BELIEFS
Shanidar, a Neanderthal Flower Burial?
~70,000 years ago (debated)
Palaeolithic · Middle Stone Age · Last glacial
Shanidar Cave, in Iraqi Kurdistan, became a landmark of Palaeolithic archaeology after Ralph Solecki uncovered Neanderthal remains there in the middle of the twentieth century. Solecki held that some of these individuals had died in rockfalls and, more controversially, that others had been laid to rest with formal rites, one of them on flowers: clumps of pollen lay in the soil around the skeleton known as Shanidar 4. Recent excavation revealed, close to the same spot, the articulated upper body of an adult Neanderthal, meaning that its bones were still in their anatomical positions. This was the first articulated Neanderthal found anywhere in more than twenty-five years, and the stratigraphy around it suggests that the body was intentionally buried.
Why it matters
What is at stake is the mental world of another human species. A body deliberately placed and then covered implies a plan, a shared decision and some regard for the dead; a body buried by a rockfall or by slow sedimentation implies none of those things. No single site settles the question, and articulated Neanderthal skeletons are scarce. The find at Shanidar offers an uncommon opportunity to investigate Neanderthal mortuary practices with modern archaeological techniques, on bones recorded where they lay.
Dating & uncertaintyDisputed
The age is the loosest part of the file: the skeletons come from the cave's Palaeolithic levels, and 70,000 years is an approximation. The dispute bears on what the bodies mean, not on that figure. A twelve-year re-excavation in France found a pit cut by people and a body quickly covered, read by its authors as intentional burial; a critical review of the same data held that each line failed the test or fitted other readings. At Shanidar the pollen points the other way: some clumps were probably left by nesting solitary bees, though the skeletons form a tight cluster, deliberately placed.
Sources
- Pomeroy et al. (2020), Antiquity · New Neanderthal remains associated with the 'flower burial' at Shanidar Cavedoi:10.15184/aqy.2019.207
- Hunt et al. (2023), Journal of Archaeological Science · Shanidar et ses fleurs? Reflections on the palynology of the Neanderthal 'Flower Burial' hypothesisdoi:10.1016/j.jas.2023.105822
- Rendu et al. (2014), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · Evidence supporting an intentional Neandertal burial at La Chapelle-aux-Saintsdoi:10.1073/pnas.1316780110
- Dibble et al. (2015), Journal of Archaeological Science · A critical look at evidence from La Chapelle-aux-Saints supporting an intentional Neandertal burialdoi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.04.019
Our species’ history as one day
18:40:005 h 20 min before midnight
if the 315,000 years of Homo sapiens were compressed into a single day