Overview
- Archaeologists at the HOR-1 rock shelter near Mount Hora in northern Malawi identified an intentional cremation of an adult woman known as Hora 3 dating to roughly 9,500 years ago.
- Burn patterns, cracking, and color changes show prolonged high heat with the body repositioned during burning, while cut marks indicate deliberate disarticulation before the fire.
- No skull or teeth were recovered, leading researchers to infer removal of the head before cremation consistent with memory-keeping practices seen in other regional contexts.
- Reconstruction of the pyre indicates at least about 30 kilograms of gathered fuel and temperatures exceeding roughly 500°C, with ash layers showing later fires at the same spot.
- The site has been a mortuary locale for more than 20,000 years with at least 11 individuals interred, yet Hora 3 is the only known in-situ cremation; the peer-reviewed findings appear in Science Advances and frame this as the oldest in-situ adult pyre, with prior comparators lacking adult pyres or constructed structures.