Through countless eons of birth and death, our ancient ancestors have passed down their burial practices to the present day. Some of those customs have remained the same, while others have disappeared into history. However, whether or not such practices exist today, some tombs and cemeteries left by historic humans, especially those located in caves or under giant, imposing monuments, have survived for millennia.
Learn more about some of those cemeteries, as well as what they can tell scientists about ancient civilizations or the other people they survived.
When we think of ancient burials, the first thing that comes to mind is Egypt and its pyramids. But even so in the pyramids, for most of Egyptian history, burials were carried out in mastabas, stone structures with flat roofs.
Generally, Egyptian tombs were divided into two portions: one to space the bodies out for eternity, the other acting as a kind of passageway between the living world and the afterlife. Sometimes those two portions were even physically separated. The burial chambers themselves were privately sealed, while public offering places may simply be decorated with scenes ranging from depictions of daily life and food production to those involving gods.
Later, the burial chambers and tombs were grouped under a single structure: the pyramid. The first pyramids of Egypt looked like giant, conical staircases, perhaps imitating a heavenly path for kings. The elegant pyramids we most associate with Egypt gave the impression of the later, Fourth Dynasty, which occurred between 2680 and 2560 BC.
But, as in other civilizations, not all other people who died were able to remain in the ancient records. According to a 2002 article in the Journal of Social Archaeology, there was a disparity between the amount of budget devoted to the burial monuments of the wealthy and royalty and the rest of the population. Also, chances are that not everyone has benefited from thorough embalming practices, if at all.
Read more: How the Ancient Egyptians Preserved Themselves for the Afterlife
The African continent is a rich seedbed of history, the cradle of the origins of humanity. In the Cueva de la Paloma cave, located near Morocco, is the oldest cemetery in Africa and even in the world. Discovered in 1908, the site comprises more than 30 Iberomaurusian skeletons dating to the Late Stone Age (they were an organization of ancient humans who shared some ancestry with the Natufians, hunter-gatherers who lived in parts of Syria and Palestine).
Even the discovery of exclusive burials has immense implications for the history of our ancestors. In 2021, for example, archaeologists discovered and dated the oldest known human burial in Africa after finding the preserved skeleton of a child no older than 3. This infant was found curled up and buried with a kind of cushion now degraded in the Panga ya Saidi cave.
The scientists reported that the intentional nature of the burial reflects the planned care shown toward the child, whom they named Mtoto (“child” in Swahili). Archaeologists continually ask whether the burial itself is sufficient to demonstrate the ability of early humans to give form to a symbolic idea in terms of differentiating between the genuine global and a metaphorical other. However, ancient humans needed to keep their dead close to them: Neanderthals and Natufians were known to bury their dead near residential sites.
Read more: Africa’s first human burial revealed
Roman burials also have a rich history, revealing the wide diversity of funerary practices and attitudes that varied across the vast geography of the empire. For example, most burials of Roman citizens were conducted outside the confines of Rome itself due to fear of “deadly contamination”, or the concept that, if left unchecked, death threatened to contaminate the living.
Of course, the elites and aristocrats had another experience, with many of their tombs along the main roads and access roads to the city. Some even discovered their ultimate resting place within the city walls.
There was no ubiquitous way to die “Roman. ” Even the strategies used by the Romans to dispose of their dead varied over time. While burial, the act of striking a frame directly into the ground or into a coffin, was popular in pre-Roman Italy, cremation began to gain popularity between the fourth and fifth centuries BCE. But not everywhere. These burial strategies did not yet take into account how other people’s marginalized categories, such as slaves or deficient people, were buried, leaving no trace in ancient records.
Read more: Raiding Graves – Don’t fly, remember
The ancient Middle East is another region rich in history that has a lot to say about our early ancestors. By analyzing ancient DNA, scientists reported in 2022 that they could reconstruct some of the demographic movements and histories of the Levant region, thanks to one of the first Islamic burials discovered in elegant Syria.
In this case, the two bodies in question were deposited in separate graves from those in a traditional Muslim cemetery. Of course, one of the largest cemeteries in the world is also located in the Middle East, according to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The Wadi Al-Salam cemetery, located in present-day Iraq, is one of the oldest Muslim cemeteries in the world and houses the remains of millions of Muslims, from scientists and ancient prophets to kings and sultans.
Archaeologists warn against constructing a singular and restrictive narrative for complex societies, founded solely on a single tomb, individual or mass. But one thing is clear: death, more than a single end point on a person’s timeline, is also a mirror. Image of how the living have lived and coped with loss.
Read more: When will archaeologists be able to dig up the dead?
Our Discovermagazine. com editors use peer-reviewed studies and resources for our articles, and our editors review articles for clinical accuracy and editorial standards. Check out the resources used below for this article:
Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology and Non-Western Cultures. Ancient Egypt Tombs
Smithsonian. The Egyptian pyramid
Journal of Social Archaeology. Burial and the dead in ancient Egypt society
The conversation. Ancient DNA is helping to reveal the social adjustments that occurred in Africa 50,000 years ago and shaped human history.
Dark Atlas. Taforalt (Pigeon Cave)
Science. Africa’s oldest DNA hints at mysterious ancient culture
Briton. Natufian culture
Nature. The oldest human burial in Africa
PNAS. A 12,000-year-old shamanic burial in the southern Levant (Israel)
Encyclopedia of world archeology. Funerary practices and tombs in the Roman world
Biology of Communications. Bioarchaeological of one of the first Islamic burials in the Levant
UNESCO. Wadi Al-Salam Cemetery in Najaf
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