Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> wrote:
> Far too few, and the point is that they were *buried* with them - that
> would have fixed the odor.
> OK. But note the elaborate burial methods, which eventually became
> extremely complex (as the megaliths witness).
Good points. I concede that neanderthals may have had some religious beliefs about death.
I was merely trying to make the point that we can't just assume these "obvious" explanations. There may be other factors. Megaliths might be memorial or rememberance factors. Or the family or clan of a leader might have wanted to keep their authority alive after the physical death of the leader. I think religion is too often used as a fall-back position to explain any anthropology that we don't understand.
-- Harvey Newstrom <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.