Q&A SERIES Q: WHO WERE OUR FIRST ANCESTORS WHO LEARNED TO BURY THEIR DEAD? A: The Neanderthals, far from being the brutish, insensitive creatures of legend, were the first of mans ancestors to bury their dead; and they did so in a ritual way which suggests that they had simple religious beliefs. Bodies were often accompanied by food and tools, possibly indicating a belief in an afterlife. In many graves, bodies had been interred in a sleeping position and covered with stones, while at Shanidar in northern Iraq, where many graves were found in a cave, soil tests revealed that one body had been buried in a bier of pine boughs and wild flowers.** ___________________________ **From the book The Last Two Million Years, published by the Readers Digest Association, p.11.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:10:31 +0000
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