100,000-year red ocher burials at Qafzeh Cave south of Galilee.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Red ocher burial has been traced from as early as 100,000 years ago (Qafzeh Cave) to as recently as 500 years ago (Glacial Kame Culture). The practice is found primarily among Old World populations in Macro-haplogroup L (mt DNA) and Haplogroup R (Y-DNA). L represents the most ancestral mitochondrial lineage of all modern humans, and R is a widely dispersed Afro-Asian group with subgroups R1b and R1a.
The list that follows indicates that burial in rec ocher, a symbolic blood covering, was not an isolated custom.
23,000 - 19,000 YBP - The "Fox Lady" of Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, was buried in red ocher.
The cremated remains of Lake Mungo Woman (LM1) were sprinkled with red ocher.
A man buried in Bavaria was surrounded by mammoth tusks and submerged in red ocher.
The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ocher.
The Lady of El Mirón in northern Spain was buried in red ocher.
Horses were sometimes sacrificed in a funerary context among peoples of the Altai Mountains and other Indo-European populations. The bodies of horses. have been found buried with high-ranking persons in Great Britain, China, Iceland, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and in Tell el-Dab'a, Egypt. In Ancient Akkadian, the word for horse is sisu and among the Mongolian horsemen the word for blood is tsus.
100,000 years before the present (YBP) - Red ocher burial of young male in Qafzeh Cave, Lower Galilee.
50,000 YBP - A boy buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ocher was found in the Lapedo Valley near Leiria, 90 miles north of Lisbon.
45,000 YBP - A man was buried at Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France in red ocher.
32,000 - 29,000 YBP - Four bodies were buried in red ocher at Sunghir in Russia.
Identical twins were buried in red ocher at Krems am Wachtberg, Austria.
Male ("Red Lady") was buried in red ocher in Paviland Cave, Wales.
23,000 - 19,000 YBP - The "Fox Lady" of Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, was buried in red ocher.
The cremated remains of Lake Mungo Woman (LM1) were sprinkled with red ocher.
A man buried in Bavaria was surrounded by mammoth tusks and submerged in red ocher.
The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ocher.
13,000 - 9000 YBP
Girl buried was in red ocher in the Tanana River Valley in central Alaska.
Red ocher burials have been found at the Natufian cave site Hilazon Tachtit in Israel.
Girl buried was in red ocher in the Tanana River Valley in central Alaska.
Red ocher burials have been found at Çatalhöyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey)
8000-3000 YPB - At a cemetery at Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov in northwest Russia 177 bodies were found buried in red ocher.
Discovered in Finland, the burial in red ocher of young girl and a dog or wolf.
Two skeletons buried in red ocher were found at La Braña-Arintero cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain.
Two flexed burials were found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan with a covering of red ocher on the bodies.Two skeletons buried in red ocher were found at La Braña-Arintero cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain.
Conclusion
Anthropologists agree that red ocher used in burial is symbolic of blood. They do not agree as to the nature of the blood. Does red ocher burial testify to a belief that the buried individual is returned to the womb of Mother Earth? Is it symbolic of placental blood? Or is it symbolic of a sacrifice of an animal that was then eaten? Did the red ocher symbolize sacrificial blood covering?
While anthropologists do not agree on the nature of the blood being symbolized, they do agree that the practice of red ocher burial suggests the hope for life after death among Mesolithic and Neolithic populations.
Perhaps these populations considered the blood to be a purifying agent? If so, the red ocher probably represents animal sacrifice, specifically the sacrifice of a sacred bull or horse. Which animal would depend on the cultural context. In both cases, the animal was of great value and the sacrifice would have been performed for high status individuals. It was indeed a "sacrifice."
In ancient Akkadian, the oldest known Semitic language, the word for bull is turu. It appears to be related to the words for blood, pure, and holy found in other related languages. Consider the relationship of these words: Hebrew thr - to be pure, Hausa/Hahm toro - clean; Tamil tiru - holy, Dravidian tor - blood, and ancient Egyptian tr - blood.
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