Neanderthals Buried Their Dead

Neanderthals buried their dead according to new research of discovered remains.

The remains were first discovered in 1908 at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southwestern France.  The recent findings by the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CIRHUS) confirm that burials occurred in western Europe prior to the arrival of modern humans.  The study’s lead author William Rendu explains, “This discovery not only confirms existence of Neanderthal burials in Western Europe, but also reveals a relatively sophisticated cognitive capacity to produce them.”  Whether ritualistic or merely pragmatic, this finding reduces the behavioral distance between Neanderthals and modern humans.

See Neanderthals Buried Their Dead, New Research of Remains Concludes, Science Daily, Dec. 16, 2013.