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1.媒体来源:
外媒 phys
2.记者署名:
Stephanie Baum
Andrew Zinin
3.完整新闻标题:
Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual
practices
最新发现揭示了非洲最古老的火葬堆及其复杂的祭祀仪式
4.完整新闻内文:
Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual
practices
by University of Oklahoma
edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
Editors' notes
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
About 9,500 years ago, a community of hunter-gatherers in central Africa
cremated a small woman on an open pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent
natural landmark in northern Malawi, according to a new study coauthored by
an international team based in the United States, Africa, and Europe. It is
the first time this behavior has been documented in the African
hunter-gatherer record.
最新发现揭示了非洲最古老的火葬堆及其复杂的祭祀仪式
俄克拉荷马大学提供
由史蒂芬妮·鲍姆 编辑 ，安德鲁·齐宁审阅
图片来源：Pixabay/CC0 公共领域
一项由来自美国、非洲和欧洲的国际团队共同撰写的新研究表明，大约9500年前，非洲中
部的一个狩猎采集部落在马拉维北部著名的自然地标霍拉山脚下，用露天柴堆火化了一名
身材矮小的女性。这是非洲狩猎采集者记录中首次出现此类行为。
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, provides the earliest
evidence of intentional cremation in Africa and describes the world's oldest
known in situ cremation pyre containing the remains of an adult.
这项发表在《科学进展》杂志上的研究提供了非洲最早的有意火葬的证据，并描述了世界
上已知最古老的原位火葬堆，其中包含成年人的遗骸。
While burned human remains appear as early as ~40,000 years at Lake Mungo,
Australia, pyres—intentionally built structures of combustible fuel—do not
appear in the archaeological record until nearly 30,000 years later.
Using archaeological, geospatial, forensic, and bioarchaeological methods,
including microscopic examination of the pyre sediments and detailed analysis
of the human bone fragments, the researchers reconstructed the extraordinary
sequence of events surrounding the cremation in unprecedented detail. Their
findings demonstrate that the mortuary and other social behaviors of ancient
African foragers were far more complex than previously thought.
虽然在澳洲蒙戈湖发现的人类遗骸早在约 40,000 年前就已出现，但火葬堆—即故意建
造的可燃燃料结构—直到近 30,000 年后才出现在考古记录中。
研究人员运用考古学、地理空间学、法医学和生物考古学方法，包括对火葬堆沉积物进行
显微镜检查和对人类骨骼碎片进行详细分析，以前所未有的细节重建了围绕火葬的一系列
非凡事件。他们的发现表明，古代非洲狩猎采集者的丧葬习俗和其他社会行为远比之前认
为的复杂得多。
"Cremation is very rare among ancient and modern hunter-gatherers, at least
partially because pyres require a huge amount of labor, time, and fuel to
transform a body into fragmented and calcined bone and ash," said lead author
Jessica Cerezo-Román, an associate professor of anthropology at the
University of Oklahoma.
"Not only is this the earliest cremation in Africa, it was such a spectacle
that we have to re-think how we view group labor and ritual in these ancient
hunter-gatherer communities," adds senior author Jessica Thompson, an
assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, who leads a long-term
research project at the site of the discovery in collaboration with the
Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments.
“在古代和现代的狩猎采集者中，火葬非常罕见，至少部分原因是火葬需要大量的劳动力
、时间和燃料才能将尸体变成破碎的、煅烧的骨头和灰烬，”主要作者、俄克拉荷马大学
人类学副教授杰西卡·塞雷佐-罗曼说。
“这不仅是非洲最早的火葬，而且场面如此壮观，以至于我们不得不重新思考我们如何看
待这些古代狩猎采集社会中的集体劳动和仪式，”资深作者杰西卡汤普森补充道。她是耶
鲁大学人类学助理教授，与马拉威博物馆和古蹟部门合作，在该发现地点领导一项长期研
究计画。
The oldest evidence for an in situ pyre dates to about 11,500 years ago from
the Xaasaa Na' (Upward Sun River) archaeological site in Alaska and contains
the remains of a child about three years old. Prior to the discovery of the
pyre at Mount Hora, the first definitive cremations in Africa appeared around
3,500 years ago in eastern Africa and were associated with Pastoral Neolithic
herders.
Cremation is more common among ancient food-producing societies, which
generally possess more complex technology and engage in more elaborate
mortuary rituals than earlier hunter-gatherers.
The cremation site, Hora 1, is under an overhang at the base of a granite
inselberg (a large rocky hill or mountain) that rises several hundred feet
from the surrounding plain. Archaeological research in the 1950s revealed
that the site was used as a hunter-gatherer burial ground, but how long ago
remained unknown. Thompson's work starting in 2016 showed that people first
inhabited the site about 21,000 years ago and used it for burials between
about 16,000 and 8,000 years ago, with all the people interred in a complete
state.
现存最古老的原位火葬遗迹可追溯至约11500年前，位于阿拉斯加的Xaasaa Na'（上太阳
河）考古遗址，其中包含一名约三岁儿童的遗骸。在霍拉山火葬遗迹被发现之前，非洲最
早的正式火葬出现在约3500年前的东非，与新石器时代的牧民有关。
火葬在古代以食物生产为主的社会中更为普遍，这些社会通常拥有比早期狩猎采集社会更
复杂的技术，并进行更复杂的丧葬仪式。
火葬场“霍拉1号”（Hora 1）位于一座花岗岩孤山（大型岩石山丘或山峰）底部的一处
悬崖下，这座孤山从周围平原拔地而起数百英尺。 1950年代的考古研究表明，该遗址曾
被用作狩猎采集者的墓地，但具体年代尚不清楚。汤普森自2016年开始的研究表明，人类
最早于约21000年前在此定居，并于约16000至8000年前将其用作墓地，所有墓葬者均保存
完好。
By contrast, the cremation pyre from approximately 9,500 years ago was part
of an ash feature the size of a queen bed and containing a single highly
fragmented individual. There is no evidence of anyone else being cremated at
the site before or after.
An analysis of the 170 human bone fragments excavated from the pyre—mostly
from arms and legs—suggest that the person cremated was an adult woman
between 18 and 60 years old and just under five feet tall. By looking at her
bones and the patterns of thermal alteration, the team determined her body
was cremated prior to decomposition, probably within a few days of her death.
Cutmarks on several limb bones suggest parts of her body were defleshed or
removed.
相较之下，大约9500年前的火葬堆是一张双人床大小的骨灰掩埋场的一部分，里面只有一
具高度破碎的遗骸。没有证据显示在此之前或之后还有其他人在此火化。
从火葬堆中挖掘出的170块人类骨骼碎片（主要来自手臂和腿部）的分析表明，被火化者
是一位年龄在18至60岁之间、身高略低于五英尺的成年女性。透过观察她的骨骼和热处理
痕迹，研究团队确定她的遗体在腐烂之前就被火化了，很可能是在她死后几天内。几块肢
骨上的切割痕迹表明，她身体的某些部位曾被去除软组织或移除。
"Surprisingly, there were no fragments of teeth or skull bones in the pyre,"
said Elizabeth Sawchuk, Curator of Human Evolution at the Cleveland Museum of
Natural History and a bioarchaeologist involved in the study. "Because those
parts are usually preserved in cremations, we believe the head may have been
removed prior to burning."
“令人惊讶的是，火葬堆里没有发现牙齿或头骨碎片，”克利夫兰自然历史博物馆人类进
化馆长、参与这项研究的生物考古学家伊丽莎白·索丘克说。 “因为这些部位通常会在
火葬中保存下来，我们认为头部可能在焚烧前就被取走了。”
Building the pyre required gathering at least 30 kg of deadwood and grass,
pointing toward a significant communal effort, the researchers said.
Participants actively disturbed the fire during burning and continually added
fuel to sustain high temperatures, according to the analysis of ash sediments
and bone fragments. Evidence suggests the blaze reached temperatures greater
than 500 °C. Discovery of stone tools within the pyre suggest they were
either added to or embedded within the burning remains, perhaps as funerary
objects.
"These hands-on manipulations, cutting flesh from the bones and removing the
skull, sound very gruesome, but there are many reasons people may have done
this associated with remembrance, social memory, and ancestral veneration,"
said Cerezo-Román. "There is growing evidence among ancient hunter-gatherers
in Malawi for mortuary rituals that include posthumous removal, curation, and
secondary reburial of body parts, perhaps as tokens."
研究人员表示，建造这座火葬堆至少需要收集30公斤枯木和草，显示当时进行了大量的集
体努力。对灰烬沉积物和骨骼碎片的分析表明，参与者在燃烧过程中会不断扰动火势，并
持续添加燃料以维持高温。证据表明，火势达到了摄氏500度以上。在火葬堆中发现的石
器表明，它们可能是被添加到燃烧的遗骸中，也可能是被埋藏其中的，或许是作为陪葬品
。
“这些亲手操作，例如从骨头上割下血肉、取下头骨，听起来非常残忍，但人们这样做可
能有很多原因，与纪念、社会记忆和祖先崇拜有关，”塞雷佐-罗曼说。 “越来越多的证
据表明，马拉威古代狩猎采集者的丧葬仪式包括死后取出、保存和重新埋葬身体部位，或
许是作为某种象征。”
The team also found evidence that about 700 years before the pyre event, the
location had been the site of large fires. Then, within 500 years after the
cremation event, multiple additional large fires were lit atop the pyre
itself. Although no one else was cremated, this suggests that people
remembered the pyre's location and recognized its ongoing significance. The
history of large fires in this location, the effort associated with the
cremation, and the subsequent burning events reflect a deep-rooted tradition
at the site linked to ritual behavior and memory-making tied to a place that
was clearly a local landmark.
While the cremation process is now clear, the motivation behind the event
remains mysterious.
"Why was this one woman cremated when the other burials at the site were not
treated that way?" Thompson said. "There must have been something specific
about her that warranted special treatment."
研究团队还发现证据表明，在火葬事件发生前约700年，该地点曾发生大型火灾。随后，
在火葬事件发生后的500年内，人们在火葬堆上点燃了多堆大型营火。尽管没有其他人被
火化，但这表明人们记住了火葬堆的位置，并认识到它持续的重要性。该地点历史上发生
的大型篝火、火葬活动以及随后的焚烧事件，都反映出该地点根深蒂固的传统，这种传统
与仪式行为和记忆构建密切相关，而该地点显然是当地的地标。
虽然火葬过程现在已经很清楚，但这事件背后的动机仍然是个谜。
汤普森说：“为什么只有这位女性被火化，而墓地里的其他遗体却没有被火化？她肯定有
什么特殊之处，值得特殊对待。”
More information: Jessica Cerezo-Román et al, Earliest Evidence for
Intentional Cremation of Human Remains in Africa, Science Advances (2026).
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz9554. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz9554
Journal information: Science Advances
Provided by University of Oklahoma
更多资讯： Jessica Cerezo-Román 等人，《非洲人类遗骸有意火化的最早证据》，《
科学进展》 (2026)。 DOI ：10.1126/sciadv.adz9554。 www.science.org /doi
/10.1126/sciadv.adz9554
期刊资讯： 《科学进展》
俄克拉荷马 大学提供
5.完整新闻连结 (或短网址)不可用YAHOO、LINE、MSN等转载媒体:
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帝皇是如此深爱着全体人类