Funeral Flowers in the Ancient Near East

There is now a new claimant for the oldest use of flowers in funerary rituals. Archaeologists digging a group of Natufian burials near Mt. Carmel in Israel found that the graves had been elaborately prepared: dug into rocky soil, the walls lined with a plaster of mud, and then the floors covered with flowers. The graves date to between 13,700 and 11,700 years ago.

It's quite fascinating, but I have one quibble about calling these plants "flowers." They are talking about ordinary field plants that grow in meadows, like figwort. At the right season, a random hay-cutting operation might bring in many such plants. The excavators note that the plants seem to be mainly those that smell nice; but wouldn't you also cut nice-smelling plants if you wanted to cover the floor of your house with hay or rushes? So, yes, these burials indicate elaborate funerary rituals, but I am not sure that sweet-smelling hay has quite the same symbolic meaning as lilies or roses would. It looks to me like these graves are being treated as houses, with plastered walls and rushes on the floor.