Figure on the left:

Depositions of objects and offerings beside the dead becomes more frequent during the Upper Palaeolithic: the presence of furnishings in the grave (shells, teeth, horns, utensils) shows that Prehistoric peoples had some conception regarding the continuation, in some manner, of the existence beyond death. The dead are often placed in a ditch, in determined postures, generally in a crouched position with flexed arms and legs. In certain burials from the Near East, the dead are put in a foetal position, often following an East-West axis, with the head toward the East (Narr 2005). In other cases the corpse is placed in a sleeping position.
[Image: http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness155.html]

Figure on the right:

Upper Palaeolithic burial of two children found in the site of Krems-Wachtberg, (Eastern Austria). The bodies were disposed in foetal position and thoroughly covered with red ochre. The colour of ochre reminds immediately that of the blood, and probably it was regarded as representing the vital force that is not destroyed by death. The frequent presence of funerary offerings in the graves strengthen this hypothesis. Since the Middle Palaeolithic, the objects put beside the corpses were presumably regarded as to be used by the dead in their further existence, and even to children were given “adulthood” furnishings, which they could utilize only in the next future (Narr 2005, p. 6950). One can suppose that, for the early Prehistoric peoples, life and death were already conceived as interweaved in a continuous vital cycle.

[Image: http://deathandritual.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/burials-burials-burials/]