“Mystery of the Ages: Ancient Remains of an Eight-Year-Old Discovered in Thai Cave—What Secrets Will They Reveal?”
Discovering Thailand’s Oldest Known Human Remains In Tham Din Cave
Thanate Tan/Flickr A trail in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park in Thailand.
In 2020, archaeologists began exploring Tham Din cave in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park in Thailand after discovering ancient paintings in its interior chambers. The paintings, located on the ceilings of three chambers inside Tham Din, were mostly hunting scenes created with red ocher. Some paintings showed humans using bows and arrows to hunt deer.
Then, in 2022, archaeologists found animal bones, pottery, and other items, pointing to ancient human activity in the cave. Forensic labs in the U.S. determined that these items dated between 10,000 and 29,000 years old.
Archaeologists then dug deeper and uncovered the most significant finding yet: the remains of a child who died 29,000 years ago.
Examining The 29,000-Year-Old Human Skeleton
PR Thai GovernmentThe remains of “Pangpond” and the excavation that uncovered the ancient child.
Roughly 6.5 feet below the cave’s floor, the remains of the ancient child were discovered in remarkably good condition considering their age. The small size of the skull and the bone joints indicated that the remains belonged to a young child, roughly six to eight years old.
The child, nicknamed “Pangpond” after a fictional character from a Thai TV show, lived in the Paleolithic Period — or the Old Stone Age — an era characterized by early stone tool construction and use.
Pangpond is the oldest human skeleton ever discovered in Thailand, possibly pushing back the timeline of human occupation of the region back tens of thousands of years earlier than expected.
