Burned bone fragments found in northern Malawi have revealed the oldest cremation pyre ever found in Africa — and unearthed new mysteries that may be hard to solve.
By analyzing the bones and pyre sediments, researchers believe that hunter-gatherers cremated the body of a woman about 9,500 years ago, according to their study published Thursday in the journal Science Advances.
The pyre and human remains were found near the base of Mount Hora, a granite mountain that rises abruptly from and towers hundreds of feet above an otherwise flat plain. The fragments, largely from arm and leg bones, belonged to a woman between the ages of 18 and 60 who stood just under 5 feet tall, according to forensic analysis.
The site, called Hora 1, is underneath a natural boulder overhang large enough to shelter 30 people. It captured the interest of scientists in the 1950s when it was first excavated and discovered to be a hunter-gatherer burial ground. More recent research begun in 2016 has shown that humans started living at the site about 21,000 years ago and buried their dead there 8,000 to 16,000 years ago.
However, the bone fragments mark the only cremation to have occurred at the site, which makes the discovery even more unusual given that they were uncommon during that time period, the researchers said.
“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,” sa
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