How Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals Honored Their Dead 100,000 Years Ago

In the rugged caves and rocky shelters of the Levant, something extraordinary began to unfold between 120,000 and 55,000 years ago. For the first time in human history, the dead were not merely left behind. They were carefully placed, tucked into the embrace of the earth with rituals that hint at thought, emotion, and a profound transformation in consciousness.

A groundbreaking study published in L’Anthropologie by Professor Ella Been from Ono Academic College and Dr. Omry Barzilai from the University of Haifa reveals new insights into these ancient burial practices. Their research draws from the study of 17 Neanderthal and 15 Homo sapiens burials across multiple archaeological sites, offering a window into the lives—and the deaths—of our distant cousins and ancestors.

The findings are striking: while Homo sapiens and Neanderthals shared certain burial customs, they also differed in ways that suggest divergent worldviews, or at least different relationships with death, the body, and the afterlife.

A Unique Crossroads in Evolution

The Levant, bridging Africa and Eurasia, was a crossroads of human evolution during the Middle Paleolithic. It is one of the few regions where Homo sapiens and Neanderthals not only coexisted but overlapped in time and space.

Homo sapiens made their way into the Levant between 170,000 and 90,000 years ago, leaving and returning again around 55,000 years ago after a sojourn in Africa. Meanwhile, Neanderthals—having migrated southward from Europe—inhabited the Levant between approximately 120,000 and 55,000 years ago. During this overlap, a cultural revolution quietly ignited: the invention of burial.

Neither species had previously buried their dead. The simultaneous emergence of burial practices suggests that something profound shifted in their minds, perhaps influenced by their coexistence—or simply by a broader cognitive leap happening around the globe.

Despite their striking biological differences—where almost every bone in a Neanderthal’s body could be distinguished from that of a Homo sapiens—their living cultures, tools, and settlement patterns were almost indistinguishable. Yet, the dead tell a slightly different story.

The Spark: From Uncertainty to Discovery

The inspiration for this comprehensive study came from an open-air site, Ein Qashish (EQ3) in Israel, where Neanderthal remains were unearthed. Initially, Professor Been and Dr. Barzilai were uncertain whether the remains represented a deliberate burial or a natural accumulation.

That uncertainty became a catalyst for deeper exploration. Further analysis confirmed that EQ3 was, in fact, a purposeful burial. This realization opened a broader question: how similar—or different—were the burial practices of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals across the Levant?

Thus began a painstaking review of multiple burial sites, including famous Neanderthal sites like Teshik Tash, Shanidar, Dederiyeh, Amud, Tabun, and Kebara caves, alongside Homo sapiens burials at Skhul and Qafzeh caves.

Their findings not only illuminate the burial customs of two distinct human species but also hint at the emotional, social, and symbolic worlds these ancient peoples inhabited.

Common Ground Beneath the Surface

Both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the Levant displayed a shared respect for the dead that transcended age and gender. Whether infant, adolescent, or elder, individuals were granted a final resting place, intentionally shielded from the elements.

In some cases, grave goods accompanied the dead—goat horns, deer antlers, fragments of jawbones, and upper jaw pieces—suggesting that objects of significance were thought to aid, protect, or symbolize something for the deceased. The presence of animal parts hints at ritual behaviors or symbolic thinking previously thought unique to modern humans.

Neanderthals, notably, buried more infants than Homo sapiens. Whether this reflects differing mortality rates, cultural priorities, or simply archaeological bias remains an open question. Nevertheless, it demonstrates a tenderness toward the youngest members of their groups.

In death, as in life, both species showed signs of caring for their own.

Distinct Paths to the Afterlife

While similarities are evident, the differences are just as telling—and perhaps even more revealing.

Professor Been notes one of the starkest contrasts: the location of the burials. Homo sapiens in the Levant consistently chose cave entrances or rock shelters for their burials. Their dead rested on the threshold between the open world and the enclosed darkness, perhaps symbolizing a liminal space between life and death. In contrast, Neanderthals preferred the deep interiors of caves, hiding their dead in the womb-like darkness, suggesting a different symbolic relationship with death and the earth.

Body posture also marked a clear divide. Homo sapiens burials were remarkably uniform, consistently placing the dead in a flexed, fetal-like position. This recurring posture could indicate beliefs about rebirth, the cycle of life, or a return to the earth as one returns to the womb.

Neanderthal burials, however, exhibited more diversity. Some individuals lay fully extended; others were semi-flexed, curled to varying degrees. They rested on their sides, their backs, or even on their right flanks. Such variety may point to a different conceptualization of death—less ritualized or perhaps more individualized.

Moreover, Neanderthals seemed fond of using stones in their burials. Some bodies were placed between large rocks, serving as positional markers, while in other cases, carefully shaped limestone pieces served as headrests. These touches of deliberate placement suggest a nuanced approach to burial, possibly to honor or even memorialize the dead.

Conversely, Homo sapiens favored shells and ocher in their burials—materials associated with symbolic meaning across many prehistoric contexts. Yet these artifacts are conspicuously absent in Neanderthal graves, reinforcing the subtle yet significant cultural divergence.

The Great Burial Boom

Curiously, the Middle Paleolithic witnessed a sudden explosion in the number of burials across the Levant. Sites that once showed no evidence of deliberate interment now featured numerous graves, concentrated both in time and space.

This spike was unlike anything seen elsewhere. In all of Africa during the MP, there are only three known burials. Across Europe, Neanderthal burials are scattered thinly—27 examples over vast expanses of time and geography. But in the Levant, graves clustered like stars in a tight galaxy.

Why here, and why then?

One answer may lie in population density. Environmental changes brought wetter, greener conditions to the Saharo-Arabian desert, attracting waves of Homo sapiens from East Africa. Simultaneously, melting glaciers opened northern pathways, allowing Neanderthals to drift southward.

These migrations led to increased contact, competition, and social complexity. Perhaps burials became a way of strengthening group identity, commemorating individuals, and coping with rising mortality under the pressures of a denser population.

A Mysterious Silence After 50,000 Years

Just as suddenly as it had begun, the burial tradition in the Levant vanished.

Around 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals disappeared from the region—part of a broader extinction across Eurasia. With their passing, the practice of burial among Homo sapiens in the Levant also ceased, leaving no graves for tens of thousands of years.

It was not until the Natufian culture, around 15,000 years ago, that deliberate burial reemerged. The Natufians, semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers, once again honored their dead with careful interments, signaling another great cultural leap.

Professor Been finds this discontinuity striking. “Burials are a significant part of culture,” she explains, “and we know that both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had some form of culture. It’s puzzling why both populations suddenly started burying their dead and why it stopped after Neanderthals went extinct.”

Did the practice vanish with the loss of Neanderthal cultural influence? Did surviving Homo sapiens groups no longer see the need? Or did mobile lifestyles simply discourage elaborate mortuary practices?

These are the tantalizing mysteries that researchers like Professor Been continue to chase.

Into the Past, and the Future

The journey into ancient burials is far from over. Professor Been is now focusing on Amud 7, a Neanderthal infant from Amud Cave in Israel. By studying this delicate burial, she hopes to unravel deeper truths about Neanderthal childhood, family structures, and emotional worlds.

Each new excavation, each tiny bone fragment, adds another stitch in the intricate tapestry of human history. What is clear already is that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, while distinct in their ways, both carried a profound sense of connection to those who came before.

Their graves whisper across millennia: of love, of memory, of the first steps toward understanding the mystery of death—and perhaps, the first stirrings of belief in something beyond it.

Reference: Ella Been et al, Neandertal burial practices in Western Asia: How different are they from those of the early Homo sapiens?, L’Anthropologie (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.anthro.2024.103281