Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

A child’s grave is the earliest known burial site in Africa

The discovery of the burial of a young child in a cave in Kenya around 78,000 years ago sheds new light on the role of symbolism in the treatment of the dead during the Middle Stone Age.
  1. Louise Humphrey

    1. Louise Humphrey is at the Centre for Human Evolution Research, Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Much of the current debate surrounding the location and timing of the emergence of modern human behaviour focuses on Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), which lasted from about 320,000 to 30,000 years ago. The first known appearances of a suite of modern human innovations relating to technology, social organization, symbolism and exploitation of the landscape and resources occurred in Africa during this period1. This time frame is also associated with the earliest known hominin fossils placed in the modern human lineage2,3. The emergence of more-complex behaviours surrounding the treatment of the dead is often framed in the broader context of an increase in symbolic capabilities4. Writing in Nature, Martinón-Torres et al.5 present a convincing case for the intentional burial of a young child in eastern Africa, at Panga ya Saidi, a cave in Kenya (Fig. 1). The authors’ meticulous recording of this archaeological evidence has revealed the earliest known human burial in Africa.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 593, 39-40 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00805-6

References

  1. McBrearty, S. & Brooks, A. S. J. Hum. Evol. 39, 453–563 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Hublin, J.-J. et al. Nature 546, 289–292 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Bergström, A., Stringer, C., Hajdinjak, M., Scerri, E. M. L. & Skoglund, P. Nature 590, 229–237 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Balzeau, A. et al. Sci. Rep. 10, 21230 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Martinón-Torres, M. et al. Nature 593, 95–100 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Pettitt, P. The Palaeolithic Origins of Human Burial (Routledge, 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Arsuaga, J. L. et al. J. Hum. Evol. 33, 109–127 (1997).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Dirks, P. H. G. M. et al. eLife 4, e09561 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Pomeroy, E. et al. Evol. Anthropol. 29, 263–279 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. d’Errico, F. & Backwell, L. J. Hum. Evol. 93, 91–108 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. McCown, T. D. & Keith, A. The Stone Age of Mount Carmel Vol. 2 (Clarendon, 1939).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Vandermeersch, B. Les Hommes Fossiles de Qafzeh (Israel) (CNRS, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Vermeersch, P. M. et al. Antiquity 72, 475–484 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Clark, J. D. et al. Nature 423, 747–752 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Rosas, A. et al. L’Anthropologie 116, 57–76 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Grün, R. & Stringer, C. J. Hum. Evol. 39, 601–612 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Fernández-Jalvo, Y., Carlos Díez, J., Cáceres, I. & Rosell, J. J. Hum. Evol. 37, 591−622 (1999).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. White, T. D. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 69, 503–509 (1986).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links