A body burned inside a hut 20,000 years ago signaled shifting views of death

Linking the dead with human-built structures may have brought the dead and living closer

Burned remains of a woman

Charred remains of a woman (pictured) found amid burned remnants of a hut at a Jordanian site indicate that her dead body was placed there for an unusual burial event about 19,200 years ago.

L. Maher, D. Macdonald, EFAP Archive

Middle Eastern hunter-gatherers changed their relationship with the dead nearly 20,000 years ago.