Paleolithic and the mesolithic age

•Most iconic paleolithic site discovered in 1955

•30k-34k yrs old elaborate burial of a male
covered in beads and ochre
•The male was 35-45 yrs old when he died
which is considered to be sudden death from a
incision to the neck.
•3000 mammoth ivory beads, pierced fox
canines, and ivory armbands are adorned.

These are the skulls and bones of a 12 yr child

buried in Sunghir.
The child is considered to be abnormal because of
the bend femur bones and the protrusion of the
upper jaw.
Source-durham university(U.K)
Triple burial from Dolni Věstonice (Czech Republic)
 Three young men were buried in an unusual position
probably belonging to the same family. Skulls of all the
three were impregnated with red ochre
 The middle skeleton was highly deformed and had red
ochre on his pelvis also he was the 1st to be buried . There
are possibilities that he might have enjoyed special status.
 The other 2 young men displayed injuries maybe they were
sacrificed upon death as they were related to the middle
person.
 Remains of burned wood is found above the burial.
Probably the grave was covered with branches for what may
be called a ritual burial.
 The grave the skeleton of a adult man and 2
adolescents probably females.
 The skeletons were sprinkled with red ochre
and ornamented with jewellery made of
pierced shells, red deer teeth, fish vertebrae
and mammoth ivory. Stone tools are also
found
 Similar to the site of Dolni all three were
buried simultaneously with the middle one
buried first.
 There are possibilities that in this case the
burial was dictated by inappropriate social
behavior which stigmatized individuals as
socially dangerous .
 Lagar Velho(Portugal)
•A child has been buried on its back
parallel to the cliff
•The cranium and the mandible
were damaged from the removal of
the earth.
Arene Candide(italy)
•The skeleton of an adolescent male
was found on a bed of red ochre.
•He was spectacularly ornamented
including-perforated shells, canines
of deer, pendants of mammoth ivory
and elk antler
•A 23 cm long flint blade held in his
right hand is also found.
 Widespread use of shells
 Pendants made from Teeth of animals-Deer,Elk,fox,-
can it represent some sort of class difference?
 Ivory objects too have been found in some Italian sites
 Fare amount of stone blades too have been found.
 Upper Paleolithic burials are rare events which could
indicate that they were not the main practice of
disposing of corpses.
 It seems that primarily those individuals who had
physical deformities were buried and may be enjoyed a
special status while corpus of normal people were
treated differently.
 Eg- the East African Samburu tribe used to treat there
deceased In different ways.
A map representing various burial sites(Europe)
 The body of the man was found underground.
 Bark and branches had been wrapped around the
body before the burial
 At the waist of the body a flint blade was found
 It may not have been a natural death as the skulls
have scars from a violent blow.
 A 40yrs old woman was laid with a 3yr old child
 Red ochre had been sprinkled over the skeletons in the
grave and they were given amulet beads from red and
row dear,wild boar,elk and aurochs.
 The woman had survived a blow to the back of her
head- she wore a cap of bird feathers to hide that blow
 On her chest lay 2 bone netting needles
 The child was given 2 flint knifes which suggest it was
a boy
A sloppy kind
of burial?
 Eight persons of all ages have been buried together in
the sloppiest manner
 4 boys and men at the northern end and 4 girls and
women on the southern. The oldest was 50 and the
youngest was just few months old.
 The cause of the death remains unknown but it is not a
normal kind of burial. There are no signs of violence at
all.
 There is a crack on the skull of the male who was
probably 30 that might have developed during
hunting. There is no evidence weather the crack
developed during hunting or not.
 Source- burlingske.dk
 A man a woman and between them a child was buried
together.
 The man died of a injury that was caused by an arrow
that hit his neck.
 The woman wore a ring of animal bones that lie over
her chest.