Investigating the Location of Neanderthal Burial Remains in the Caves and Rock Shelters of Eurasia

By discovery of the first traces of the burial of the dead during the Paleolithic period, the important issue of the existence of burial among prehistoric societies was raised. This view has always been debated and has led to different opinions. Among the emerging human species, there is considerable evidence of the burial of a Neanderthal species that lived throughout Eurasia during the Middle Paleolithic. In the present article, in addition to listing the various characteristics and cognitive abilities of Neanderthals, of which the ritualistic and complex burial behavior of the dead is one of the most important, some areas with Neanderthal burial remains the human remains have been selected and the burial space inside them has been measured and examined. The Neanderthal burial issue is complex and somewhat ambiguous. In this article, above all, the points where there were human remains have been considered so that we can at least know where to start when exploring a cave or rock shelter and focus on which areas to put. In this regard, by focusing on the form and plan of the area and dividing its space into four equal parts, the location of the remains was identified. Subsequently, it was observed that on average, burial was more in which area of the caves or shelters and in which part of them was less. This trend was studied separately at a different time and place intervals and its diversity and changes over time and in the geographical extent of Neanderthals were studied. Accordingly, Neanderthals 130 to 70 thousand years ago and Neanderthals 70 to 40 thousand years ago, as well as Neanderthals in Europe and Asia were examined separately to determine that each group of them usually found the bodies of their dead in which part of the cave or rock shelter did they bury?