Remains from oldest known human burial in Africa discovered

The remains of a partial skeleton dating back 78,000 years have been recovered from a pit in Kenya and are believed to be the earliest evidence of human burial in Africa, according to an international team including academics from UCL. Named 'Mtoto' - meaning child in Swahili - the remains were found to be of a 2.5 to 3-year-old infant, and were discovered by a team of scientists in a shallow grave at Panga ya Saldi, a cave site in the tropical upland coast of Kenya. Analysis on the bones and surrounding soil indicate that Mtoto's body was prepared and buried shortly after death. The new discovery has added to the growing evidence of early complex social behaviours in our species. Sites of this kind documenting early evidence of formal burials of Homo sapiens in Africa are scarce, with very little currently known about the origin and development of human mortuary practices - an important component of our evolution. Panga ya Saidi has been a significant site for understanding human origins  since excavations began in 2010, emerging as one of the key Middle and Later Stone Age sites in Africa. Whilst portions of the child's bones were first found there during excavations in 2013, it wasn't until four years later when excavations were expanded that the small circular pit around three meters below the cave floor containing the highly decomposed bones was fully exposed.