What kinds of objects are found in graves that indicate a ritual burial practice?

Question

Does jewelry and food indicate a ritual burial practice found in graves?

Answer 1

Usually...

Food and drink

Personal item items like clothing and jewelery

tools

flowers/ specific plants

statues representing some form of Deity

burnt offerings

models of things a person might want when alive, like a house, horse, servants etc

unusual looking natural items like brightly colored stones

red ochre, ubiquitous in stone age burials

other people or animals, killed to company the deceased in their next life

money

weapons

carefully arranged objects of any kind in a patter over or around the body, like a ring of mammoth tusks, for example

anything done to prevent damage to the corpse, like mummification

art depicting some form of afterlife, like Egyptian tomb paintings

A surprising number of these are found in Neanderthal graves.

Answer 2

Even the pre-human Neanderthals 25,000 years ago, demonstrated ritual burials by including fresh cut flowers and jewelry!

Greeks often buried their dead with a gold coin placed in the mouth, and of course, 4500 years ago the Egyptians made ritualistic burial an art form, with the development of mummification!

Tutankhamen's tomb had nearly 10,000 objects alone!

Answer 3

It could. Some societies may believe they will be needed in the afterlife, either as an offering to the gods/goddesses, or for the dead themselves should they need it wherever they are going, whether it is to their version of "the beyond" or when the person is reincarnated.

Answer 4

Some early Neanderthal burials contained red ocher. They don't know why "red" was used so often but, most contained this. Another item, women were not treated as men in the burial, they were left plain while the men were dressed out and even painted. Feathers, spears and favorite jewelry like clam shells for necklaces, all were involved in the burials.

     Many were found in the "sitting" position for some strange reason and, just the face was painted red.