Author: Sullyvan Leriche

Christopher J. Knüsel, Adrien Thibeault, Sébastien Villotte, “A cranial injury from the earliest Gravettian at the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (Vézère Valley, Dordogne, southwest France)”

Journal of Human Evolution 177 (2023) 103329

Available online 2 March 2023

A new study of the cranium of the specimen named Cro-Magnon 2 shows that the impact present at the level of the frontal of this individual is the result of an ante-mortem wound. The remains of the individuals nicknamed “Cro-Magnon men” were discovered in 1868 at Eyzies-de-Tailhac in Dordogne (France) at the Cro-Magnon shelter.

It is besides the name of this shelter which will give the nickname “Cro-Magnon” to the discovered fossils. These individuals, which belong to the species Homo sapiens, are dated between 33 000 and 31 000 cal BP. As soon as these remains were discovered, researchers noticed a perforation in the frontal bone of the cranium of the individual named Cro-Magnon 2. Nevertheless, since this discovery, opinions differ as to the ante- or post-mortem nature of this perforation, i.e. whether the impact occurred before the death of the individual or whether it is the result of a degradation of the bone following its burial. Researchers have recently re-studied this cranium in order to evaluate the pathological or non-pathological character of this impact.

To do this, they made both visual observations but also generated scans and 3D images of the fossil using a micro X-ray tomograph. Cranial fractures that occurred before death have different characteristics that can be seen on the bones, such as the shape of the fracture or signs of healing. The study conducted here demonstrates that this perforation of the frontal bone is the result of an impact produced by a blunt object that occurred during the individual’s lifetime.
Traces of intracranial hemorrhage, the presence of a hematoma as well as porous bones indicate that the individual would have survived at least 15 days after this injury. It is impossible to affirm that this one was mortal but it is probable that this individual died of the consequences of this wound as for example of an infection. For the researchers, the position of the injury is consistent with the individual having been attacked and therefore not the result of an accident.

This raises the question of interpersonal violence during the Paleolithic, a question already raised with other fossil remains showing traces of injuries.

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Villalba-Mouco V., et al, “Kinship practices in the early state El Argar society from Bronze Age Iberia”, Scientific reports (2022) 12:22415, Nature, Published 27 December 2022.

Lien: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25975-9

The Bronze Age in Europe was characterized by social and genetic transformations that began as early as the 3rd millennium BCE (Before Common Era). New funerary structures, political hierarchies and advances in metallurgy are emerging and playing an important role in the socio-economic mutations of these societies. New trade and exchange networks were set up. At the same time, paleogenetics revealed transformations in the ancestral gene pool that accompanied the profound socio-economic changes in the region. These transformations were linked to the expansion of pastoralist societies from Eastern Europe. The El Argar complex in the south of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) bears witness to this genetic turnover in south-western Europe around 2200 BC. This article studies the genome of 68 individuals from the La Almoloya site. The results show that El Argar was a patrilineal society (type of filiation based on paternal descent) practicing exogamy (matrimonial rule imposing the search for a spouse outside one’s social group). The women who join El Argar reflect socio-political alliances.

Marina Escolà. Alsatian Neolithic cranial surgery: state of the art. Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, 2022, 119 (2), pp. 295-324. hal-03738889

Link to article: https://hal.science/hal-03738889/

“The knowledge we have gained about the way of life of the first Neolithic populations in Alsace is due to a favorable conjuncture: the expansion of the Danubian Neolithic current, the strong human settlement in the loess plains, the good preservation of thousands of tombs and the recent exploitation of the land for building purposes. These optimal conditions led to the discovery and study of four Alsatian cases attributed to surgical procedures. The one from Hoenheim-Souffelweyersheim (Bas-Rhin), one of the earliest identified, comes from a recent ribboned context. This elderly subject has a large, centrally perforated right frontal depression, which may have been caused by the extraction of bone splinters following trauma. The opening in the cranial bone, initially the result of abrasion of the external table and diploe, was reopened and enlarged. The operation followed a phase of observation using a protocol that could be described as medical. The interest of two other cranial lesions lies in the complexity of the diagnosis made or to be debated, since the pathological is mixed up with, or has to be disentangled from… the mchirurgical. In the Danube cemetery of Ensisheim “les Octrois” (Haut-Rhin), burial 44 preserved the remains of a subject whose cranial vault showed two vast depressions, TR-1 (65 mm x 63 mm) and TR-2 (95 mm x 91 mm) in the median region, interpreted, on discovery, as healed craniectomies. The study of these two arch alterations reveals the complexity of the differential diagnosis. It highlights the diversity of possible pathologies and the lack of recent studies on the healing processes of such cranial defects. The Grossgartach Middle Neolithic necropolis at Lingolsheim (Lower Rhine) has yielded a burial site rich in accompanying furniture: tomb XLIV. The young adult who occupied it had a cranial lacuna described as a double trepanation. A study of the alteration and healing phases of the orifice margins has identified a sequence of three events that led to the perforation of the cranial bone, the pathological, taphonomic or anthropic origin of which deserves to be discussed. The diagnosis of trepanation for the subject from Riedisheim (Haut-Rhin), whose chronological attribution remains vague (Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age), is supported by the presence of a few instrumental striations still visible on the cranial bone, despite notable healing of the orifice edges.”

D’Agostino A., et al, “Neolithic dental calculi provide evidence for environmental proxies and consumption of wild edible fruits and herbs in central Apennines”, COMMUNICATION BIOLOGY|(2022)5:1384, Nature, Published: 19 December 2022.

Link to article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-04354-0

The study of the role of plant resources in pre-agricultural societies remains a central question in prehistory. Thus, archaeobotanists are looking for clues indicating the biodiversity of plants and their exploitation. Nevertheless, traces of the use of plants as food are rare on prehistoric sites. Organic material does not keep well and almost always disappears, except in special contexts. Searching for new types of biological markers to provide new information on the relationship between man and his environment during prehistory is a challenge. Nevertheless, recent methods based on the study of dental calculus have opened up new possibilities for studying past dietary behavior and reconstructing paleoenvironments. Dental tartar is the result of the mineralization of plaque adhering to the tooth surface. This gradual accumulation protects the organic microremains from damage. With this in mind, this article studies the dental calculus of individuals from the Mora Cavorso cave burial site (Italy), dated to the Early Neolithic period, as well as animals found on the site contemporary with this period. Three different methodological approaches are combined: light microscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and DNA sequencing. The different types of pollen and plant micro-rests found trapped in the tartar showed an exploitation of wild plant resources centered on Panicoideae, Triticeae, Rosaceae and Lamiaceae. From a paleoenvironmental point of view, the environment was predominantly dominated by wooded areas, with the presence of meadows that would have enabled these individuals to make a lasting home for themselves.