Neanderthal burial practices: a comparison of La Ferrassie (France) and Shanidar Cave (Iraqi Kurdistan)

The Middle Palaeolithic is an important period in the development of mortuary behaviour. During this period, Neanderthals started burying their dead before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe. Their mortuary behaviour knows variability in several aspects, which makes an interesting case in the debate surrounding behaviour complexity. The central problem that is explored here is what the variation in mortuary behaviour between the Neanderthal multiple burial sites of La Ferrassie and Shanidar Cave indicates about Neanderthal mortuary practice in the Middle Palaeolithic and how this helps to understand their behaviour in an evolutionary context. La Ferrassie and Shanidar Cave are two of the few Neanderthal burial sites that contain multiple burials and vary in their organization in space and time. Using new evidence produced with the most recent techniques, I re-examined the two burial sites to compare their degree of organization and continuity. The study confirms that La Ferrassie...Show moreThe Middle Palaeolithic is an important period in the development of mortuary behaviour. During this period, Neanderthals started burying their dead before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe. Their mortuary behaviour knows variability in several aspects, which makes an interesting case in the debate surrounding behaviour complexity. The central problem that is explored here is what the variation in mortuary behaviour between the Neanderthal multiple burial sites of La Ferrassie and Shanidar Cave indicates about Neanderthal mortuary practice in the Middle Palaeolithic and how this helps to understand their behaviour in an evolutionary context. La Ferrassie and Shanidar Cave are two of the few Neanderthal burial sites that contain multiple burials and vary in their organization in space and time. Using new evidence produced with the most recent techniques, I re-examined the two burial sites to compare their degree of organization and continuity. The study confirms that La Ferrassie displays spatial structuring of the burials, which attests to a complex interaction with the dead, while at Shanidar Cave a degree of organization is less evident and the mortuary behaviour is limited to a briefer period of time. However, it is noted that the burials at La Ferrassie and Shanidar Cave are both structured in their own manner. The diversity of responses to death is part of the emergence of the complex behaviour that would unfold in the Upper Palaeolithic. Furthermore, both sites provide evidence for a mortuary function of the cave and further explore the symbolic role of these natural formations, while keeping the preservation bias of such places in mind.Show less

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Neanderthal burial practices: a comparison of La Ferrassie (France) and Shanidar Cave (Iraqi Kurdistan)