About a month ago, the popular media widely published finding from a 1999-2012 re-excavation of a Neanderthal grave site in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France. Neanderthal news usually stirs up a lot of media attention, but this site in particular really seemed to capture the public's attention. What was, and is, so interesting about this Neanderthal grave site was the presence of intentional burial. According to researchers, the 50,000 year old skeleton was intentionally buried by his companions. The study of symbolic thought, cognition, and culture of Neanderthals have been big topics in Palaeolithic archeology. These findings present some pretty hard hitting evidence that the Neanderthals were capable of complex thought -- something which is (very unfairly) not often attributed to them by the popular media.
La Chapelle-aux-Saints grave site
Image via "Liberty Voice"
I love how this finding shows the true universality of concern for the deceased. Although I cannot speculate on why the Neanderthals in this case chose to bury their deceased counterpart (perhaps they were worried about scavenging animals, maybe the site of death left them feeling uncomfortable, or possibly it was an action of care) this finding, for me, hi-lights that processing the dead is a trans-cultural and trans-historical process, and can lead to postulations about cultural and symbolic nature.
Reconstruction of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints burial
Image via National Geographic
What are your thought on the findings of this intentional Neanderthal burial?
If you are interested in reading more on this topic, check out these news articles:
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