A flowery enigma has been baffle scientists at Shanidar Cave , a rocky outcrop located on Bradost Mountain within a long mountain range of a function in the Kurdistan Region of northerly Iraq , where a Neanderthal grave accent was found stuff full of pollen . While some trust it to be evidence of ethnical funerary practices amongNeanderthals , others thought it must be brute , and now inquiry is suggesting a new contender : bee .
Nine Neandertal skeleton in the closet were found bury inShanidar Caveduring excavations in the fifties and sixty , with a further body being discover in a later digging . The bit of corpse and their organisation seem to resemble a Neanderthalian burial ground , with one individual having on the face of it been laid to repose with a significant amount of pollen .
The discovery had many inquiring if it was evidence of a grand burial ritual , indicating this somebody was of great significance , perhaps even a shaman . If true , it would indicate Neanderthals share empathetic feature with Middle PalaeolithicHomo sapiens .
A solitary bee excavating a burrow on the section wall of the researchers' trench in Shanidar Cave, photographed 10 January 2025.Image credit: E. Pomeroy; Hunt et al, Journal of Archaeological Science 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
However , many have contested the claim , debate that the pollen may have been deposit by animate being dragging flowers to their tunnel . Palynologymay have work out the closed book , an area of science concerned with the study of plant pollen , spores , and microscopic plankton in both their living and fossilized forms .
The pollen thud found around the grave were a mixed bag of species that were unlikely to be in salad days at the same time , say the researcher behind a raw brushup of the Shanidar Cave evidence . They are also more interracial than you would bear had whole bloom been placed into the grave , indicating the pollen arrived via a different transmitter .
creature had been suggested , but again this was in the context of them transporting whole flowers . So , who could be make the pollen admixture ?
Ancient silty clay-lined insect burrow excavated from sediments about 1.5 meters (5 feet) below the position of Shanidar Z, photographed in May 2023.Image credit: C.O. Hunt; Hunt et al, Journal of Archaeological Science 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
“ The most probable is that the pollen was amass by nest sole bees , ” explain the authors . “ The pollen loads of single bee can contain more than one species if they are foraging dissimilar metal money at once . ”
Beeburrows are present in the less trampled area of Shanidar Cave , being a reach of astuteness and most common at the rear of the cave near to the rampart . These burrows are sometimes reinforced with silty remains and ancient example were disclose during subsequent excavations of the cave .
The rust and flattened Department of State of the pollen argue it ’s ancient and therefore was credibly wedge around the same time the Neanderthals went into the ground , rather than having been brought in by the boots of archaeologists .
However , if Arlette Leroi - Gourhan – the first archaeologist to posit the “ Flower Burial ” hypothesis – was right in describe unfledged grains among the pollen clumps , it ’s possible these grain may have been deposited through a unlike chemical mechanism , such as plants being throw above the remains by human , some other animal , or even the atmospheric condition .
It ’s peculiar that bee should be implicated in the “ Flower Burial ” hypothesis , as they themselves have been celebrate gettingpeculiar floral funeralsat thehands of emmet . In realness , the cumulus of all in bee and botanical material are likely a way of salt away either nutrient or wastefulness , rather than a self-respectful send - off .
Undoubtedly there stay many questions about the upshot that occurred in Shanidar Cave , but as far as this in style limited review is concerned , the “ Flower Burial ” conjecture is not substantiated .
“ At this breaker point , we can only conclude that the ‘ Flower Burial ’ hypothesis seems unconvincing , that nesting bee were probably creditworthy for some of the pollen bunch – certainly the mixed ones – and that there is a possibility that if immature pollen were regard it could have occur from plants placed over or under the consistence , ” concluded the authors , who argue we may be miss the implication of the Shanidar Cave by focusing on the pollen .
“ Debates about the ‘ Flower Burial ’ have in many respects fog its most substantial aspect : that it was part of a mean clump of what our evidence suggests were emplaced bodies that is much unique in the Neanderthal region . The possible implication of this demeanour for Neanderthals ' sense of place and place are plausibly the most intriguing aspect of the Shanidar Cave Neanderthals , rather than whether an individual was buried with flowers . ”
The study is published in theJournal of Archaeological Science .
An earlier version of this article was published inAugust 2023 .
