Oldest Evidence of Flowers Used in Burial Found in Ancient Natufian Graves

Evidence of floral tributes at an ancient burial site in Israel provide the oldest known example of intentionally placing flowers on graves, according to the researchers who reported their find Tuesday.

While flowers are presented as a sign of respect or remembrance in modern times, it is believed the trend started thousands of years ago to disguise the stench of rotting corpses, according to archaeologists, who report the impressions of stems and flowers - likely from mint, figwort and sage plants - in graves nearly 14,000 years old at a burial site in Raqefet cave on Mount Carmel near the Mediterranean coast.

"We report on uniquely preserved 13,700-11,700-year-old grave linings made of flowers suggesting such use began much earlier than previously thought," Haifa University archaeologist Dani Nadel said.

Nadel and his team used radiocarbon dating techniques to establish the age of the burial plot. The only potentially older instance of flowers being used in a burial is in the Shanidar IV Neanderthal grave in what is now Iraq, where the remains of pollen grains were found. However, it is suspected the grains could have been brought to the grave after the burial by a rodent with a habit of storing seeds and flower heads, the Daily Mail reports.

The plot, which consisted of four pits containing 29 skeletons of adults and children, is said to belong to the Natufians, ancestors of modern humans who were among the earliest people known to establish cemeteries.

"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," Nadel said in a statement.

Nadel said that some of the plant species found at the site suggested spring burials with a "strong emphasis on colorful and aromatic flowers."

"There are hundreds of flowers on Mount Carmel during the spring, but only a small group provide very strong fragrances. It's impossible that the Natufians didn't recognize the smell," Nadel told the Jewish Press. 

The researchers concluded that the burial was a "sophisticated and planned process" that was full of spiritual and cultural meaning for a society undergoing profound changes at the end of the Pleistocene era.

The study is published in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.