Washington: The remains of flowers that were found in Stone Age Natufian graves has provided the latest evidence that the colourful and fragrant blooms have been there at the funerals for a long time.
Daniel Nadel from the University of Haifa in Israel said that before there were only a few isolated burials but some Natufian sites have had more than 100 skeletons in one area, which gave the world the first glimpse of a cemetery, Discovery News reported.
Nadel and his colleagues found four graves in Raqefet cave in the Haifa district, which were dated to 13,700 - 11,700 years back.
They found that the graves were lined with flowers; they also identified sages and figworts` imprints in the mud around the bodies - the earliest proof of plants being linked with funerals.
They believe that the plants were laid out beneath and under the bodies of the dead, and were put in a layer thick which was enough to prevent other objects in the grave from leaving their own imprints in the mud.
ANI
