Francesco d’Errico and colleagues have consistently argued that the contamination problem in cave pollen analysis has not been fully resolved, and that the rodent activity hypothesis adequately explains the pollen without requiring deliberate human behavior.

The debate was not resolved by the 2023 paper.

It was advanced — given a richer and more carefully documented dataset — but the fundamental interpretive dispute remained open.

That is where things stand.

The flower burial question is one of the longest-running unresolved arguments in paleoanthropology, and Shanidar Z has not closed it.

What Intentional Burial Actually Means

The phrase “intentional burial” covers a range of behaviors that are worth distinguishing.

At the most basic level, it means a body was deliberately placed in a location rather than left where the individual died or abandoned to scavengers.