Posted on 01/06/2026 7:16:32 AM PST by Red Badger
Near 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 wind carries the smell of burning. This fire will linger in community memory for generations − and in the archaeological record for far longer.
We are a team of bioarchaeologists, archaeologists and forensic anthropologists who, with our colleagues, recently discovered the earliest evidence of cremation – the transformation of a body from flesh to burned bone fragments and ashes – in Africa and the earliest example of an adult pyre cremation in the world.
The pyre was found under a giant boulder near the base of Mount Hora. The site is in Malawi, which is outlined in black within the Zambezian forest (colored green) on the map of Africa. Credit: Jessica Thompson and Natural Earth It’s no easy task to produce, create and maintain an open fire strong enough to completely burn a human body. While the earliest cremation in the world dates to about 40,000 years ago in Australia, that body was not fully burned.
It is far more effective to use a pyre: an intentionally built structure of combustible fuel. Pyres appear in the archaeological record only about 11,500 years ago, with the earliest known example containing a cremated child under a house floor in Alaska.
Many cultures have practiced cremation, and the bones, ash and other residues from these events help archaeologists piece together past funeral rituals. Our scientific paper, published in the journal Science Advances, describes a spectacular event that happened about 9,500 years ago in Malawi in south-central Africa, challenging long-held notions about how hunter-gatherers treat their dead.
The Discovery At first it was just a hint of ash, then more. It expanded downward and outward, becoming thicker and harder. Pockets of dark earth briefly appeared and disappeared under trowels and brushes until one of the excavators stopped. They pointed to a small bone at the base of a 1½-foot (0.5-meter) wall of archaeological ash revealed under a natural stone overhang at the Hora 1 archaeological site in northern Malawi.
The bone was the broken end of a humerus, from the upper arm of a person. And clinging to the very end of it was the matching end of the lower arm, the radius. Here was a human elbow joint, burned and fractured, preserved in sediments full of debris from the daily lives of Stone Age hunter-gatherers.
We wondered whether this could be a funeral pyre, but such structures are extremely rare in the archaeological record.
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Long Pork PinGGG?.............
LOL! My thoughts exactly.
My first thought, too...Lunch
If you want to cook someone you cut them up first.
They argue for years...with OUR grant money.
And on and on and on....
Even so long ago? I’ve seen whole hogs put on the spit, less guts of course.
Fuel was a major expense back then, (people of course are always cheap). For cannibalism you would have done pit cooking or carved them up.
This much fuel spent to end up with a bunch of ashes is something else.
While the earliest cremation in the world dates to about 40,000 years ago in Australia... Pyres appear in the archaeological record only about 11,500 years ago, with the earliest known example containing a cremated child under a house floor in Alaska.
This study looks at a pyre partial cremation from only 10K ago. A few more academic success stories.
Cremation requirements.
I suspect you are right. This guy got burned up because everyone was angry with him. Maybe he worked bad magic, or didn’t pay his electric bill.
Before mankind learned to hide from lighting
Transformation of a body from flesh to burned bone fragments and ashes
That fire purifies evil and that smoke rises taking the soul of a highly valued person to the heavens more easily are both common human beliefs.
I suspect you are correct but in any case the amount of effort you would have to expend to do this argues for a lot of emotional involvement.
😆😆😆😆😆
And though interesting, what does it matter now?
...and use the broth and smaller trimmed bits as a soup base later.
Their fuel was dung...
But yeah, dung from grazing animals was used as fuel when wood was not available.
Waste not, want not.
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