Be careful about believing everything you read, especially on the internet. However, what you read about the Neanderthals is 100% true. I'm a retired archaeologist, and there is no way to tell what kind of introspection was taking place at what point in human development. All we can say for certain is based on the physical evidence left behind.

Since they became self aware

For as long as we’ve had the capacity to think with the high brain and not have solid answers.

They ritualized death similarly to how elephants do, and married into Homo sapien sapien (re: bred into.)

Possible since Homo Habilis..

For a long time now.

For as long as we've been capable of feeling and expressing the emotion of love.

I think man has wondered about life after death for more than a million years. It must have been a real puzzle to figure what happened to the life that was gone, and yet the body was still there. This was probably the beginning of ancestor worship.

I think that everyone sees their loved ones die--and can't help what wonder what their absence would be like in their lives. I remember going to my grandmother's wake, seeing her body in the casket, and not having any grief whatsoever. I was 9, and had the memories of her. The body in the casket was not her. I knew that much.

The mystery of life? "Life is suffering and short" (Leon Tolstoy?

The existence beyond the veil of death was revealed by McCoy and Spock. ( paraphrasing ) Spock: " it would help our discussion if we had a common frame of reference". McCoy: " you mean that I would have to die to talk to you about it? " Spock: " That would be logical. "

Nice article in The Grauniad today about the recently-discovered Neanderthal cave art with homo sapiens additions. I wonder how long it'll be before someone argues the symbol on the right is a propellor-driven vehicle of some type? [theguardian.com]

I read in a national geographic many years ago in a dentist waiting room on neanderthals and how they would keep dead relatives in the back of the cave and cover them with flowers. For the smell?
And now I also saw the article about the artwork,
pretty dam awesome in my books.

I don't think it's seeking to understand so much as a coping mechanism for grief. A grave provides a lasting connection with someone who has died. And of course the religious notion that everyone is reunited in an afterlife takes away the finality.

I don't think it's seeking to understand so much as a coping mechanism for grief. A grave provides a lasting connection with someone who has died. And of course the religious notion that everyone is reunited in an afterlife takes away the finality.

Since we first became self aware. We did understand the complexities of life/death and needed an explanation for it. Out of that ignorance sprouted religion.

The burial of Mungo man used ochre. Estimated at over 40000 years here in Australia. A homo sapien

There is evidence that a pre-homo sapiens species in South Africa buried their dead about 300,000 years ago. They also seem to have used ochre in rituals. i think they were called something like Homo nialus.

Neanderthals were cave artists, researchers find

Drawings and jewelry found in Spain too old to have been made by modern humans
Maggie Fox, Feb 23, 2018
NBC News