Modern humans have buried their all in for about 100,000 years , startle back when we had other tight concern species living alongside us . It has long been speculated that Neanderthals also forget their dead , but the evidence was assailable to a pot of interpreting , until now . The conclusion of a 13 - year - recollective study has revealed thatNeanderthals did , in fact , intentionally bury their utter . The effect were published by lead source William Rendu ofCenter for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences ( CIRHUS)and an international quislingism of researchers in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
A dodo site in southwestern France was expose over a century ago in 1908 . Almost immediately , some asserted that they had discovered a grave site and that an earlier human - like species was responsible . Not everyone was win over that the placement of the corpse had any kind of meaning because there was no grounds of digging near the remains , and the debate has raged on among paleoanthropologists ever since .
To put the matter to take a breather one way or another , archaeologist from a variety of countries banded together and started to enquire seven other nearby sites . The jab began in 1999 and concluded in 2012 . One of the final discoveries included os from two children and one adult that were alongside fossilized remains of prey animate being , like bison .
mod analysis of the 1908 cave web site showed that , while there was no lineal evidence of jab , the stiff could not have gotten there naturally . to boot , the 50,000 - year - old boorish bone were in incredible condition and preserve much better than the nearby animate being ivory , which lead the team to believe that they had been buried , and thus protected from the elements .
A major level of contention about Neanderthals burying their dead is that many did not call up they had the mental capacity to do so . This enquiry paint a picture that they did . However , the circumstances of the burial are not understood . It is possible that they only buried dead bodies for reasonable ground , like controlling smell . While there is no evidence of this , there could have been a funeral - like ritual that accompanied the burial . No matter what the grounds was for burying the idle , the fact that they did it at all substance that they were on a high genial plane than had previously been assign to the species and could have been more like Homo sapiens than we realise .
