The scientists of the French national research center (CNRS) found in the middle East the oldest evidence of a deliberate cremation, dated to the seventh Millennium BC. This was reported in an article published in the journal PLoS ONE.
Pit of burning dead bodies were found during the excavations of the prehistoric settlement of Bayamon in the North of Israel. It contained the remains of a corpse, which apparently burned intentionally during the funeral ceremony. The bones that belonged to a young man, dated between 7013 and 6,700 years BC. Shortly after the death of their heated to a temperature of over 500 degrees Celsius.
The recess itself has a solid insulating wall. The plants, whose remains were inside the fireplace, probably served as fuel for the fire. The age of traces of cremation comes at an important period of transition in the funerary practice in this region of the world. Earlier, the people removed the bones of the dead and buried body within the settlement, and methods such as cremation, came in to replace them.
