Patrick Fahy / B.P.F., Institute of Human Origins / Arizona State University
Artistic representation of the funeral pyre found by archaeologists
In an ancient rock shelter in the heart of Malawi, archaeologists have found the world’s oldest evidence of a funeral pyre intended for an adult. Layers of ash over the remains suggest that the same location was used for bonfires for several centuries after cremation.
The charred remains, 9,500 years old, they were from a woman aged between 18 and 60 at the time of death, and that his body was carefully prepared for cremation on a large pyre that burned for many hours.
This ritual took place as part of a deliberate funeral ceremonyin a place that had served as a stage for funeral rites at least 8,000 years ago.
The discovery, conducted by a team of researchers led by anthropologist Jessica Cerezo-Romanfrom the University of Oklahoma, was presented in a published this Thursday in the magazine Science Advances.
“This is the oldest evidence of intentional cremation in Africa, the adult pyre on site oldest in the world”, write the researchers in the article.
The discovery deepens our understanding of hunter-gatherer burials, demonstrating that their rites could be much more complex than previously assumed.
This ceremony involved planning and constructionas well as a considerable investment of resources to Gather and maintain large quantities of firewood necessary for the pyre to stay lit for hours, or even longer.
The continued use of the site also suggests a shared social memory and, possibly, even forms of ancestor veneration, something that was thought to be residual among nomadic groups, notes the .
A solemnity with which humanity faces death is present for millennia, with the oldest known intentional burial dating back 78 thousand years. Other evidence of intentional burials, possibly carried out by other species of hominids, continues to be the subject of heated debate.
As for cremation, evidence is scant before about 7,000 years agoespecially among hunter-gatherer cultures. The oldest cremated human remains discovered buried in Lake Mungo in Australia date back to around 40,000 years ago, but no pyre was identified.
The oldest confirmed pyre on sitethat is, when the remains are found at the cremation site, over a fire built for that purpose, it dates back 11,500 years in Alaska, in a funeral ritual intended for a small child.
After that, there is no record of pyre cremations until about 7,000 years ago, at Beisamoun, in the southern Levant.
At the base of Mount Hora in Malawi there is an archaeological site known as HOR-1where human activity will have lasted for around 21,000 years. Between 16,000 and 8,000 years ago, the site was used for mortuary practices. The archaeologists identified the remains of at least 11 individuals there.
Only one of these individuals shows evidence of cremation before burial. It has the official designation Hora 3, and although only part of the skeleton was recovered — limb bones, parts of the vertebrae and pelvis, and some phalanges — these fragments and the large deposit of ash where they were found paint a vivid portrait of their funeral rites.
Patrick Fahy / B.P.F., Institute of Human Origins / Arizona State University
Reenactment of the cremation ritual, for which people probably collected large quantities of wood (B) and tended the fires (E). Evidence at the site further suggests that several fires were rekindled over the original pyre site (K) and that cranial and dental remains were possibly collected and removed (J), as none were found.
As burn marks and cracks in the bones indicate prolonged exposure to high temperatures. Additionally, visible cuts show that some parts of Hora 3’s body were disarticulated before cremation.
The coloring of the bones also reveals that they will have been moved during the cremation process, perhaps as the fire was stoked and stirred.
No part of the skull or teeth was found. of the woman, suggesting that the head may have been removed before burning.
This practice, for which evidence has already been identified in other archaeological sites in the region, will be “related to mortuary practices associated with souvenirsocial memory and veneration of ancestorsinvolving the manipulation and posthumous curation of body parts,” the researchers write in the article.
Nonetheless, the extent and contents of the ash deposit are compatible with a pyre composed of at least 30 kilos of dead wood, grass and leaves — a significant amount of harvested resources, capable of fueling a long-lasting fire. Layers of ash over the remains further suggest that the same location was used for bonfires for several centuries after cremation.
Researchers interpret this as a sign that the site would be what archaeologists call “persistent place”probably associated with a territory and a reflection of ancestral connections that, to this day, mark this monumental landscape.
“The history of the construction of large bonfires at that location, the maintenance associated with the cremation event, and the subsequent large fires reflect a deeply rooted tradition of use and repeated revisiting of the site, closely linked to the creation of memory and the establishment of a ‘persistent place’”, the researchers write.
“These practices show complex mortuary and ritual activities, with origins predating the emergence of food production, challenging traditional assumptions about community cooperation and place-making in tropical hunter-gatherer societies,” they conclude.
