Evidence for burial for the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal child (2020)

nature.com

38 pointstokai3 comments

Compelling evidence that the Neanderthal dug graves and held ceremonial burials.

Unrelated, but again I wish the science community would put the "conclusion" heading right after the "abstract". It's what everyone jumps to, and it would probably even enable more consumption by the lay public. You only read the body of the paper after reading the conclusion anyway.

The abstract normally contains a brief conclusion.

"Our results show that a pit was dug in a sterile sediment layer and the corpse of a two-year-old child was laid there."

The reason conclusions reside at the end is that they draw from prior content.

If the lay-public cannot follow the linear steps and context of research, then how will they understand the conclusion? It would be no better than an authoritative appeal. "I called this research and formatted it like so, nevermind the methods or data, therefore you should accept this conclusion" is about as far from the intent of science as one gets.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com