time buried one another according to specific rituals or whether our earliest ancestors thought about death and the afterlife the same way we do today. Still, for anyone interested in human evolution, it’s an exciting discovery — both for what it could teach us about our forebears and the way it unfolded layer by sedimentary layer.” ref

“Herries calls Panga ya Saidi one of the most significant archaeological sites in the world. Archaeologists, geologists, earth scientists, paleoecologists, and biological anthropologists plan to continue excavating the cave complex for more insights into the world of Mtoto, Mtoto’s ancestors, and the people who followed.” ref

(Reuters) – “It is a scene that exudes sadness: a child perhaps 2-1/2 or 3 years old buried in a shallow grave under the sheltered overhang of a cave, head resting on a pillow and the upper part of the body carefully wrapped in a shroud.”

Panga ya Saidi

“Panga ya Saidi is an archaeological cave site located in Kilifi County, southeastern Kenya, about 15 km from the Indian Ocean in the Dzitsoni limestone hills. The cave site has rich archaeological deposits dating to the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and Iron Age. Excavated deposits preserve an unusually long record of human activities, from around 78,000 years ago until around 400 years ago, a chronology supported by radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating. This sequence puts Panga ya Saidi alongside other key sites such as Enkapune ya Muto, Mumba Rockshelter, and Nasera Rockshelter that are important for understanding the Late Pleistocene and the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in eastern Africa.” ref

“The archaeological potential of Panga ya Saidi was first noted by Robert Soper and later by Richard Helm. Beginning in 2010, the cave site has been excavated by the Sealinks Project, headed by Nicole Boivin. The interdisciplinary archaeological project now based at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in partnership with the National Museums of Kenya. These investigations have helped to establish the significance of Panga ya Saidi for understanding the Middle to Later Stone Age technological transition and the proliferation of symbolic objects such as bone tools, engraved ochre, and beads in Late Pleistocene eastern Africa. ” ref

“Zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis have been used to reconstruct Late Pleistocene and Holocene paleoecology and subsistence from animal bone remains. Investigations have also focused on the role of the site in late Holocene agricultural and trading networks along the Swahili coast, with African crops such as pearl millet, nonnative animals such as black rat, marine shell beads, glass beads, and Tana ware pottery documented in the Iron Age deposits. Ancient DNA recovered from a 400-year-old burial indicated that this individual was most closely related to ancient and present-day hunter-gatherers in eastern Africa, including the ancient individual at Mota, Ethiopia.” ref

“The site is located in Southern Kenya’s Nyali Coast region. This area includes the counties of Kilifi, Mombasa, Kwale. This region includes the limestone Dzitsoni Uplands. Thirteen rivers extend across the area, creating floodplains and alluvial valleys. The site’s environmental surroundings are part of an overall transition from low coastal plains to coastal uplands to high coastal plains. In the northern part of the region, the low and high coastal plains are separated by a foot plateau. The southern part of the region differs in that the low and high coastal plains are instead divided by a coastal range. This coastal range is defined by steep hills and erosional scarps. In terms of vegetation, the site is situated on the edge of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest, is overlooking the Shale Savannah, and is west of the Lowland Dry Forest on Coral Rag and the Mangrove Thicket on the low coastal plains. The region experiences two rainy seasons. The first short rainy season spans from October to December, and is followed by a long rainy season spanning from April to June.” ref

“Based on a 3-meter deep excavation of the archaeological site, a sequence of 19 layers were found and divided by three lithographic boundaries into four groups. The oldest group consisted of Layers 19 – 17 (dated to 76,000-73,000 years ago) characterized primarily by reddish-brown clay loams with bone fragments from mollusk shells and mammals, and appears to lack any structures. The unit is interpreted as a period of sporadic human occupation. Layers 16 – 14 (67,000-59,000 years ago) consisted mostly of orange-brown slit-like loam with deposits of ash and bedrock clasts. There is an increased presence of human activity with lithics, bone fragments, and charcoal flakes appearing in Layers 15 & 14. Unit II is interpreted as a floor level, with accumulated wall and roof collapses and evidence of burning.” ref

“Unit III with layers 13 – 5 (59,000-14,000 years ago) contains heterogenous loam with abundant evidence of human activity and ash, with the presence of hearths, burning, lithics, and floor hollows. The Layer 13/12 boundary at about 51,000 years ago reflects a hiatus between two different occupational phases. The increase of human activity is shown by the concentration of human-occupation byproducts, however, occupation is intermittent. Finally, Unit IV, or layers 4 -1 (8000 years ago to 400 years ago), consists of loose and silty loam with deposits of charcoal, bone fragments, marine shells, and lithics. The layers are disturbed, with degradation of the cave walls and floor reflecting intermittent human occupation (including a burial and hearths).” ref

Stone tools

“Lithic technology, or stone tools, form an important part of the Panga ya Saidi archaeological record and have helped archaeologists to understand the Middle Stone Age to Later Stone Age transition at the site. The main raw materials used are quartz, followed by chert, and in rare cases, limestone. Limestone was used for informal knapping techniques. Quartz was preferentially used for bipolar flaking of small cores. More formal tool preparation (to make Levallois tools or prismatic blades) was preferentially done on chert. Chert also more frequently underwent reduction, suggesting it was highly valued and conserved, which may suggest it was relatively more difficult to obtain.” ref

“There are important changes over time in the lithic technology sequence at Panga ya Saidi. Large or medium-sized tools made on coarse-grained raw material including limestone, using the Levallois technique, are found in early deposits at the site. These Levallois cores, flakes, and retouched flakes are typical of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa. Between 72,000-67,000 years ago, archaeologists note a trend over time toward bipolar reduction techniques and smaller and sharper tools, such as prismatic blades, made on fine-grained raw material. Limestone becomes rare, and quartz common. The shift toward smaller tools, a phenomenon known as miniaturization, as well as shifts toward more frequent bipolar reduction and blade technology, are all typical features of the Later Stone Age in eastern Africa. Over time, other forms, such as crescents, also become more common.” ref

“However, the archaeologists note that this is not a dramatic transition, since Levallois techniques continue to be used throughout much of the Panga ya Saidi sequence, even after new technologies appear. This suggests that the Middle to Later Stone Age transition cannot be described in simplistic terms or as a single package. The archaeologists conclude that the defining feature of this transition at Panga ya Saidi is miniaturization, rather than specific tool types or reduction techniques.” ref

Faunal remains

“Mostly small bovids (like duiker and suni), suids (warthog and bushpig), and some primates were found in the faunal remains as the basis of subsistence, while marine faunal remains are understood to be mostly utilized symbolically in the material culture (such as marine shell beads) until the Holocene, when they were also used for consumption.” ref

Tropical environments like those found in coastal eastern Africa were deemed to be a sort of refugium for early human populations, due to their comparatively stable environment and the abundance of edible fauna from the exploitation of the closed forests, woodland, and grassland environments. Zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis show the environments around Panga ya Saidi changed slightly over time. In the earlier layers of the sequence, skeletal remains of small primates and small bovids living in a closed habitat were relatively common.” ref

This initially humid forested area transitioned toward a higher concentration of grassland and a decrease in the forested area during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, as seen by an increase in skeletal remains of larger grazing bovids. This was followed by a resurgence in humid, forested land at the Pleistocene to Holocene transition, when small bovids become more common again in the faunal remains. Carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis concur with the zooarchaeological evidence, indicating that there were shifts from more wooded ecosystems in the MIS 5 and MIS 4 to open habitats in MIS 3 and a later shift back into wooded, grassland environments in the Holocene. Roberts et al. concluded from their evidence that this heterogeneous environment allowed Homo sapiens to develop novel technologies and material culture.” ref

Human remains

“A deciduous second molar of a child was found in some of the deepest deposits at Panga ya Saidi, located in Layer 18 and dating to about 78,000 years ago (MIS 5). Carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis indicates reliance on C3 plants. Since this is a deciduous tooth, that dietary signal may reflect the diet of the child’s mother if breastfeeding, or it may reflect foods given to the child if weaning. The signal of C3 plants is consistent with zooarchaeological evidence showing that the main animals at Panga ya Saidi in the deepest layers were from tropical forested or woodland environments.” ref

“Evidence of modern behavior was found in 2021 when evidence of Africa’s earliest intentional burial was found. A 78,000-year-old Middle Stone Age grave of a three-year-old child was discovered in Panga ya Saidi cave. Researchers said the child’s head appeared to have been laid on a pillow. The body had been laid in a fetal position. However, this alleged burial is tens of thousands of years younger than burials at Skhul and Qafzeh cave, in Israel who belonged to African populations with the same African lithic cultural tradition.” ref

Animism: 78,000 Years Old Deliberate Burial of a Human Child in Kenya, Africa

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