The Cro-Magnon Babies: Morphology and Mortuary Implications of the Cro-Magnon Immature Remains

Caroline Partiot , Erik Trinkaus , Christopher J Knüsel , Sébastien Villotte (1)

1 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie

14 15 Abstract 16 Although the adult skeletons discovered in 1868 at the Cro-Magnon site (Dordogne, 17 France) have been studied several times, the immature remains known as Cro-Magnon 5 and 18 exhumed at the same time were only analyzed in detail once, some thirty years ago. Since 19 then, doubts have persisted concerning, in particular, the minimum number of immature 20 individuals present in the assemblage. A re-analysis of these immature remains (cranial 21 fragments and long bone diaphyses) documents the presence of three neonates and one older 22 infant in the sample. They are morphologically and metrically similar to recent and Late 23 Pleistocene modern human infants, although the metaphyses of one femur are modestly 24 unusual. They also document an unusual mortuary age profile at Cro-Magnon, with four 25 infants, three older adults, and an additional adult, which raises questions about the manner of 26 selection of individuals deposited in the Cro-Magnon rock-shelter. 27 28

Mots clés: Gravettian; pair-matching; hunter-gatherers; funerary practices; Upper

Domaines: Anthropologie biologique

Caroline Partiot, Erik Trinkaus, Christopher J Knüsel, Sébastien Villotte. The Cro-Magnon Babies: Morphology and Mortuary Implications of the Cro-Magnon Immature Remains. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020, 30, pp.102257. ⟨10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102257⟩. ⟨hal-03004125⟩