The ‘invisible’ pits: how informative are old excavations in discussing Middle Palaeolithic burials?

In this paper I focus on the potential of Palaeolithic sites excavated before the establishment of modern methods, aiming to provide reliable information on current debates. Specifically, I will address the reliability of the information coming from such hominin fossil sites to provide data on the first appearance of hominin burials. In three cases (Vogelherd, Balla, and Velika Pećina), hominin fossils previously regarded as Palaeolithic in age, were proven to be much younger after being directly dated. Regardless of the nature of post‐ depositional processes which might have affected the integrity and position of the fossils, these cases highlight that sites excavated prior to 1960s–1970s have limited potential in contributing data to the debate on Palaeolithic burials. Subsequently, I present a brief overview of the Middle Palaeolithic sites involved in the debate on the Middle Palaeolithic burials; many of them provide equivocal data on the presence of pits, and very few have hominin fossils directly dated. Therefore, I conclude that the evidence available from earlier excavated sites provides insufficient data to support the existence of Middle Palaeolithic burials.