Did Neanderthals Bury Their Dead with Flowers? Shanidar Cave Findings Put Questions to Rest
In the 1950s, an American anthropologist, Ralph Solecki, discovered the remains of 10 Neanderthals in a cave from Iraqi Kurdistan.
SOLECKI thought that some of these cave burials were accidental, and it appeared that some were dead with falling rocks. But others seemed to have been buried, and there were even traces of flower grain found with a set of remains.
Did it mean that Neanderthals had funeral? With flowers?
Such questions were to wait. Political disorders in Iraq forced the Solecki team to stop their research on site. It was not until the last decade that a new generation of scientists has been able to revisit the Shanidar cave and learn more about this unique Neanderthal burial site.
Learn more:: A Neanderthal digital imprint points to art, and perhaps the portrait, about 43,000 years ago
Neanderthal burial practices
Scientists were authorized to return to the Shanidar cave in 2014, but they had stop a year later While Islamic State fighters approached. In 2016, they could resume. This time, they had the help of technology that did not yet exist during SOLECKI time and could locate three new sets of remains.
The new technology almost meant that they could better estimate the age of the remains. At the time of Solecki, the dating in the radiocarbon was limited and could only go back 45,000 years ago. With new methods, scientists were able to determine that one of the people buried in the cave was around 70,000 years old and was probably died towards the average age.
After the example of SOLECKI, the new generation of scientists continued to refer to individuals by the name of the cave, Shanidar, then a unique number from 1 to 10. The new remains were identified by the letters Z, A and B. Shanidar 4 was the excavated individual who seemed to have been buried with flowers.
“Shanidar 4 became famous in the 1960s and later because it would have been buried on a flower bed, based on pollen found under the body, but our current research suggests that pollen arrived there naturally,” explains Emma Pomeroy, associate professor in archeology at the University of Cambridge and Paleoanthropologist for The Shanidar cave project.
Even if Fleur-Ertre’s hypothesis did not take place, Pomeroy says that the team was able to learn more about Neanderthal mortuary practices. There is evidence, for example, that Neanderthals used the same place in the cave to intentionally bury their dead. They may also have used a serious marker.
“This repeated behavior model could suggest that it had a symbolic meaning – rather than being purely practical – although it is more difficult to be sure,” explains Pomroy.
Have the Neanderthals crying their dead?
Without written documents, it is impossible for scientists to know exactly what the Neanderthals felt when they buried their dead. However, the Shanidar skeletons gave an overview of Neanderthal life.
The Solecki team, for example, discovered that Shanidar 1 had lived with many health problems. He had several head injuries which probably make him blind in the left eye. His right arm was paralyzed. He had been broken twice and was finally amputated above the elbow. The amputation was perhaps natural, but Pomroy said that it could have been intentional.
“Most injuries healed and paralysis of the right arm would have occurred at the beginning of adulthood,” said Pomeroy.
Shanidar 1’s list of diseases continued. He had fractures with ankle and right foot, and he probably had arthritis on the knee and ankle. It was difficult to hear, and at some point, he had an infection in his collarbone. However, he lived with all these problems.
“This implies that he had some support from his social group, or at least his handicaps were welcomed by others,” explains Pomeroy.
Similarly, Shanidar 3 had a puncture injury to his side, which would probably have collapsed his left lung.
“Although he died a few weeks or months later, the injury had started to heal, suggest again[ing] He was taken care of, ”explains Pomroy.
The repeated use of the cave for burials also suggests that space had a meaning for the Neanderthals, and perhaps they had respect for their dead. These discoveries prompted scientists to wonder if the Neanderthals have been wrongly underestimated.
“Although there is a long time the hypothesis that the Neanderthals were unintelligent and not sophisticated – we always use Neanderthal as insult – the researchers have been questioning this idea for a certain number of decades now,” explains Pomeroy.
Learn more:: The fascinating world of the Neanderthal regime, language and other behaviors
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Emilie Lucchesi wrote for some of the country’s greatest newspapers, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree from DEPAUL University. It also has a doctorate. In communication from the University of Illinois-Chicago by emphasizing the framing of the media, the construction of messages and the communication of stigmatization. Emilie is the author of three non-fiction books. His third, a light in the dark: survive more than Ted Bundy, released on October 3, 2023 from Chicago Review Press and is co-written with the survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.
