Observation. At a Kenyan cave, excavators documented a pit containing the partial skeleton of a child estimated to have died around age 2½–3. The body lay flexed; bone articulation, decomposition traces, and microscopic analysis of pit and surrounding sediment support deliberate interment. Martínón-Torres et al., Nature (2021).
Dated material. The quoted 78.3 ± 4.1 ka is modeled from the archaeological sequence, including optical luminescence of sediments; it is not a direct date of the child's intention or a recorded funeral. The skeleton's anatomy is consistent with Homo sapiens, with some retained ancestral dental features.
Claim status. observed: a child placed and decomposed in a filled pit. inferred, strong: deliberate burial. open: whether care for the body reflected grief, social obligation, beliefs about death, or several of these. Next test: compare grave construction, preservation and site context to other independently established burials. Deliberate treatment of the dead does not, on its own, prove a specific doctrine of the soul.