Earliest African cremation was 9,500 years ago

Archaeologists have discovered Africa’s oldest known cremation pyre at the base of Mount Hora in Malawi. According to a paper published in the journal Science Advances, radiocarbon testing shows the site dates back about 9,500 years, prompting a rethink of group labor and ritual in such ancient hunter-gatherer communities.

Many cultures have practiced cremation in some form or the other. For example, on the small island of Hjørno, Denmark, there is a Viking cremation site known as Kalvestein. And in 2023, we reported on an unusual Roman burial site, where the cremated remains were not moved to a separate final resting place, but were covered with brick tiles and a layer of lime and driven in with several dozen twisted and bent nails – possibly an attempt to prevent the deceased from rising from the grave to survive.)

But this practice was extremely rare in hunter-gatherer societies, because pyre construction is labor-intensive and requires large amounts of community resources. There is little evidence of cremation before the mid-Holocene (5,000 to 7,000 years ago). According to the authors of this latest paper, the earliest known concentration of burnt human remains was found in Lake Mungo in Australia and dates back 40,000 years, but there is no evidence of pyres, making it challenging to determine specific details.

The oldest pyre ever discovered is the Xasa Na’ site in Alaska, which dates back to approximately 11,500 years and contains the remains of a 3-year-old child. There is evidence of burnt human remains in Egypt about 7,500 years ago, but the earliest confirmed cremations in that region date back only 3,300 years.

This is what makes the discovery of an intact hunter-gatherer cremation pyre with the remains of an adult female at the Hora-1 site so significant. Located under an overhang at the base of a granite hill, Hora-1 was first excavated in the 1950s. Archaeologists have determined that it was a burial site dating from 8,000 to 16,000 years ago, with many intact (uncremated) bodies buried there. The pyre is unique: an ash bed containing 170 bone fragments, mostly arms and legs. This is the only example of cremation at this site.

bed of ashes

Examination of the remains found at the pyre site revealed that they belonged to an adult female aged between 18 and 60, who was likely cremated within a few days of her death. The team also found distinctive cut marks on many of the bones, indicating that the bones had been skinned before cremation. Given the absence of teeth or skull in the pyre, it seems that whoever cremated the woman also removed the head. Based on the distribution of limbs, the body was probably positioned with the arms and legs folded.