Just read that the oldest known human burial in Africa is only 78,000 years old

I was going down a rabbit hole on the Smithsonian's website last night, looking at their archaeology section. I always figured that with Africa being the cradle of humanity, we'd have found way older burial sites there. But the article said the oldest solid evidence, a child's grave in Kenya called Mtoto, dates to about 78,000 years. That's way younger than some Neanderthal burials in Europe and the Middle East, which go back over 100,000 years. It really surprised me because it seems like such a basic human thing, to bury your dead. The article suggested maybe earlier evidence in Africa just hasn't been preserved or found yet, or maybe different groups did things differently. It makes you wonder what we're missing. Has anyone else come across a fact that flipped their basic idea about early humans like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinn_kim4522d ago

Yeah, the Blombos Cave in South Africa has ochre engravings from 100,000 years ago, so they were clearly doing complex stuff. Makes you wonder if burial was a cultural choice that spread later.

robert_bennett2922d agoMost Upvoted

Totally agree, that Blombos ochre is a game changer. It shows symbolic thinking was around way earlier than we used to believe. Burial practices might have just been one specific ritual that caught on in some groups and not others. Really makes you question the whole timeline of "modern" human behavior.