Neanderthals Buried their Dead, Researchers Say

Neanderthals weren't entirely devoid of civilization. A latest study has found that they took care in burying their dead. Researchers aren't sure if these burials were ritualistic or were a practical solution.

Archaeologists at the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CIRHUS) and New York University conducted the study. The team analyzed remains found in southwestern France and has now confirmed that the burials in the region occurred before the arrival of humans.

Neanderthals are often seen as a primitive, sub-human species that went extinct after the arrival of sophisticated and intelligent humans. However, recent research has found that Neanderthals had good cognitive abilities; they made tools, lived in homes and even used toothpicks to relieve dental pain.

"This discovery not only confirms the existence of Neanderthal burials in Western Europe, but also reveals a relatively sophisticated cognitive capacity to produce them," explained William Rendu, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CIRHUS) in New York City.

Unearthing controversy

The remains studied in the current research were first discovered in 1908 at La Chapelle-aux-Saints. Archaeologists had assumed that the site was a burial ground created by early humans. However, some skeptics argued that the burial could have been accidental and not planned.

Rendu and his collaborators began excavating the burial site in 1999 and concluded their study in 2012. The team found remains of two children and one adult. The burial site also had bones of reindeer and bison.

Geological analysis of the site, where the bones were found, showed that it didn't have natural features of a cave floor. Also, unlike animal bones, Neanderthal bones hadn't weathered or been scattered, suggesting that they were buried.

 "The relatively pristine nature of these 50,000-year-old remains implies that they were covered soon after death, strongly supporting our conclusion that Neanderthals in this part of Europe took steps to bury their dead," observes Rendu in a news release. "While we cannot know if this practice was part of a ritual or merely pragmatic, the discovery reduces the behavioral distance between them and us."

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Neanderthals diverged from the primate line that gave rise to modern humans about 400,000 years. This group then moved to Eurasia and completely disappeared from the world about 30,000 years back. Other studies have shown that Neanderthals might have lived near the Arctic Circle around 31,000 to 34,000 years ago.