He lived and died in caves: When people first started burying their dead

Many cultures in the modern world bury their dead in the ground. Customs and rituals surrounding funerals can vary greatly in different parts of the world, but their origins date back thousands of years. So when did people first start burying their dead? Scientists answer this question for Live Science.

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According to Mary Steiner of Arizona State University in the US, it is difficult to say exactly when modern humans first started burying their dead. The fact is that most very ancient graves have not survived and therefore scientists cannot study them.

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When did people first start burying their dead?

But Steiner says the earliest evidence of modern human burial dates back to the Middle Paleolithic period, between 300,000 and 30,000 years ago. We are talking about graves discovered in caves, which show that the person did not die as a result of the destruction of the rock covering him in the cave, but that the deceased was deliberately buried here.

It is believed that the oldest tombs created by modern humans 120 thousand years ago are found in the Qafzeh cave in Israel. By the way, Neanderthal graves created 115 thousand years ago were also discovered here.

According to Steiner, there may be older graves, but there is no convincing evidence that they were buried deliberately. For example, some scientists believe that people began burying their dead in South Africa 300 thousand years ago, but this theory is quite controversial and does not find support in the scientific community.

Ancient people lived in caves, spent most of their time here, and therefore most likely chose a place for burial in a cave. Scientists think that such burials are the result of deliberate actions rather than the influence of random factors, since the remains in the caves are in a fetal position, indicating that the body was placed this way on purpose. In addition, scientists have discovered various objects in ancient tombs dating back to the Middle Paleolithic period, dug at the bottom of caves, where the dead were buried. In other words, for tens of thousands of years, people have specially created such burial places for their dead.

Why did ancient people begin to bury their dead?

According to Trish Beers of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, it is not entirely clear what motivated ancient people to build burials in and around caves. Perhaps this is because humans, like other animals, cannot live normally next to a rotting corpse. When a person died, the corpse began to emit a very unpleasant smell; this attracted insects and scavenger animals, so perhaps humans chose this method to “fight” the corpses.

Scientists suggest that the first burials could have appeared only for the above reasons, but over time these burials became more complex, which may be an indicator of a completely different attitude towards the dead.

According to research, similar, more complex graves began to appear in Eurasia during the Late Paleolithic period, between 40 thousand and 10 thousand years ago. In these graves, there are various household items placed next to the corpse, which is an indication of a new attitude towards death.

According to scientists, very few human burials from the Late Paleolithic period have survived, and therefore it is difficult to draw clear conclusions about what exactly were the reasons that prompted them to bury the dead in this way. Moreover, such ancient tombs vary depending on the region.

According to Beers, how people buried their dead depended on a number of factors, including the environment in which they lived. As for burials with burnt human remains, the oldest evidence of such burials was found in Australia, and they were made 40 thousand years ago.

As I already wrote FocusA crystal-shaped tattoo was found on the body of a man who died 1300 years ago. This is a famous Christian symbol in which the name of Jesus Christ is encrypted.