When a Cro-Magnon died the body was not simply abandoned and left to rot in the open.
Even the Neanderthals seem to have had some concept that death was not the end, and that care must be taken of the body. The Cro-Magnons buried their dead in or near the caves and huts in which they lived.
Clearly they were anticipating a new life in the world beyond this one, because they were buried in their beaded clothes, along with their tools, weapons, jewelry and favorite possessions.
In many burials, red ochre has been found scattered over the corpse.
Possibly this was to give the deceased a more lifelike appearance, or else to represent birth blood, as the deceased was reborn, through Mother Earth, into eternal life.
Cro-Magnon Culture: Respect for the Dead
