Search

The origin and evolution of hominin mortuary practices are topics of intense interest and debate1,2,3. Human burials dated to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) are exceedingly rare in Africa and unknown in East Africa1,2,3,4,5,6. Here we describe the partial skeleton of a roughly 2.5- to 3.0-year-old child dating to 78.3 ± 4.1 thousand years ago, which was recovered in the MSA layers of Panga ya Saidi (PYS), a cave site in the tropical upland coast of Kenya7,8. Recent excavations have revealed a pit feature containing a child in a flexed position. Geochemical, granulometric and micromorphological analyses of the burial pit content and encasing archaeological layers indicate that the pit was deliberately excavated. Taphonomical evidence, such as the strict articulation or good anatomical association of the skeletal elements and histological evidence of putrefaction, support the in-place decomposition of the fresh body. The presence of little or no displacement of the unstable joints during decomposition points to an interment in a filled space (grave earth), making the PYS finding the oldest known human burial in Africa. The morphological assessment of the partial skeleton is consistent with its assignment to Homo sapiens, although the preservation of some primitive features in the dentition supports increasing evidence for non-gradual assembly of modern traits during the emergence of our species. The PYS burial sheds light on how MSA populations interacted with the dead. acceptedVersion

The late Pleistocene and Holocene history of eastern Africa is complex and major gaps remain in our understanding of human occupation during this period. Questions concerning the identities, geographical distributions and chronologies of foraging, herding and agricultural populations — often problematically equated with the chronological labels ‘Later Stone Age (LSA)’, ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Iron Age’ — are still unresolved. Previous studies at the site of Kuumbi Cave in the Zanzibar Archipelago of Tanzania reported late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA) and LSA, mid-Holocene Neolithic and late Holocene Iron Age occupations (Sinclair et al. 2006; Chami 2009). Kuumbi Cave considerably extends the chronology of human occupation on the eastern African coast and findings from the site have been the basis for the somewhat contentious identification of both a coastal Neolithic culture and early chicken, a domesticate that was introduced to Africa from Asia. The site therefore warrants further investigation. Here we report on a new excavation of the Kuumbi Cave sequence that has produced a suite of 20 radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates. Our results suggest that the cave’s stratigraphy is complex, reflecting taphonomic processes that present interpretive and dating challenges. Our assessment of the stratigraphic sequence demonstrates three phases of habitation, two of which reflect terminal Pleistocene occupation and are characterised by quartz microliths, bone points and the exploitation of terrestrial and marine species, and one of which reflects later reoccupation by AD 600. In this latter phase, Kuumbi Cave was inhabited by a population with a locally distinct material culture that included idiosyncratic Tana or Triangular Incised Ware ceramics and medium-sized limestone stone tools, but with a subsistence economy similar to that of the late Pleistocene, albeit with more emphasis on marine foods and smaller terrestrial mammals. Our results suggest that Kuumbi Cave may have been unoccupied for much of the Holocene, after Zanzibar became an island. Our findings also place into question earlier identifications of domesticates, Asian fauna and a mid-Holocene Neolithic culture at the site.

Batadomba-lena, a rockshelter in the rainforest of southwestern Sri Lanka, has yielded some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in South Asia. H. sapiens foragers were present at Batadomba-lena from ca. 36,000 cal BP to the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene. Human occupation was sporadic before the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Batadomba-lena's Late Pleistocene inhabitants foraged for a broad spectrum of plant and mainly arboreal animal resources (monkeys, squirrels and abundant rainforest snails), derived from a landscape that retained equatorial rainforest cover through periods of pronounced regional aridity during the LGM. Juxtaposed hearths, palaeofloors with habitation debris, postholes, excavated pits, and animal and plant remains, including abundant Canarium nutshells, reflect intensive habitation of the rockshelter in times of monsoon intensification and biome reorganisation after ca. 16,000 cal BP. This period corresponds with further broadening of the economic spectrum, evidenced though increased contribution of squirrels, freshwater snails and Canarium nuts in the diet of the rockshelter occupants. Microliths are more abundant and morphologically diverse in the earliest, pre-LGM layer and decline markedly during intensified rockshelter use on the wane of the LGM. We propose that changing toolkits and subsistence base reflect changing foraging practices, from shorter-lived visits of highly mobile foraging bands in the period before the LGM, to intensified use of Batadomba-lena and intense foraging for diverse resources around the site during and, especially, following the LGM. Traces of ochre, marine shell beads and other objects from an 80 km-distant shore, and, possibly burials reflect symbolic practices from the outset of human presence at the rockshelter. Evidence for differentiated use of space (individual hearths, possible habitation structures) is present in LGM and terminal Pleistocene layers. The record of Batadomba-lena demonstrates that Late Pleistocene pathways to (aspects of) behavioural ‘modernity' (composite tools, practice of symbolism and ritual, broad spectrum economy) were diverse and ecologically contingent.

Kitulgala Beli-lena, a rockshelter in gneiss in humid tropical southwestern Sri Lanka, was inhabited by Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene (>31,000-7880 B.P.) hunter-gatherers who made geometric microliths and exploited rainforest resources. Micromorphological analysis of a ca. 3-m-thick succession of diamictic loams, clays, and breccia with cultural content suggests that relative contribution of episodic colluviation and roof fall, water seepage through joints and diverse human activity varied through time. Facies changes across the profile reflect monsoon weakening ca. 20,000-16,000 cal B.P. and abrupt intensification ca. 15,700 cal B.P., on the wane of the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Post-depositional modification included clay, sesquioxide, and minor phosphate translocation; termite and other arthropod bioturbation; and clast weathering on the rockshelter floor. Human input (tools and tool-making refuse, reworked charcoal and associated combustion by-products) is markedly higher in sediments younger than ca. 15,700 cal B.P., suggesting intensification of site use immediately after the LGM.

First paragraph: Sri Lanka's rainforests and grasslands, fashioned by the interaction of mountainous relief and Late Quaternary fluctuations of the Asian Monsoon, were inhabited by anatomically modern hunter-gatherers as early as at least c. 40 000 BP (Perera, in press). Rockshelters in the south-western, humid-tropical part of the island (Figure 1) have yielded some of the earliest manifestations of 'behavioural modernity' in South Asia, including geometric microliths, articles of personal ornamentation (Figure 2), evidence for long networks of exchange, differentiated use of space, burial and widespread use of ochre (Deraniyagala 1992; Wijeyapala 1997; James 2007; Perera, in press). This archaeological record, together with Sri Lanka's location halfway on the inferred route of anatomically modern human dispersal to Australasia (Figure 1a), locate the island's prehistory at the centre of current debates on late Pleistocene human evolution, ecology, dispersal and cultural change.

The streamside site of Bellan-bandi Pallassa, with the richest skeletal record of terminal Pleistocene-early Holocene hunter-gatherers on the island, is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Sri Lanka. We use thin section micromorphology of two samples from terminal Pleistocene (ca. 11,150-12,250 years BP) levels to infer processes of sediment accumulation and post-depositional change that led to the formation of the archaeological site. Charcoal and bone fragment-bearing gravely silty sand accumulated from a combination of colluvial, with possible contribution of aeolian, and anthropogenic processes, including combustion and associated bone-splintering activities. Some degree of reworking of bone and charcoal by slope wash processes and sediment fauna is evident. Post-depositional processes included incipient bone dissolution and calcrete formation in the vadose zone, probably reflecting wet/dry climatic seasonality in the early Holocene, and pervasive iron / manganese impregnation and rare vivianite authigenesis, reflecting later water-logging as a result of more humid phases in the Holocene and / or construction of a water tank above the site in historical times (probably 4th century CE). Our findings are consistent with the current interpretation of the site as a hunter-gatherer campsite, reflecting successful hunting adaptation to seasonally wet and dry conditions.