Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual practices dating back about 9,500 years ago

Amazing stuff!

"About 9,500 years ago, a community of hunter-gatherers in central Africa cremated a small woman on an open pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent natural landmark in what is now northern Malawi, according to a new study ... It is the first time this behavior has been documented in African hunter gatherers. 

The study ... provides the earliest evidence of intentional cremation in Africa and describes the world’s oldest known in situ cremation pyre containing the remains of an adult.

While burned human remains have been found (at Lake Mungo, Australia) dating back as far as 40,000 years, cremation pyres — intentionally built structures of combustible fuel — do not appear in the archaeological record until nearly 30,000 years later. ...

"Cremation is very rare among ancient and modern hunter-gatherers, at least partially because pyres require a huge amount of labor, time, and fuel to transform a body into fragmented and calcined bone and ash," ..."

From the abstract:

"Human cremation on an open pyre demands intensive labor, communal resources, and sensory exposures.

We report the earliest evidence for intentional cremation in Africa, the oldest in situ adult pyre in the world, and one of only a few associated with hunter-gatherers.

A large cremation feature at Hora 1 in Malawi dates to ~9500 years ago and contains the remains of a small, gracile adult with evidence for perimortem defleshing and postcremation manipulation.

Subsequent revisiting of the site to build fires in the same place provided additional pyrotechnological spectacles.

High-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the ritual associated with cremation and its subsequent deposition demonstrates complex mortuary practices among ancient African foraging groups with substantial social investment and use of natural landscape features as persistent mortuary monuments."

Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual practices

Ancient cremation pyre offers glimpse of tropical hunter gatherers’ mortuary practices "A new study ... provides evidence of the earliest intentional cremation in ancient Africa."

Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in Africa (open access)

Sediment block with striped ash layers

Fig. 1 HOR-1 site in context.

Fig. 4. Bone modifications made with stone tools.

Fig. 5. Reconstruction of the cremation ritual.