Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 1, Pages 81-86Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1316780110
Keywords
Mousterian burial; Middle Paleolithic; symbolic behavior; taphonomy; archaeology
Categories
Funding
- French Ministry of Culture
- Archeosphere Company
- Unite Mixte de Recherche Travaux et Recherches Archeologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Societes (UMR TRACES) (Toulouse, France)
- Prehistoire a l'Actuel Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (Bordeaux, France)
- La Chapelle-aux-Saints municipality and its inhabitants
- Communaute de Communes du Sud Correzien
- Fyssen Foundation
- University of Michigan
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The bouffia Bonneval at La Chapelle-aux-Saints is well known for the discovery of the first secure Neandertal burial in the early 20th century. However, the intentionality of the burial remains an issue of some debate. Here, we present the results of a 12-y fieldwork project, along with a taphonomic analysis of the human remains, designed to assess the funerary context of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal. We have established the anthropogenic nature of the burial pit and underlined the taphonomic evidence of a rapid burial of the body. These multiple lines of evidence support the hypothesis of an intentional burial. Finally, the discovery of skeletal elements belonging to the original La Chapelle aux Saints 1 individual, two additional young individuals, and a second adult in the bouffia Bonneval highlights a more complex site-formation history than previously proposed.
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