Death plays an important role in almost all cultures around the world, as it is a universally shared experience. A central pillar of this experience is the presence of funerary behaviour, intentional burials or other rites. Through these practices, death – a natural process – becomes a fundamental element of the culture. Little is known, however, regarding when these practices emerged in the roots of our biological lineage. The EU-funded “DEATHREVOL: The roots and evolution of the culture-of-death. A taphonomic research of the European Palaeolithic record” project aims to gain insight into when this ‘culture of death’ first emerged and how it was expressed during the Palaeolithic. As such, it will conduct classical and innovative taphonomic-forensic analyses, in addition to researching European fossil records, specifically hominin samples from the Middle and Late Pleistocene periods to find traces of funerary rites. The project’s results will examine whether mortuary practices predated the appearance of modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals.

DEATHREVOL is a Starting Grant project of the European Research Council (ERC-2020-STG nº 949330) that will be carried out over five years at the National Research Centre on Human Evolution – CENIEH (Spain). It also has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – FECYT (FCT-20-15661; FCT-21-17052; FCT-22-18357).