BBCnews is running this article summarizing the recent finds of red ochre lining some early-modern human graves in a cave in Israel. The striking thing is these graves are 100,000 years old, doubling the age at which humans seem to have begun to think abstractly.

My grandmother's funeral a few years ago was the first one I attended as an adult. I never will forget the sight of her body in a casket lined with pictures and momentos. For me, it was a deep connection with the past, participating in what will probably turn out to be the oldest, perhaps first, human ritual ever conceived.

The more things change...