Burials of Primordial People

Paleolithic finds include the first evidence of burial for sacred purposes. 

The dead were believed to gain supernatural powers, and would have been respected and referred to for guidance. 

Red ochre was sprinkled over the bodies; some researchers believe that this may have represented blood and symbolized life and the strength for the journey into the other world. 

In Les Hoteaux (in Ain, France), for example, a late Paleolithic skeleton was found in a small trench, covered with red ochre. 

There was a large stone behind its head, and it was buried with  flint tools and an engraved staff that showed the status of a chieftain.

Numerous other examples of bodies have been found in stone tombs or shallow graves, together with valuable jewelry, tools and other ritual objects. 

It seems the dead were being given food and tools , perhaps symbolically, to equip them for their existence in the next world. 

Sometimes buried bodies have been found to have been tied up in a doubled-up position. This may have been intended to stop the dead from returning and tormenting their living descendants. 

In China the remains of human beings at an evolutionary stage halfway between Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal humans were found: apart from their skulls and lower jawbones, the other bones of the bodies had been placed to represent the animals they would have eaten.

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