I lol'd
Sorry guys, these cavemen go back in to the very dark past for us. As one writer stated funerals were very ritualistic and as they at that time were not busy watching NASCA or as they had no TV spent allot of time trying to figure out the to them inexplicable in life.
Those poor SOB's had not even figured out why woman bleed each month and did not die as a male would.
They did not grasp the concept of birth or death, so they placed in their graves the things they would need where ever they went after death.
The death of an adult was not taken lightly if they were male, some woman who died were they powerful were given a good send off but few woman or children are to be found.
These people to survive had to be working every day to feed the group, to take time off for a funeral was a hard ship, someone had to dig the grave, someone had to paint the body up and their personal possessions gathered up. Some of the items may have put the group in a bind as the comunity may have needed them.
How ever long all this took meant the men were not hunting and the women not foraging for food. Whoever this man was he was highly respected for his contribution to his group. The Pots survived but any other burrial goods may have decomposed, he could have the pot as a sign he was a medicine man who used the pots to make up concoctions for healing. Most likely he was homosexual as to the position he was placed in, whatever, he was respected and missed greatly by his people.
BTW, the practice of burying people today has not changed much from those days. The deceased is still painted---makeup, hair done and wearing presentable clothing,--family's will place photos or some kind of relic the deceased loved in the casket, even those cremated the family will be able to place an item or two that had meaning to the departed in the urn to be buried. Humans saying good by to a loved one are going to follow tradition and the last thing they will do is to displease the deceased and have them come back to haunt us.
When it comes to death, we all have our rituals and we still follow the path in one way or another same as humans have for 15,000 + years.
