Dr Ethelwald E. Vella poses the question Flowers at funerals – What is the origin of this custom? (TMID, 25 March)

One of the distinguishing features of man is that he is the only one of God’s creatures to intentionally bury his dead. Evidence exists of one of our hominid ancestors “disposing” of their dead in a Spanish cave some 200,000 years ago.

Some evidence for deliberate burial appears only after about 100,000 years ago, but undisputed and widespread archaeological evidence for intentional burial occurs only after about 35,000 years ago, towards the end of the Neanderthal period.

The subject of Neanderthal burial is one of some controversy and debate. The discovery of nine of these individuals (the first in 1953) in a cave in Shanidar, northern Iraq, is one of the more spectacular of these finds.

Pollen grains surrounding one of these skeletons were interpreted as evidence of garlands of flowers placed over the corpse. Solecki, the archaeologist concerned, referred to these Iraqi Neanderthals as “the first flower people”.

Though some give a different interpretation to the presence of the pollen grains, this is the earliest instance I know of where it is claimed that the ritual of flowers at funerals was practised.

Dr John

Samut-Tagliaferro

Sliema