Humans began burying objects with their deceased loved ones long before anybody started recording history.
Archaeological excavations of the Qafzeh and Skhul Caves in Israel have discovered graves dating back as far as 100,000 years that contain grave goods such as flint artifacts, animal bones, seashells and lumps of red ochre. Fast forward 75,000 thousand years and burials included decorative clothing, jewelry, weapons, animal carvings and other ornamental objects.
Although there are a number of possible reasons for why we started to bury objects with the dead, evidence suggests these objects were meant to accompany the deceased in the afterlife.
Grave Goods: Gifts for the Afterlife
The Egyptians, for example, even buried their dead with maps and food.
