The passage of the seasons and the success of the hunt can also be regarded as having mystical significance. We have no reason to suspect that the Stone Age hunters were any different and archaeology can provide a few examples of what we may consider to be ritual or ceremonial behaviour. It is often said that death is the only certain thing about life and although burials are by no means common finds, they provide rare insights into Stone Age beliefs. Grave 10 contains the body of an adult male, 1.7m tall, suffering from the first stages of arthritis. The body lies on two red deer antlers and has two flint blades near the stomach, perhaps originally in a bag.
Red ochre is scattered around the head.
The body was laid in a shallow grave and scattered with red ochre. The rich assemblage of grave goods included a shell necklace and ivory beads and bracelets. This piece of stone engraving from an 11,000 year old hunters' camp at Gonnersdorf in Germany, appears to show a file of three or four female figures proceeding in a dance-like movement from left to right. The figures, which lack heads and feet, have prominent breasts and posteriors and appear to be clothed. The smaller shape between the second and third figures may be a child carried in a papoose.