Funerary rituals in the Stone Age: what they were like and what they show us
What is known about the burial rituals performed by our most ancient ancestors?
Death is an aspect addressed in all cultures. All over the world a moment is dedicated to those who have just departed, performing a ceremony in their memory.
One question archaeologists have asked is how long have we humans celebrated and buried our dead, is it unique to our species or have there been other hominids who have buried their dead?
Next we are going to talk about burial rituals in the Stone Age, that is, the Paleolithic and Neolithic, in addition to understanding the difficulty of knowing if they really had a concept of death.
Funerary rituals in the stone age: characteristics and discoveries.
Death is an event that is accompanied by rituals in virtually all cultures.. Wherever you are, in all cultures, when someone dies, a tribute is prepared for him or her. This may consist of a Western-style burial, with the corpse inside a coffin that, after saying the last goodbye, will be cremated or buried. In other parts of the world the corpse is thrown into the sea, respectfully left in the open for the vultures to eat, or it is even disemboweled and its bones placed in decorative urns.
It is clear that the abstract idea of death is present in all human beings, regardless of how "complex" or "complex" or "complex" or "complex" or "complex" or "complex" or "complex".regardless of how "complex" or "civilized" their culture is.
However, a question that archaeologists have always asked is since when do modern humans (and not so modern humans) bury our dead? A deliberate burial is synonymous with understanding the concept of death and that is why we have tried to understand up to what point this abstract idea could appear in our minds.
Given the existence of archaeological sites where human bones have been found apparently placed on purpose, it has been suggested that our ancestors did indeed understand the concept of death, it has been suggested that our ancestors could have understood what death was.. Death is an abstract idea, which is not limited to understanding that something that was alive is no longer alive: it is to understand that it is an irreversible phenomenon, that those who die are gone forever.
Funeral rituals in the Stone Age have been an object of extensive study since, if discovered, they would be the confirmation of abstract thinking in our ancestors.
Traditionally it has been thought that only modern humans buried their dead, however, archaeologists are increasingly critical of this idea.. Let's see how the funerary rituals were in the Stone Age, or at least the interpretation that has been made of them.
Rituals in the Paleolithic
The Paleolithic is the oldest period of prehistory. Although the manufacture of certain tools can already be found in this period, the idea that hominids were able to bury their loved ones is still debatable.. This period is subdivided into three: Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic.
Lower Paleolithic
A widely held belief among the population is that our earliest ancestors did not treat their most recent dead in any special way. The absence of deliberate burials has cast doubt on whether they understood what death was or had abstract ideas, assuming that they must not have been very intelligent.
However, this idea changed with the findings of the Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca, with bone remains dating back 430,000 years and found in a place that does not seem to have had any domestic use.
It is a a kind of cave leading to a natural well, in which the bones of at least 28 hominins have been found, together with the remains of quartz tools, and the remains of a number oftogether with the remains of quartzite tools. Given its remoteness and the fact that it does not seem to have been used on a daily basis, it has been interpreted that the Sima de los Huesos is a kind of prehistoric cemetery.
Although there are those who think that these bones could be found there by accident, as brought there by a flood or by a predator, the theory of deliberate burial is the one that makes the most sense. If there had been floods, not only hominid remains would have been found, but also those of other animals.. This site, if it is indeed a burial site, would confirm the existence of deliberate burials more than 200,000 years old.
In one of the most difficult to access chambers of the Rising Star Cave in South Africa, 15 human-like skeletal remains have been found. This hypothetical new species has been called Homo nalediand appears to be another deliberate burial.
There is no evidence of a natural disaster to explain why the skeletal remains were there, no sediment or water that could be due to a flood. Apart from the bones of an owl, there are no remains of other animals or possible predators that brought those bones there.
Middle Paleolithic
As we enter the Middle Paleolithic we find more remains of deliberate burial rituals. It seems that some Neanderthals performed rituals for their dead.but in a somewhat violent way, perhaps for our modern western vision: they fleshed the corpses and broke the joints. It has been hypothesized that they may have performed ritual cannibalism with their dead.
There is evidence of possible deliberate burials by Neanderthals in Pontnewydd Cave in Wales, dated to 230,000 years ago.. Between the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic, Neanderthals made increasingly sophisticated burials, both for young children and for their elders. This suggests that their society was more egalitarian than one might think, in which age was not a distinguishing factor.
Similarly, there are no confirmed remains of grave goods in these Neanderthal graves. This is quite significant, since the grave goods are indicative of ceremonial thinking, of leaving things for the dead to take with them to the next world. Likewise, it is assumed that Neanderthals may have had a concept of death, or at least understood that it was an irreversible phenomenon.
As for modern humans or Homo sapiensit is common knowledge that they have traditionally been associated as the only ones capable of performing funerary rituals. This, based on what we have already seen, has been called into question. What is clear is that the first deliberate burials of modern humans were much more sophisticated compared to those of their ancestors or other human species..
One of the earliest deliberate burials found was made by Homo sapiens is located in Israel and dates to about 100,000 years ago. In it, delicately placed skeletal remains were found, with grave goods consisting mostly of animal bones.
Upper Paleolithic
But it was not until the Upper Paleolithic that there was a "boom" in funerary rituals, since there are many bone remains found from this period. An interesting case is found in the United Kingdom, in Goat's Cave. William Buckland in 1823 found in this cave, located in the Gower Peninsula, Wales, some very ancient bone remains, painted in red..
Buckland was a great follower of the Bible, which made him incapable of thinking that the World was more than 5,000 years old. He thought that these bones belonged to some prostitute brought in at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain, and so he called her the Red Lady of Paviland. Ironically, this lady was actually a male, would have been 25 or 30 years old when he died and lived about 33,000 years ago and, to make matters worse, he was accompanied by the skeletal remains of a male, was accompanied by the skeletal remains of long-extinct animalsthat not even the Romans could have known about.
Miss Red of Paviland had a mammoth ivory bracelet, a pendant and numerous shells and bone remains. The corpse must have been buried with clothes and shoes. The nature of this burial suggests that he was an important man, with the possibility that he was a shaman and that the trousseau that accompanied him were elements of his rite in life.
Rituals in the Mesolithic
There are few complete human remains that are attributed to the Mesolithic periodsuggesting that there were few burials or that other methods were practiced to mourn the deceased. Among the most common practices could be considered fleshing, that is, removing the flesh from the bones. This has been considered because the remains from this period are mostly small bone fragments or bones with marks from sharp objects. This has suggested the practice of cannibalism in early Homo sapiens.
One of the most complete skeletal remains can be found at Gough's Cave, in Cheddar, England.. This skeleton, called Cheddar Man or Cheddar Man, must have died in 7150 B.C. at about twenty years of age. His skull had a hole in it, which led to the assumption that he must have died a violent death, although it was later hypothesized that he actually had a bone disease and the cranial bones began to wear away, leading to his death.
Another cave in the Cheddar area is Aveline's Hole, where the remains of at least 70 people have been found, many with disarticulated bones. However, the bones were placed anatomically, i.e., they were not dumped as if they were the remains of a random animal.In addition, there were elements such as animal teeth that suggest that they were not victims of cannibals, but rather deceased relatives whose flesh was ritually eaten or ripped off for some reason.
Unfortunately, this collection of Mesolithic remains was eventually lost in World War II due to German bombing. Current archaeological interpretations are based on period descriptions and black and white photographs.
Neolithic
In the Neolithic period, people began to feel more connected to the land, so that the treatment of death and burial took on a different form. Even significant differences begin to appear between village and village, i.e., we could speak of certainthat is to say, we could speak of certain cultural differences.
For example, in the United Kingdom, between 3800 B.C. and 3300 B.C. we can find burials in chambers, especially in the south and east of Great Britain. Before the bones were placed, they were taken out of the bones, placed in mortuaries and, after some time, they were sealed by placing mud and stones on top of them. It is quite probable that some kind of ceremony was held before, during and/or after placing the bones. From 3500 B.C. the tombs begin to be individual and the body is kept intact.
Some remarkable tombs from this period in Europe are the dolmens. These monumental structures, which could easily exceed 5 meters, were the most popular in several regions of Europe around 3,000 B.C. They had a burial chamber and at the end they had a decorated passage, which was usually aligned with the positions of the sun at the summer or winter solstice.
Ritual cannibalism
Since tooth marks have been found on many skeletal remains of our ancestors, many archaeologists assumed that they were due to cannibalism as we understand it in the popular sense.. That is, it was thought that ancient humans ate each other, either because of tribal conflicts or because there was a shortage of food.
However, as we have been commenting before, the cause of this could be ritual, that is, they ate other human beings who had just died and, as a sign of respect, they ingested their flesh. Cannibalism could be a funeral ritual in which the flesh of the loved one was consumed to keep him closer, or it could simply be a combination of taking advantage of nutrients and, at the same time, honoring the deceased. Many theories have been put forward for this practice.
Likewise, ritual or not, human flesh was treated in much the same way as the remains of animals were treated.. They would tear the flesh, break the bones and remove the marrow. They even cooked meat on certain occasions, and this can be associated with nutritional rather than ritual interests.
Bibliographical references:
- Olària i Puyoles, C. (2003). Death as a transcendental rite. Epipaleolithic-Mesolithic funerary rites and their probable influence on the megalithic world. Quaderns de prehistòria i arqueologia de Castelló, 23, 85-106.
- Andrés-Rupérez, M. T. (2003). The concept of death and funerary ritual in prehistory. Cuadernos de Arqueología. 11. 13-36.
(Updated at Apr 15 / 2024)