How sapiens were Neanderthals?: Burials symbolism (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, October 06, 2016, 18:18 (2971 days ago) @ David Turell

A burial site of a Neanderthal infant has symbolic elements:-https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230934-800-cave-fires-and-rhino-skull-used-in-neanderthal-burial-rituals/-"The remains of a series of small fires discovered within a dolomite hillside 93 kilometres north of Madrid, Spain, could be the first firm evidence that Neanderthals held funerals.-"The blackened hearths surround a spot where the jaw and six teeth of a Neanderthal toddler were found in the stony sediment. Puzzlingly, within each of these hearths was the horn or antler of a herbivore, apparently carefully placed there. In total, there were 30 horns from aurochs and bison as well as red deer antlers, and a rhino skull nearby.-"Archaeologists believe the fires may have been lit as some sort of funeral ritual around where the toddler, known as the Lozoya Child, was placed around 38,000 to 42,000 years ago.-"Enrique Baquedano, director of the Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid, and his colleagues described the discoveries at the meeting of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution in Madrid on 16 September. They think the cave may have been used by Neanderthals as a specific place to mourn and remember the dead.
Baquedano said the position of the remains and stone tools found at the site, known as Des-Cubierta Cave, do not appear to be arranged as we would expect if it had been a dwelling. “They may therefore have been of ritual or symbolic significance.”-"Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London said there have been previous suggestions that Neanderthals may have dug graves for their dead and some graves of babies at sites in Syria and Israel include the remains of animal horns - but the new discovery seems far more deliberate.-“'It's certainly difficult to explain the presence of the horns, and that of a rhino skull, without invoking the agency of Neanderthals,” he said."-Another view:-http://toddcwood.blogspot.com/2016/10/neandertal-infant-burial-in-spain.html-"If this is a Neandertal burial site, it continues to develop our understanding of the humanness of Neandertals.  They were not sub-human or even non-human.  They were simply disadvantaged people scattered from the ruins of civilization at Babel.  They made art and tools, and it looks increasingly likely that they mourned their dead."-Comment: No question, they are quite human.