“The data are limited, but this is an impressive survey,” John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who did not take part in this research, told Live Science. Notably, he said there appear to have been consistent burial practices that distinguished Neanderthal and early H. sapiens burials. This is surprising because all of these small, scattered populations wouldn’t be expected to share cultural practices over long stretches of space and time.
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