From the Sunghir Children to the Romito Dwarf

Because of their number, state of preservation, richness, and diversity of associated grave goods, burials from the Upper Paleolithic (28,000–10,000 BP) represent an important source of information on ideological aspects modeling funerary behavior of these populations. Analysis of the European record reveals an intriguing high frequency of multiple burials. A multiple burial may be unrelated to simultaneous deaths. However, absence of bone and grave goods displacement indicates that the interments, if not simultaneous, were not long separated in time. Moreover, while the most conservative explanation for a multiple burial is a natural event such as disease or an accident, burial composition by age and sex suggests selective practices. In addition, some of the most spectacular multiple burials include a severely deformed individual. This is the case of the extraordinarily ornamented double burial of the Sunghir children (Russia), the triple interment of Dolní Věstonice (Moravia), which includes young individuals lying in unusual positions, and the adolescent dwarf from Romito Cave (Italy), buried together with a woman under the engraving of a bull. These findings point to the possibility that human sacrifices were part of the ritual activity of these populations and provide clues on the complexity and symbolism pervading Upper Paleolithic societies as well as on the perception of “diversity” and its links to magical‐religious beliefs.