Oldest Evidence of Flower-lined Graves Unearthed in Israel

Placing flowers on a grave or presenting them during a funeral is a tradition that persists today. Yet when did we start using flowers in funeral arrangements? It turns out that it was far earlier than anyone expected--and now archaeologists have unearthed evidence of that fact.

More than 11,000 years ago, people from Israel placed their dead in caves, chiseling out bedrock to place the bodies there. During funeral preparations, though, the bedrock was prepared with a thin layer of mud. This mud remained damp when individuals arranged flowering plants on it as a kind of carpet in the graves before placing the bodies there. The mud then hardened, retaining the shape of the plants long after they decomposed.

Now, archaeologists have uncovered the graves that were created when the primitive Natufian culture flourished between 15,000 and 11,600 years ago, according to National Geographic. Possibly the first society to transition from a roaming hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary existence, this culture was also the first to create true graveyards.

The graves themselves are located on four sites at Raqefet Cave on Mount Carmel. By using radiocarbon dating, the researchers were able to determine that the four grave sites were 13,700 to 11,700 years old. In order to confirm their findings, the scientists also analyzed bedrock and sediment around the grave sites and cave. Through this, they were able to determine whether the plant impressions could have resulted from natural growth or not, according to Discover magazine.

"This is further evidence that as far back as 13,700 years ago, our ancestors, the Natufians, had burial rituals similar to ours," said Dan Nadel, the professor who led the dig, said in a statement. "Communal burial sites and elaborate rituals such as funeral ceremonies must have strengthened the sense of solidarity among community members, and their feeling of unity in the face of other groups."

While this site was old, though, there have been other studies that have shown that there may even be older graves with flowers. Another study of a 60,000 year-old Neanderthal grave site in Iraq revealed evidence of microscopic pollen near a skeleton. Yet researchers are quick to note that this pollen could have been present at the site through other means, which would place the current study's findings as the oldest flower-lined grave.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.