Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals buried themselves in the same way. A unique study
A shocking discovery about an extinct species of humans. Neanderthals and our homo sapiens ancestors have another element of common heritage. It turns out that both species may have a culture associated with death.
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Recent research conducted on burial sites in the Levant region of western Asia, just off the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, shows surprising connections. It turns out that early homo sapiens and Neanderthals began burying their dead in a similar period of history, i.e. about 120,000 years ago. Moreover, both species were supposed to do it in a similar, though not identical, way, which could eventually even seem to be some kind of competition.
“Grobing” competition?
Conducted by scientists from Israel suggests that many of the burial sites they discovered are older than traces of similar rituals in Europe and Africa. Their work was based on the analysis of 17 Neanderthal sites and 15 associated with Homo sapiens. According to researchers, the growing number of burials is also a manifestation of the fight for resources and living space. But although there were many similarities in the rituals related to death, there were also differences.
This includes the age of the deceased who were buried. In the case of Neanderthals, research shows that farewelling young children in this way was more common. Although both groups left various goods in their graves in the form of animal bones or small stones, homo sapiens more often chose their dead in cave entrances or rock shelters.. Neanderthals, however, opted for deep cave interiors – describes sciencealert.com
Homo sapiens were also usually buried in a crouched fetal position. Their graves were also more ornatebased on the use of elements such as shells and natural ocher dye. Neanderthals tended to keep things simple, using pieces of rock that today might remind us of tombstones. As researchers emphasize, the complete extinction of Neanderthals around 50,000 years ago led, at least in the Levant region, to a halt in the development of burial culture for tens of thousands of years. They decided that this issue was worth taking a closer look at in subsequent research.
