杏吧原创

Neanderthals really did bury their dead. Archaeologists in Iraq have discovered a new Neanderthal skeleton that appears to have been deliberately buried around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.

鈥淲e are quite confident,鈥� says Emma Pomeroy at the University of Cambridge.

The first evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead emerged after archaeologist Ralph Solecki excavated Shanidar cave in northern Iraq in the 1950s and 1960s. The cave eventually yielded the remains of 10 Neanderthals, including one dubbed Shanidar 4, which was found with clumps of pollen 鈥� suggesting the body had been deliberately placed in a grave and flowers scattered on it. The finding was one of several lines of evidence that has led to a reassessment of Neanderthals as highly intelligent and not the shambling brutes of earlier portrayals.

However, the 鈥渇lower burial鈥� suggestion has been controversial. 鈥淭here are burrowing rodents that use the cave and they sometimes take flowers into their burrows,鈥� says Pomeroy. Some of the workmen helping with the dig also carried flowers. 鈥淓nough doubt was cast that people became quite sceptical.鈥�

In 2014, excavations at the cave restarted 鈥� under tight security because of the threat from ISIS in the region. The aim was to study the sediments in which the Neanderthals were found, to clarify what had happened. However, to the team鈥檚 surprise they found a new set of remains: the upper half of a Neanderthal, the bones still in their anatomical positions.

Pomeroy鈥檚 team found multiple lines of evidence that the Neanderthal was deliberately buried, including that fact that the sediment layer around the body is visibly different to the layer below. 鈥淭he one containing the bones is much darker,鈥� says Pomeroy.

Disturbed by digging

What鈥檚 more, the sediment below the body shows signs of having been disturbed by digging. 鈥淚f you imagine you鈥檙e digging into soil or sediment to dig a grave or a little hole, that causes some compression of the soil, underneath that you鈥檙e taking out, because you鈥檙e pushing down,鈥� says Pomeroy. The team found that the layer immediately under the body is compressed, but the deeper layers aren鈥檛. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 quite good evidence that something was dug out and that鈥檚 what the body鈥檚 been put in.鈥�

It isn鈥檛 clear if the remains belong to a new individual or to one of the previous finds, several of which are incomplete. Pomeroy says the body was probably accidentally cut in half by the original excavators, who removed the flower burial in a large block of rock.

Modern humans were burying their dead at least 100,000 years ago, says Pomeroy. We don鈥檛 know whether Neanderthals devised the behaviour themselves or if they learned it from humans, but we do know Neanderthals and humans encountered each other around the time of the Shanidar burials.