Paleolithic Human Burial Culture

"This is an amazing revolutionary innovation for our species."

"It's actually the first time we are starting to use this behaviour [as a human species]."

"[The stone mound is] one of the three or four most important sites for [the] study of human evolution and behaviour during the Paleolithic time."

"Here we see a really complex set of behaviours, not related to just food and surviving." 

Yossi Zaidner, co-director, Tinshemet excavation, professor of archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 

 

"[The concept of cemeteries in prehistoric life is important because it symbolizes] a kind of a territory."

"[That same kind of claim over land where ancestors are buried still echoes in the region.] It’s a kind of claim you make to the neighbors, saying ’This is my territory, this part of the land belongs to my father and my forefather’ and so on and so on."

Israel Hershkovitz, physical anthropologist,Tel Aviv University, co-director, Tinshemet site

Volunteers work in Tinshemet Cave, where archaeologists are excavating one of the world’s oldest known burial sites, dating back 100,000 years, near Shoam, Israel, July 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

  

The Paleolithic era, or 'Stone Age", so called in reflection of the initial era in the use of stone tools representing the evolutionary time of emerging primeval humanity from 3.3 million years in ancient time up until some 10,000 years ago. Recent discoveries in Israel have unearthed two intact primeval skeletons in an ancient cave. Tinshemet Cave dates from the Middle Paleolithic era which equates to 250,000 to approximately 30,000 years ago -- an enormous sweep of evolutionary time on a vastly unimaginable scale.

 

Tinshemet Cave is located in central Israel, an area of rolling hills. The archeologists working there to unearth mysteries of the far distant past feel they have discovered one of the oldest burial sites in the world at the unassuming stone mound. And where they have discovered the well-preserved skeletal remains of early humans dating back some 100,000 years. They have been gripped with the unmistakable signs of ceremonial burials, where remains were carefully arranged in pits.

 

These findings appear to build on previous discoveries in northern Israel, adding to a growing appreciation of the realization of an emerging primitive social culture specific to the origins of human burial. The intriguing discovery of objects found alongside these remains leading to speculation they may have been used during ceremonies meant to honour the dead, and could possibly lead to more of an understanding of how humanity's ancestors thought about spirituality and an afterlife advances our understanding of ancestral human evolution. 

 

Fruit bats in Tinshemet Cave, where archaeologists are excavating one of the world’s oldest known burial sites, dating back 100,000 years, near Shoam, Israel (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

 

Work has been ongoing by archaeologists at Tinshemet since 2016, with the discovery of the  remains of five early hominids, dating back to around 110,000 to 100,000 years. Discovered in pits, the skeletons had been carefully arranged in a fetal position, known as a burial position, according to Professor Zaidner. Objects such as basalt pebbles, animal remains or fragments of ochre were found buried with the remains. Some of the objects were recognized as having been found hundreds of kilometres' distant and their practical utility questioned other than serving as objects linked to the ritual of burial.

 

The Tinshemet core findings by researchers were published in Nature Human Behavior. The remains of five early humans were represented by two full skeletons and three isolated skulls, along with other bones and teeth. Although archaeologists have studied the remains for years, it has not yet been established whether they were Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, a hybrid group or an altogether other alternatives. More than 500 various-sized fragments of red and orange ochre, a pigment created by heating iron-rich stones to a certain temperature, provided evidence that early humans discovered the means by which decorative objects could be created.

 

A unique combination of ash that resulted from frequently-made fires, and atmospheric rainfall, along with the geology of acidic limestone in Israel, served to preserve the skeletons and objects; conditions that were optimal for unintended, natural preservation purposes. The local climate conditions and geology in other words, preserved these remains, much as has been seen in other parts of the Middle East; Egypt, for example. 

 

The findings at Tinshemet support analyses and hypotheses from earlier discoveries dating to the same period in northern Israel, where two similar burial sites were discovered -- Skhul Cave and Qafzeh Cave. Skhul Cave was excavated close to a century ago, while Qafzeh Cave was excavated some fifty years ago, when archaeological professionalism in its current systematic and and scientific approach was somewhat less rigorous. 

 

What has been established is that in antiquity, Israel was an evolutionary bridge between Neanderthals from Europe, and Homo Sapiens from Africa. That there was interbreeding producing cross-species is well accepted in general.  Other subgroups of early humans have been identified in the area, leading archaeologists to believe that the groups interacted and may have interbred. In people of European and Asian descent in particular, a small percentage of genetic material from Neanderthals is part of their evolutionary inheritance.

 

Professor of Archaeology Yossi Zaidner works in Tinshemet Cave, excavating one of the world’s oldest known burial sites, dating back 100,000 years. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)