Human burial practices had their origins in the Levant, Israeli research

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The burial practices of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens originated in the Levant region about 120,000 years ago, according to a new study published in the journal L’Anthropologie. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Haifa University in Israel analyzed 32 ancient burials in the Levant, including 17 Neanderthal burials and 15 Homo sapiens burials, shedding light on the cultural practices of these ancient hominins.

The Levant, which included modern-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories, was a cultural crossroads during the Middle Paleolithic. Both groups of hominids arrived at similar times and coexisted for tens of thousands of years. “The innovation of burial actually started in the Levant,” explained Dr. Omry Barzilai, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa.

The researchers compared the location of burial sites, the position of skeletons, the gender and age of the buried individuals, and the presence of objects placed next to the deceased to highlight notable differences between the two communities. Neanderthals tended to bury their dead deeper in caves, often using large stones as accompaniments. In some cases they used modified pieces of limestone as headrests, possibly serving as rudimentary pillows or gravestones.

In contrast, Homo sapiens preferred to bury their dead at the entrances of caves or under natural shelters, sometimes taking ocher and sea shells with them. The use of ocher or shells is completely absent among the Neanderthals. Both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens included various objects in graves, such as small stones, animal bones, or horns, that may have had deep meaning to the living.

There was a higher rate of infant mortality among Neanderthals compared to Homo sapiens, and the burial of Neanderthal babies became more common due to this higher mortality rate. The study suggests that the rise of burial practices in the Levant may have been linked to an increase in population density caused by an influx of migrants from East Africa. “We hypothesize that the increase in the frequency of burials by these two populations in West Asia is related to the increasing competition for resources and space resulting from the arrival of these populations,” the researchers said in their paper.

Some archaeologists think competition may have played a role in the burial practices of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, possibly linked to more intense competition for resources and space. National Geographic reported that burying a body in a cave could be a way of reclaiming it – not only for the dead, but also for those who would return season after season. “A cave is an asset,” said Dr. Barzilai to National Geographic.

The researchers speculate that burying the dead may have served a secondary purpose: marking territory. “We know that when many groups live in the same area and there is pressure on resources, for example, they start using burials to mark their connection to specific caves,” says Ella Been. Both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens buried people of all ages, including men, women, children and infants.

After the Neanderthals became extinct about 50,000 years ago, it appears as if no human burial has occurred in this part of the world for tens of thousands of years. This halt in burials is considered another intriguing data point worth exploring further. “It’s a mystery. Funerals are an important part of culture. Why they suddenly stopped is a question that remains,” the researchers wrote, according to zmescience.com.

“The data are limited, but this is an impressive study,” John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who did not participate in the study, told LiveScience. However, he expressed caution in drawing definitive conclusions. “There appear to have been consistent burial practices that distinguished the burials of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens,” Hawks said. “This is surprising because not all of these small, dispersed populations are expected to share cultural practices over long distances in space and time.”

The researchers acknowledge the limitations of their study due to the small number of burials found. “We should do more excavations. Maybe in three years, or in 30, or 300, we will find more burials, and the implications will change,” Been noted to LiveScience.

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The nature of the objects that accompany the deceased differs between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, revealing profound differences between the two human groups. For example, in some Homo sapiens graves, shells appeared, probably brought from distant shores, perhaps to mark kinship or social ties.

National Geographic, Archeology Magazine and Science Alert, among others, reported on the research.

This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq