Did Neanderthals Bury Their Dead with Flowers? Shanidar Cave Findings Put Questions to Rest

Learn more about the Neanderthal remains uncovered in Shanidar Cave, and how evidence, such as flower seeds, could indicate that Neanderthals buried their dead.

View of Shanidar cave, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where the buried Neanderthals were found. (Image Credit: Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock) Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock

In the 1950s, an American anthropologist, Ralph Solecki, discovered the remains of 10 Neanderthals in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Solecki thought that some of these cave burials were accidental, and it appeared that some had died from falling rocks. But others seemed to have been buried, and there were even traces of flower grain found with one set of remains.

Did this mean the Neanderthals had funerals? With flowers?

Such questions had to wait. Political unrest in Iraq forced Solecki’s team to stop their on-site research. Only in the past decade has a new generation of scientists been able to revisit the Shanidar Cave and learn more about this unique Neanderthal burial site.

Scientists were allowed back in the Shanidar Cave in 2014, but they had to stop a year later as ISIS fighters ...

Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi
Emilie Lucchesi has written for some of the country's largest newspapers, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and an MA from DePaul University. She also holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Illinois-Chicago with an emphasis on media framing, message construction and stigma communication. Emilie has authored three nonfiction books. Her third, A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy, releases October 3, 2023, from Chicago Review Press and is co-authored with survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.
View Full Profile

Did Neanderthals Bury Their Dead with Flowers? Shanidar Cave Findings Put Questions to Rest

Learn more about the Neanderthal remains uncovered in Shanidar Cave, and how evidence, such as flower seeds, could indicate that Neanderthals buried their dead.

Newsletter

Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi

Hominins Moved Into the Neighborhood of the Hobbit Humans Around 1.04 Million Years Ago

75,000-Year-Old Treasure Trove of Ice Age Animal Remains Provides Snapshot of a Lost World

New 183 Million-Year-Old Marine Reptile Identified in Germany Is Oldest Known in the Area

Theropods like Spinosaurus and Allosaurus Had Large Skulls but Weak Bites

A New Indo-European Language Is Discovered, Revealing Life of the Hittite Empire

Fossilized Teeth Offer Clues to Dinosaurs’ Favorite Foods About 150 Million Years Ago

Homo juluensis May Be Part of a New Group of Ancient Humans

Ancient Migration Routes That Were Swallowed by the Sea Once Led Ancient Humans Outside of Africa

Paleolithic Children Played with Mud Balls and Tried to Knock Down Cave Formations

This Reptile Sported Strange, Feather-Shaped Structures Around 247 Million Years Ago

Spike-Toothed Worm and Other Creatures Lived in Grand Canyon 500 Million Years Ago

The First Arachnids May Have Emerged From the Ocean 500 Million Years Ago

This Neanderthal Gene Might Be Holding Back Your Athletic Performance

The First-Ever Whole Genome of an Ancient Egyptian Reveals What Life Was Like 4,800 Years Ago

The Drunk Hypothesis Claims Ancient Societies Were Built With Alcohol

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

SubscribeTo The Magazine