Burial Ceremonialism
Throughout the course of human history,
anthropological findings have assisted
archeologists in creating an excellent
archeological record. Findings such as
burial ceremonialism and certain
behaviors that accompany this humanlike ritual
are factors that may aid
archeologists in the creation of past records. Through
the ritual of burial
ceremonialism of our ancestors we are able to determine
certain behaviors
that may have been expressed by the participants. Such
examples are our
ancestors’ view of death, its significance, and the mere fact
that they
exhibited humanlike practices. Thus, helping determine how similar
they may
have been to us. Archeologists have determined that the first group
of
ancestors to show any type of ritual burial ceremonialism was the
Neandertals.
"At sites such as Le Moustier, La Chapelle-aux-Saints, and
La Ferrassie in
France; Teshik-Tash in Uzbekistan; Shanindar in Iraq; and
Amud, Tabun, and
Kebara in Israel, there is evidence that shows that the
Neandertals buried their
dead in the ground" (175). It would have been much
easier for the Neandertals
to discard of their dead by ignoring it or leaving
it in the woods or forest to
be decomposed by natural processes and
scavenging animals. This would then have
shown that the Neandertals did not
recognize the significance of death, but
instead, Neandertals took it upon
themselves to ceremonially bury their dead.
Not only were the dead buried
in the ground, but a certain position was assumed,
which consisted of a
flexed form in which their knees were drawn up to their
chest and their arms
bend in an upward position (175). One postulate as to why
the Neandertals
used this position was to "mimic the position of the fetus in
the womb, which
may have been used to symbolize death as the end of the circle
of life
(176)." Other forms have been found as well. An example of this is a
skeleton
of a Neandertal male, which was found in Kebara Cave in Israel.
"This
skeleton was intentionally buried, having been laid on his back in an
east-west
orientation, his head facing west" (182). Excavators found that his
right arm
was laid across his chest and his left arm on his stomach.
Throughout the cave,
animal bones showed evidence of gnawing by carnivorous
animals, but the skeleton
on the other hand showed no evidence of such damage
what so ever. This lead
excavators to believe that he was buried there by
companions of some sort. It
was completely intact with the exception of a
missing cranium, which to this day
still remains a mystery. This skeleton
further proves to archeologists that our
Neandertal ancestors recognized
the significance of death. In addition to the
fact that Neandertals
recognized the significance of death, the skeleton
provided additional
insight into their culture. The Kebara skeleton, located in
Kebara Cave
in Israel, provided information to archeologists that Neandertals
possessed
the ability to speak due to a certain position of the hyoid bone in
the
throat. Excavators also found that the pelvic inlet size of a
Neandertal
differs from that of a modern day human. Before this finding in
Kebara Cave, it
was believed that the gestation period of a Neandertal female
was greater than
that of a modern human female, due to the different sizes of
children at the
same age. This is now known to be incorrect. "So the
relatively large size of
Neandertal children when compared to
anatomically modern children of the same
age is probably related to
accelerated development after birth, not faster or
longer parental
development" (181). An additional behavior that has been
recognized of the
Neandertals is that they have many humanlike practices, one
such ritual is
that of ceremonial burials. Through this behavior, it has been
found that
Neandertals possessed the ability to show and feel compassion..
"The
best, though not only, example comes from the skeleton of an adult male
found
in Shanidar Cave in Iraq" (174). In this cave, an individual was found
that
had experienced an incredible deal of trauma, consisting of severe damage
to
the left side of his head in which the eye socket had been impaired to
the
point of probable blindness. His right arm was smashed and partially
amputated
and his right leg showed signs of disease. Despite all this, the
skeleton of
this Neandertal man showed that he led quite an eventful life
because of the
amount of stress fractures in his bones. The only possible way
for him to
survive would have been with a great deal of help and
understanding of his
situation from his companions. Another example that
illustrates the fact that
Neandertals exhibited a certain degree of
compassion was found at an excavation
site also located in Shanidar cave, an
enormous amount of flower pollen was
found directly over the site of a burial
and nowhere else. Archeologists
determined this could mean one of two things.
The individual may have run
through a field of flowers right before he died,
or his companions placed
flowers over his grave. If the latter of the two
assumptions is correct, his
companions would have exhibited a great deal of
compassion (174). These examples
show that the Neandertals, on a whole,
demonstrated a certain degree of
compassion that is much like what modern
humans’ exhibited toward their own
kind. This is yet another reason
supporting that they may have been similar to
us. Although most modern day
humans do not practice the ritual of leaving the
dead with significant
amounts of objects in his or her burial, many
civilizations of the past such
as Sumerian and the ancient Egyptian
civilizations did in fact leave the
deceased with objects. These objects
consisted of artwork, jewelry, personal
items, and many others relating to the
life of the individual. Not only do
these enable archeologists to use highly
technical forms of past dating to
determine the relative age of the materials
and the deceased, but factors
such as an individuals economic and social status
are also able to be
determined due to the presence and type of these objects and
materials.
Studying ceremonial burial has enabled archeologists and
anthropologists to
further determine the nature of our ancestors in the past.
Through the
information received, it is easier to understand some of the
behavioral
habits of our ancestors by studying their rituals and lifestyles as
best we
can. Many important pieces of information from archeological
and
anthropological findings help in the recreation of our past. Although
many of
the traits described about Neandertals makes them appear human in
character, we
must remember that these are just humanlike rituals, not actual
modern day human
beings. This information only further increases our
knowledge of how our past
was and how we relate to our distant ancestors.
Burial Ceremonialism
Bibliography
1) Feder, Kenneth L. The Past in
Perspective: An Introduction to Human
Prehistory. Mayfield Publishing
Company: Mountain View, California.
1996.