Apidima 1 and Apidima 2: Two anteneandertal skulls in the Peloponnese, Greece

Abstract

Work in Apidima A Cave began in 1976 after the discovery of a portion of a human skull by Andreas Andreikos in a cave breccia, identified in 1978 by Théodoros Pitsios, and named Apidima 1. The cave is located below the plateau of Aeropolis, in the Mani Peninsula (Maina or Maïna), in the Peloponnese, in the south of Greece. The first work in the cave brought to light a second skull, Apidima 2. These two skulls were lying vertically against the cave wall, on the same sedimentary layer, 15cm away from each other, side by side and facing in opposite directions. The Apidima 1 occipital seems to belong to a male individual whereas the Apidima 2 face appears to be female. They were carefully extracted from the breccia at the initiative of Théodoros Pitsios and were painstakingly disengaged in the laboratory between 1979 and 2012. The Apidima 1 skull is a portion of the back of the skull and the better preserved Apidima 2 consists of the face and the frontoparietal zones. These remains are in a similar state of fossilisation and were dated by the U/Th method between 220 and 130 ka, with an average age of about 170 ka. The anatomical study shows that they can be attributed to the same group of evolved European Homo erectus hominins, with some early Neanderthal traits, similar to the skulls of la Sima de los Huesos, Swanscombe, Biache St Vaast and Lazaret, and that they can be differentiated from classic Neanderthals. The frontoparietal curve and low biparietal breadth of the crania can be compared to early forms, such as Arago 21-47, Ceprano, Petralona, but several traits announce a Neanderthal morphology, such as, for example, a suprainiac fossa observable on Apidima 1. The deposition of these two skulls in Apidima Cave A, laid out side by side, with no other human remains, lithic artefacts or faunal remains, evokes a death-related anthropogenic ritual. Beside these skulls, three pebbles gathered on the beach below the cave can be considered as an intentional deposit related to the symbolic preoccupations of these Anteneandertals. During the major regression of isotopic stage 6, the beach was at a much lower level than the present-day beach.