Editing Burial (section)

== History ==
[[File:Burial IMG 1858.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Reconstruction of the [[Mesolithic]] tomb of two women from [[Téviec]], [[Brittany]]]]

{{See also|Ancient Egyptian funerary practices|Burial in Anglo-Saxon England|Chinese burial|Greek burial|Roman burial}}
{{Further|Paleolithic burial|Megalithic tomb|Grave field|Tumulus|Chariot burial|Ship burial}}

Intentional burial, particularly with [[grave goods]], may be one of the earliest detectable forms of [[religious]] practice since, as [[Philip Lieberman]] suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends [[daily life]]".<ref name="lieberman">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162| title= Uniquely Human|isbn= 978-0-674-92183-2| year=1991| author-link=Philip Lieberman |author=Philip Lieberman. |publisher= Harvard University Press |location= Cambridge, Mass.|page= 162}}</ref> Evidence points to the [[Neanderthals]] as the first [[Homo|human species]] known to practice burial behavior and to intentionally bury their dead; they did so using shallow graves furnished with stone tools and animal bones.<ref name="NYT-20131216">{{cite news |last= Wilford |first= John Noble |date= 16 December 2013 |title= Neanderthals and the Dead |work= [[The New York Times]] |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/science/neanderthals-and-the-dead.html |url-access=limited |access-date=17 December 2013}}</ref><ref>Chris Scarre, The Human Past</ref> Exemplary sites include [[Shanidar]] in Iraq, [[Kebara Cave]] in Israel and [[Krapina]] in Croatia. Some scholars, however, argue that such "buried" bodies may have been disposed of for [[secular]] reasons.<ref name="evolving_graves">{{cite web|url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_24_160/ai_81827792/pg_1 |title=Evolving in their graves: early burials hold clues to human origins – research of burial rituals of Neanderthals |publisher= Findarticles.com |date= 15 December 2001 |access-date= 25 March 2011}}</ref>

Though there is ongoing debate regarding the reliability of the dating method, some scholars believe the earliest [[homo sapiens|human]] burial dates back 100,000 years. Archeological expeditions have discovered human skeletal remains stained with [[red ochre]]  in the Skhul cave at [[Qafzeh]] in Israel.  A variety of grave goods were present at the site, including the mandible of a wild boar in the arms of one of the skeletons.<ref name="lieberman2">{{cite book|author= Philip Lieberman|title= Uniquely Human: The Evolution of Speech, Thought, and Selfless Behavior|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA163|year= 1991|publisher= Harvard University Press|isbn= 978-0-674-92183-2|page= 163}}</ref> The remains of a 3-year-old child at [[Panga ya Saidi]] cave in Kenya dating to 78,000 years ago also show signs suggestive of a burial, such as the [[digging]] of a pit, laying of the body in a fetal position and intentional rapid covering of the corpse.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Martinón-Torres |first1= María |last2= d’Errico |first2= Francesco |last3= Santos |first3= Elena |last4= Álvaro Gallo |first4= Ana |last5= Amano |first5= Noel |last6= Archer |first6= William |last7= Armitage |first7=Simon J. |last8= Arsuaga |first8= Juan Luis |last9= Bermúdez de Castro |first9= José María |last10= Blinkhorn |first10= James |last11= Crowther |first11= Alison |last12= Douka |first12= Katerina |last13= Dubernet |first13= Stéphan |last14= Faulkner |first14= Patrick |last15= Fernández-Colón |first15= Pilar |date= 2021 |title= Earliest known human burial in Africa |url= https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03457-8 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume= 593 |issue= 7857 |pages= 95–100 |doi= 10.1038/s41586-021-03457-8 |pmid= 33953416 |bibcode= 2021Natur.593...95M |hdl= 10072/413039 |s2cid= 233871256 |issn= 1476-4687|hdl-access= free }}</ref>

In [[ancient Egypt]], burial customs developed during the [[Prehistoric Egypt|Predynastic period]]. Round graves with one pot were used in the [[Badari culture|Badarian Period]] (4400–3800 B.C.E.), continuing the tradition of Omari and [[Maadi]] cultures.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Bleiberg|first1= Edward|title= To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasure from the Brooklyn Museum |date= 2008|publisher= Brooklyn Museum|location= Brooklyn, NY|pages= 71–72|author1-link= Edward Bleiberg}}</ref>

Archeologists refer to unmarked prehistoric [[cemeteries]] using the neutral term "[[grave field]]". Grave fields are one of the chief sources of information on prehistoric cultures, and numerous [[archaeological culture]]s are labelled and defined by their burial customs, such as the [[Urnfield culture]] of the [[European Bronze Age]].

During the [[Early Middle Ages]], the reopening of graves and manipulation of the corpses or artifacts contained within them was a widespread phenomenon and a common part of the life course of early medieval cemeteries across [[Western Europe|Western]] and [[Central Europe]].<ref name="Antiquity 2021">{{cite journal |last1= Klevnäs |first1= Alison |last2= Aspöck |first2=Edeltraud |last3=Noterman |first3=Astrid A. |last4=van Haperen |first4= Martine C. |last5= Zintl |first5= Stephanie |date= August 2021 |title= Reopening graves in the early Middle Ages: from local practice to European phenomenon |journal=[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity: A Review of World Archaeology]] |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=95 |issue=382 |pages=1005–1026 |doi= 10.15184/aqy.2020.217 |doi-access=free |eissn=1745-1744 |issn=0003-598X }}</ref> The reopening of furnished or recent burials occurred especially from the 5th to the 8th centuries CE over the broad zone of European row-grave-style furnished inhumation burial, which comprised the regions of [[Romania]], [[Hungary]], the [[Czech Republic]], [[Slovakia]], [[Switzerland]], [[Austria]], [[Germany]], the [[Low Countries]], [[France]], and South-eastern [[England]].<ref name="Antiquity 2021"/>

[[Christianity in the Middle Ages|Medieval European Christianity]] sometimes developed complex burial rituals and attached great importance to their correct performance: the fate of the [[soul]] of the deceased might depend on observing the proper ceremonial. For example:

<blockquote>
If you were to make it to [[Heaven in Christianity|heaven]] [...] you had to be interred correctly, for burial was the passage out of this world. The body had to be [[shroud]]ed in the expectation that it would be reborn into [[Eternal life (Christianity)|eternal life]]. Then, on the eve of burial, the corpse had to be taken to church on a torch-lit [[bier]] and placed in the darkness of the nave, then laid in front of the high altar, surrounded by candles. The next day, in front of the whole community, a requiem mass was to be sung and the paschal candle lit [...]. Following this, there were prayers, hymns, special masses, and the body was borne to the grave, sprinkled with holy water and buried in [[consecrated ground]]. It must be laid head up with its feet to the east, for it was from this direction that Christ would return, from New Jerusalem, at the Apocalypse, when the worthy dead would be resurrected. [...] If burial rituals went awry, one's immortal soul was jeopardised. [...] Personal [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] – breaking free from the corporeal prison and ascending to a spiritual sphere unencumbered by materiality  – is the logical culmination of the myth of humanity's supposed dominion over nature.<ref>
Genesis 1:26: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
</ref>
[...].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Green
 |first1               = Matthew
 |date                 = 15 March 2022
 |title                = Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=SfM9EAAAQBAJ
 |publisher            = Faber & Faber
 |isbn                 = 9780571338047
 |access-date          = 4 May 2024
}} 
</ref>
</blockquote>