Raqefet | Taporalt | Al Khiday | Nahal Hemar

The aroma of the first cemeteries

Between ca. 15 and 5 000 a. C.

These four sites —Raqefet, Taporalt, Al Khiday and Nahal Hemar— They share a common trait. In all of them, prehistoric humans selected aromatic plants and integrated them into funeral practices. The repetition of these gestures for millennia, in remote regions of Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, points to a universal human response to death. The aroma could provide a means to manage the biological —the odors of decomposition, the proliferation of bacteria— and also the symbolic: the need to transform a body into a dead person worthy of memory and care.

Watch Video

The Raqefet cave opens on the western slope of Mount Carmelo, a few kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea. There, 13,700 years ago, the Natufians prepared the ground to receive their dead. They dug the rock to form a pit. They spread a layer of wet mud on the bottom. On that mud, they deposited a uniform cover of sage-flower stems of Judea (Salvia judaica) and other plants of the mints family (Lamiaceae). The oil and herbal aroma filled the camera while the mourners placed the body, along with pierced shells and stone tools. Then they sealed the grave. The flowers were pressed in the hardened sediment. His impressions remained invisible for 13 millennia, until a team of archaeologists led by Dani Nadel, from the University of Haifa, discovered them in 2013 and published the finding inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This gesture —cover a body with aromatic plants— is the oldest and most secure evidence of deliberate use of flowers in a funeral context. The natufiens, hunters-collectors of the final Paleolithic, selected species with specific properties. TheLamiaceaeproduce essential oils rich in compounds such as alcand, menthol and thymol. Modern pharmacological studies confirm that these substances inhibit the growth of bacteria such asStaphylococcus aureusandEscherichia coliAnd they repel necrophage insects. In a funeral, that aroma had an immediate practical function: to mask the odors of decomposition and to delay microbial proliferation in a body that could remain exposed for days. But the aroma also performed another function, less tangible and perhaps deeper: it transformed a biological process into an act of meaning.

The disposition of the graves of Raqefet reveals planning. The Natufians excavated the graves in the rock, carefully aligned them and reused them for generations. Almost eighty artificial holes (mortars andcupmarks) of various forms and dimensions. Archaeologists interpret this as a community cemetery, one of the oldest documented. The preparation of the flower beds required the collection of flower plants at the exact time of burial. This implies seasonal knowledge of the environment and social coordination: not every day of the year could a dead man be buried with fresh flowers.

Raqefet is not an isolated case. In the Grotte des Pigeons de Taporalt (Morocco), an Iberomaurisian cemetery with more than thirty skeletons dating from 15,100 to 14,000 years before the present, archaeologists recovered twenty-three carbonized bracts fromEphedrasp. next to an adult skeleton. Radiocarbon dating confirmed the contemporaneity between seeds and bone remains.Ephedracontains alkaloids such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, central nervous system stimulating compounds, bronchodilators and vasoconstrictors. In the traditional medicine of different cultures —from Chinese to American native— ephedra has been used to treat respiratory conditions, as a stimulant and in shamanic rituals. The researchers proposed two hypotheses: that the ephedra was consumed during the ritual to induce an altered state of consciousness, or that its branches were placed next to the body for its aromatic and conservative properties. Both hypotheses point to detailed botanical knowledge.

Further south, in the Al Khiday complex (Central Sudan), neolithic strata dating from 5000 to 3500 BC have provided tubers ofCyperus rotundus(purple joint) associated with burial. This plant contains complex essential oils with compounds such as ciprotundone and α-ciperone, of recognized antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. Its aroma is terrous, sour and persistent. The nutritional value ofCyperus rotundusis limited, and its bitter taste makes it unappetizable. The researchers concluded that their presence in graves responds to their aromatic and medicinal properties, either to unify the body, to aromatize the pit or as an offering with a symbolic meaning linked to the protection of the deceased.

In Nahal Hemar (Judea desert, Israel), a ritual deposit of the Preceramic Neolithic B (ca. 8200-7100 BC), archaeologists found human skulls decorated with asphalt cords and ceremonial baskets covered with a black substance. The analysis by chromatography of gases and mass spectrometry (GC-MS), published inScientific Reportsin 2016, identified a mixture of animal collagen and resinStyrax officinalis(sneezing). The sneeze resin produces a warm, balsamic perfume, comparable to incense or vanilla. This finding is the oldest known record of the use of a fragrant plant resin applied on human remains and ritual objects. Decorated skulls —probably skulls of venerated ancestors— They first received an asphalt coating and then the aromatic resin. The gesture of persmoking the remains of the dead transforms the skull into a sacred object, with a special smell that distinguishes it from the profane. The sneeze resin has antiseptic properties, but also produces an intense and lasting sensory experience. Its aroma is fixed in porous materials and can be perceived for years. For a neolithic community that regularly returned to the cave, this persistent smell acted as a mnemic marker: as it entered the chamber, the scent of the hindrance announced the crossing into a space inhabited by the ancestors.

The literature and additional research, explanation, didactics and study materials are provided only to Myrodia Khartes subscribers.

Olfactory functions

In the burials of Raqefet, Taporalt, Al Khiday and Nahal Hemar, the use of active aromatic plants at least four biological functions of the smell:

Hazard avoidance: The compounds ofLamiaceae, EphedraandCyperus rotundusthey inhibit bacteria and repel necrophage insects, protecting the body and the funeral space from decomposition and its health risks.
Hedonic evaluation: The aroma transforms the body into a dead person worthy of care, moving the natural disgust by the rot into a sensory experience that can be pleasant, sacred or transcendent.
attachment and link: Perfume of the remains (such as the sneezing resin on skulls) maintains an affective connection with the ancestors; the persistent smell acts as a mnemic marker that strengthens the link beyond death.
Social communication: The coordinated collection of fresh flowers and the ritual consumption of ephedra (stimulating) generate shared states that cohesive the group around duel and collective memory.

In each case, the biological —to detect the toxic, feel pleasure or repulsion, link to caregivers— it becomes cultural by deliberately selecting aromatic plants at the earliest moment of human existence: death.

Olfactory nodes

The four sites —Raqefet, Taporalt, Al Khiday and Nahal Hemar— reveal a common pattern: the deliberate use of aromatic plants in funeral contexts. In all of them, the aroma was not intended for the living, but for the dead or for the ancestors. The sage flowers, the ephedra bouquets, the joint tubers and the sneeze resin turned the grave into a threshold, a place apart from the ordinary.

In Nahal Hemar, the resin perfumed the decorated skulls. As he entered the cave, that persistent smell announced the crossing into a space inhabited by the ancestors. In Raqefet and Taporalt, the chosen plants were not any: their essential oils had purifying properties, capable of slowing down the decomposition and repelling insects. But his function went beyond practical. The aroma transformed the body into a dead person worthy of care, and the pit into a ritual bed.

These prehistoric communities shared a deep intuition: the right smell, applied to the inert body, has the power to turn the biological into symbolic, the putrefacto into sacred, the absent in the present. Death, thanks to the aroma, ceased to be an end to become a threshold.

Aromatic mapping

Salvia sp. | Meth | Ephedra sp. | Cyperus rotundus | Styrax officinalis

Human cadavirus decomposition
Chemical sign: Putrescin, cadaverine, isovaleric acid, dimethyl sulfide, eschatol, indol, ammonia, volatile fatty acids.
Common scenarios: Bodies in the process of decomposition within graves; funeral graves without immediate sealing; exposure of the body for days before burial.

We appreciate your contribution.