Earliest deliberate human burials

From the BBC:

a 350,000-year-old pink stone axe. . . discovered at an archaeological site in northern Spain, may represent the first funeral rite by human beings. . .

Spanish researchers found the axe among the fossilised bones of 27 ancient humans that were clumped together at the bottom of a 14-metre- (45 feet) deep pit inside a network of limestone caves at Atapuerca, near Burgos.

It is the only man-made implement found in the pit. It may confirm the team's belief that other humans deposited bodies in the pit deliberately.

Posted by David on March 26, 2003 8:47 AM