ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3 I discussed the perpetuation of Cronos compulsions and the unfolding of funerary caching among pre-Neanderthal archaic humans. The practices differ, in the sense that the first concentrates on the body and arises out of morbid interest, and the second involves the deliberate movement of the body to a locale identified as a place of disposal, which at some point in time would become meaningfully associated with the dead. It seems to me quite likely that the repeated deposition of at least 28 individuals around the Sima de los Huesos indicates that such meanings were already in existence around half a million years ago. From this point, however, little further variability in funerary activity can be identified in the archaeological record until after ~120,000 BP, when the first examples of simple inhumation – the deliberate creation of a space in which to deposit and cover a corpse – are evident. In this chapter I explore the early inhumations of Homo sapiens, from the earliest examples down to later forms ~50,000–60,000 BP. This is a long period of Upper Pleistocene time and it would be premature to link these together as a strong and meaningful tradition, but it seems at least fair to group them together for heuristic purposes. Geographically, the pattern takes us from the fringes of Africa as far east as Australia. Given this range, the chronology and dispersal patterns of our own species, it is possible that simple inhumation, at least at times, was a fundamental part of the behavioural repertoire of Homo sapiens as it dispersed out of Africa for the first time. The processing of body parts – Cronos compulsions – continues alongside this practice.
