The Earliest European Burials

A pre-occupation with the dead, whether individually or collectively, is one of the most symbolic of human behaviours. Implicit in evidence for these behaviours are cognitive capacities that permit the expression of sentiments transmitting particular values through the actions made on behalf of the dead. These also reflect important social structuring principles of the group. Europe – from the Atlantic coast and the Iberian peninsula to the Ural Mountains, or from North to South from the North European Plain, North of the 50th parallel, to the northern borders of the Black and Caspian Seas – was home to members of the Neandertal lineage who, for the first time in the history of humanity, attributed special attention to certain dead group members. During the last third of the Middle Palaeolithic or Mousterian period, they invented the grave (Leclerc and Tarrète, 1988) for the deposition of individuals as primary earthen burials

Ancient history · Geography · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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  Open Access•Yossi Zaidner, Marie Prévost et al.•Nature Human Behaviour•2025

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