US EditionRecent Discovery Reveals Africa's Oldest Cremation Pyre and Complex Ritual Practices
The cremation was a communal ritual involving at least 30 kg of wood and deliberate body manipulation, indicating social and ceremonial motives among Stone Age hunter-gatherers.
- At the Hora 1 archaeological site in northern Malawi, a team of bioarchaeologists, archaeologists and forensic anthropologists recently reported the earliest confirmed adult pyre cremation about 9,500 years ago, with the charred remains of a small adult woman cremated shortly after death.
- The Hora 1 site has long-term mortuary use, serving as a persistent place for death rites for at least 8,000 years with fires lit there by about 10,240 years ago.
- Researchers documented material evidence showing the cremated individual Hora 3 was exposed to at least 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, with at least 70 pounds of deadwood and stone tools in the pyre.
- The discovery alters views of Stone‑Age social life, as it challenges assumptions by showing Stone‑Age hunter‑gatherer communities staged large, labor-intensive mortuary spectacles predating food production.
- Cremation evidence remains scarce before about 7,000 years ago, with Lake Mungo cremated remains about 40,000 years ago not fully burned and an 11,500-year-old child pyre in Alaska; regional researchers seek more excavation and data.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Researchers in Malawi have discovered a type of crematorium dating back about 9,500 years, believed to be the oldest in the world, containing the remains of an adult, providing new insight into the rituals of ancient African hunter-gatherers.
The Conversation
Oldest known cremation in Africa poses 9,500-year-old mystery about Stone Age hunter-gatherers
Why did this community burn one woman's remains in such a visible, spectacular way? Patrick FaheyNear the equator, the Sun hurries below the horizon in a matter of minutes. Darkness seeps from the surrounding forest. Nearly 10,000 years ago, at the base of a mountain in Africa, people’s shadows stretch up the wall of a natural overhang of stone. They’re lit by a ferocious fire that’s been burning for hours, visible even to people miles away. The…
Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual practices
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 northern Malawi, according to a new study coauthored by an international team based in the United States, Africa, and Europe. It is the first time this behavior has been documented in the African hunter-gatherer record.
The traces of the oldest intentional incineration known to date on the African continent reveal that groups of hunter-gatherers practiced this type of community funeral rituals. They built a pyre and gathered more than 30 kg of wood and leaves to make a fire that reached more than 500 degrees Read
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