Life and Death

Discovery explores matters of lifespan and death among our early human ancestors.

For much of human evolution, life was short and brutal. People today regularly live into their sixties, seventies and eighties. But when during our evolution could our ancestors expect to be old by today’s standards?

One of the obstacles to reaching a good age was being killed and eaten by other people. Evidence comes from a gruesome archaeological discovery in northern Spain where early humans may have used cannibalism to terrorise their neighbours 800 000 years ago.

And when did our ancestors start to bury and honour their dead with rituals? Fossil finds from Ethiopia and Spain suggests the practise goes back more than half a million years.