February
18
/ 2021
The burnt remains of a woman discovered in an ancient Jordanian hunters’ camp have been dated to almost 20,000 years ago. And having been partially incinerated in an obscure death ritual, this discovery demonstrates beliefs towards death shifted much earlier than currently believed. A New Kind Of Death Ritual And Much Earlier Than We Thought Until now, in the Middle East, the burial of people and cremated remains within living structures is thought to have originated no earlier than about 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic period. However, the discovery of the woman's charred remains, in a seasonal campsite hut, informed scientists that Middle Eastern hunter-gatherers had adopted new views on death nearly 20,000 years ago. The woman's remains were
