Malawi cremation site rewrites Africa’s burial history

Archaeologists working in northern Malawi have uncovered evidence of the oldest known intentional cremation in Africa – a discovery that challenges long-standing assumptions about when complex ritual practices emerged on the continent.

The cremation, dated to about 9 500 years ago, was found at the base of Mount Hora in Mzimba district. It predates previously known African cremations by more than 6 000 years and was carried out by hunter-gatherers, not farming or pastoral communities.

The findings were published on 1 January in Science Advances and are the result of years of excavation and analysis by the Malawi Ancient Lifeways and Peoples Project (Malapp), a collaboration between international researchers and the country’s department of museums and monuments.

“This was not a simple or accidental burning,” said Jessica Cerezo-Román, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma and the lead author of the study. “It was a carefully planned, labour-intensive ritual.”

The site, known as Hora 1, lies beneath a rock shelter overlooking a modern river valley. At first glance, it appears unremarkable: a patch of scorched sediment. But detailed excavation revealed the fragmented remains of a single adult, likely a woman standing just under 1.5 metres tall, cremated on an open-air pyre.

Researchers estimate that at least 30kg of deadwood and grass were gathered to build the fire, which burned at temperatures exceeding 500°C. Analysis of fungal remains and termite damage in the wood shows that people deliberately selected deadwood, indicating knowledge of fuel properties and fire management.

The woman’s bones bear cut marks from stone tools, consistent with defleshing before or during cremation. Some joints remained partially articulated, suggesting that parts of her body were still bound by soft tissue or wrapping when placed on the pyre.

“The sequence of actions is very precise,” said Cerezo-Román. “This was not disposal. It was ritual.”

Stone tools, including projectile points and convergent flakes, were found within the pyre itself. The researchers believe these were placed intentionally as funerary objects – a practice seen in later African burial traditions.

Missing skull

Perhaps the most striking detail is what archaeologists did not find. Despite wet-sieving nearly eight cubic metres of sediment, no skull fragments or teeth were recovered.

In cremation contexts, these are usually the most durable remains. Their absence strongly suggests deliberate removal of the head, either before cremation or collected afterward.

Such practices are documented in other African forager societies, where skulls were curated as part of ancestor veneration. According to the research team, this points to a belief system concerned with memory, identity and ongoing relationships between the living and the dead.

Radiocarbon dating revealed another surprise. Between 500 and 700 years after the cremation, people returned repeatedly to the exact same spot and lit large fires directly over the original pyre.

No additional burials were made and the fires were too intense to be explained by cooking or shelter. Researchers interpret this as ritual revisitation – a form of memorialisation.

Jessica Thompson, senior author of the study and a professor at Yale University, said the site likely remained within community memory for generations. “This became a place where something important happened and people came back to mark that.”

In the absence of stone monuments, the landscape itself functioned as memory. Archaeologists refer to such locations as “persistent places” — sites revisited over long periods because of their social or symbolic significance.

Rethinking African prehistory

Until now, the earliest confirmed cremations in Africa dated to about 3 300 years ago in Kenya and were associated with pastoral societies. Cremation is rare among hunter-gatherers because it requires large amounts of fuel, sustained heat and coordinated communal labour.

Hora 1 overturns the idea that such practices only emerged with agriculture, surplus resources or social hierarchies. Globally, cremation pyres from this period are extremely rare. 

The Lake Mungo remains in Australia – dating to about 40 000 years ago – show evidence of cremation but no associated pyre structure. A site in Alaska dated to 11 500 years ago contains a child cremation.

Hora 1 is currently the oldest known in situ adult cremation pyre in the world. For African archaeology, the implications are significant. The discovery challenges models that portray early African hunter-gatherers as socially simple or technologically limited.

“These communities had deep knowledge of their environment, strong social organisation and rich symbolic traditions,” Thompson said. “They were not just surviving; they were remembering.”

Mount Hora remains culturally significant today. Local Ngoni communities hold the annual uMthetho festival there each August, celebrating ancestral connections and shared identity.

The department of museums and monuments has emphasised that discoveries like Hora 1 should be understood not as isolated relics, but as part of a long continuum linking contemporary Malawian communities to deep ancestral pasts.

Beneath the granite slopes of Mount Hora, a small patch of burnt earth has forced archaeologists to reconsider when, and where, complex human rituals began. It suggests that Africa’s history is not lacking in depth or sophistication. It has simply not always been recognised.