There are many examples from Upper Palaeolithic times of 'ritual' burial, i.e. burials where food and other valued objects were placed with the body, presumably to help the dead person in the after-life. An example is the child from Shanidar, Iraqi-Kurdistan, who was buried on top of a bed of flowers with stone tools round her.

Ritual burials of the Mesolithic Period have been found in Scandinavia. No definite burials of the Mesolithic period are yet known from Portland, although a burial within a small half-circle of stones from the Mesolithic site next to the Old Lower Lightohouse could have been mesolithic (see Portland). Burials may have been placed in niches in the caves in the cliffs below the site and were washed out to sea with the rising of the sea-level in later Mesolithic times (see environment).

However, some religious concept can be inferred from a find associated with the floor in the main part of the site ( Area A now preserved under the log cabin - visible at the far end of the floor by the mirror)

As explained in Culverwell Features, at each stage where a new stage of the floor building started, a larger than average stone was inserted into the floor. Under each of these bigger stones, was a small stone-lined hole made into the midden. Nothing of significance was found in these small holes, except in one case where a roughly triangular stone with a large oval beach cobble next to it, marked a phase in floor building in the northern part of the site.

When the midden material in the stone-lined hole underneath the big stone was excavated, a pierced scallop shell, an axe made of Portland chert and a small round pebble were found. The small pebble was 'planted' upright on its side into the midden, i.e. deliberately placed and not just thrown into the hole.

No other complete scallop shell has been found on the site, despite the vast quantity of molluscs in the midden, suggesting that this item was something of unusual significance or value to the site inhabitants.

Axes are very rare on the site although picks are very common (see artefacts).; this suggests that this axe too was of special interest.

Round pebbles feature in the spiritual life of many aboriginal societies. The native Americans believe that a pebble equates the sun, moon or an egg as well as the cycles of life in value because they argue that "all things of the same shape are equal".
Australian aboriginals also regard pebbles as cult objects and representing the soul.

The three items could, therefore, be some offering to bring good luck to the three main aspects of Mesolithic life at Culverwell: the sea, the land and the cycles of the seasons.

For most so-called people of the distant past , there appears to have been very little divide between their daily lives and their spiritual lives.

Shells:

It has been mentioned in the section on clothing in this programme that pierced limpet and periwinkle shells have been found on the site. These could have been worn as 'lucky charms' very much in the same way as people now days still wear special bracelets or necklets with 'good luck' objects on them.

Ochre:

Ochre is a clay with a vivid orange, red or sometimes purple colour. Almost all known ritual burials from at least Upper Palaeolithic times onwards were covered with ochre, probably because the colour resembled blood.

On Portland ochreous clay used to occur in a thick deposit in the northern part of the Island (now unfortunately all quarried away).

Sizeable pieces of ochre were quite common on the Culverwell site and some of these pieces had the appearance of having been formed into crayons. It is not known what the ochre was used for but it is possible that the site inhabitants may have coloured their bodies with it, in the same way as some African tribes still colour their bodies with different clays during ritual dances.