Middle Palaeolithic burial is not a dead issue: the view from Qafzeh, Saint-Césaire, Kebara, Amud, and Dederiyeh

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

“…The most generally accepted burials include the early modern human fossils, Skhul 1, 4, 5, and 9; Qafzeh 8-11, 13, 15; and the Neandertal fossils, Tabun C1; Kebara 1 and 2; Amud 1, 7, 9; and Dederiyeh 1 (Shea, 2001a;Tillier et al, 1988). There remains a healthy skepticism about claims of MP mortuary ritual (Gargett, 1999), but complete skeletons of large mammals are so rare in Mediterranean caves as to leave little question that their burial reflect from anthropogenic processes (Belfer-Cohen and Hovers, 1992;. In this regard, it is noteworthy that Solecki (1975) reported a fallow deer "burial" accompanied by red ochre at Nahr Ibrahim.…”

“…7). Putative grave goods associated with Amud 7 (a red deer maxilla) and Dederiyeh 1 (a stone plaque and a triangular flake) (Akazawa et al, 1995b;Hovers et al, 1995) are somewhat less clearly symbolic, because objects similar to the claimed mortuary furnishings occur in the sediments surrounding the skeletons (Gargett, 1999). That the skull of Kebara 2 was removed shortly after burial may also involve symbolic behavior (Tillier et al, 1991).…”

Trazando los orígenes del comportamiento simbólico a través del registro arqueológico paleolítico<br /><em>Tracking the origins of symbolic behavior through the Paleolithic archaeological record</em>

“…En este momento, en Europa, la población humana que habita este territorio es la de los neandertales (Homo neanderthalensis), mientras que en el Próximo Oriente se alternan ocupaciones de neandertales y humanos anatómicamente modernos, y en África hallamos ya las primeras poblaciones de humanos anatómicamente modernos. Mucho se ha debatido y se sigue debatiendo sobre si los neandertales enterraban (Defleur, 1993;Rendu y otros, 2014) o no a sus muertos (Gargett, 1999;Dibble y otros, 2015), principalmente porque el grueso de los hallazgos procede de excavaciones antiguas. Las evidencias arqueológicas parecen indicar que, aunque la inhumación de los cuerpos no fue una práctica generalizada, tanto los primeros humanos anatómicamente modernos como los neandertales la practicaron, depositando de manera intencionada los cuerpos en lugares determinados.…”

Landscapes of the dead: the evolution of human mortuary activity frombody to place in Palaeolithic Europe

“…Despite a strong critique (Gargett 1989(Gargett , 1999 Neanderthal groups buried some of their dead some of the time (Pettitt 2001;2011a, 78-138). For the European Middle Palaeolithic these are all single inhumations, which indicate the deliberate modification of a locale in order to receive the dead; a three-stage process involving a) the excavation of a pit for the deliberate purpose of burial, b) the placement of a body within it, and c) the covering of the body with the sediment excavated.…”