And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply...
Genesis 1:28
"Did Neanderthals intentionally bury their dead?
To help resolve this
question, a research team presented new data on the La Ferrassie 8 (LF8)
Neanderthal from France’s Dordogne region.
LF8 is the partial skeleton
of a two-year-old Neanderthal child found at the La Ferrassie rock
shelter in the 1970s.
The authors reported that the remains were “very well preserved,
despite belonging to a child which are generally more delicate.” Also,
“the absence of carnivore marks, the low degree of spatial disturbance,
fragmentation, and weathering suggest that they were rapidly covered by
sediment.” After considering all their data, the researchers concluded:
… that a burial is the most parsimonious explanation for LF8. Our results show that LF8 is intrusive within an older (and archaeologically sterile) sedimentary layer. We propose that Neanderthals intentionally dug a pit in sterile sediments in which the LF8 child was laid. The skeleton was laid in an E (head)–W (pelvis) orientation (as are all the Neandertal skeletons found in the site for which we have information), with the head higher than the rest of the skeleton … .
This new evidence confirming that Neanderthals intentionally buried their dead adds yet more to the list of finds indicating that Neanderthals were fully human descendants of Adam and Eve." CMI
