Why did hominids suddenly start burying their dead?

Question

Why did hominids suddenly start burying their dead?

Answer 1

My guess about burial.I figure that by the time that early man started living in 1 area as oppsed to migrating they found ou that they couldn't leave the bodies aaround where they were living.And seeing as dead humans are not very pleasing to the human eye nor is the decomposition of the body in any way a pleasant sight for human the best way to get rid of them is by covering them with dirt.That way they wouldn't have to see them or smell them.Just my opinion

Answer 2

There is evidence that early humans intentionally buried their dead in caves, dating back to 90,000 years ago in the Levant...Not to mention intentional burials by Cro-Magnon & Neanderthals in Europe 30-40,000 years ago...

Besides all the reasons already mentioned, early humans were not yet at the top of the food chain, and besides having a rudimentary sense of hygene, they probably on occasion observed their predators consuming the remains of fellow tribesman, and did not wish for these predators to get in the habit of making us part of their menu...

So, the next best thing, was to make the carcasses inaccessible, in hopes that these predators would not seek us out for food...

Answer 3

i think it had to do with thier intellegence level. early man might have started to have more religious beliefs and decided that doing various cerimonies for thier beloved was a way of understanding and really wondering about what happens when you die. elephants are known to have a "ceramony" when they come across the remains of a dead elephant...even if it wasnt a part of thier own group....almost like they have enough intellegence to really consider the value of death.

Answer 4

Empathy.

The ability to identify with another's position, as if it were your own.

Being picked apart by birds, maggots, etc., is not in anyone's agenda.

Easier not to look at it. And since the closet wasn't invented yet, we chose to put the rotting flesh and skeletons underground.

Now we go to the tabloids when we want to see such morbid stuff. Tabloids and TV bypass that nasty empathy problem.

Answer 5

it kept the hyenas from coming into the settlement and eating both the living and the dead.