Human remains in the Ardines karstic massif: Tito Bustillo and La Lloseta caves (Asturias, Spain)

Abstract

Several important prehistoric sites are placed in the Ardines karstic massif (Ribadesella, Asturias, Northern Spain), highlighting Tito Bustillo and La Lloseta caves, where different human remains have been found. In the so-called XI area of Tito Bustillo cave, a buried skeleton was found (Tito Bustillo 1), dating to the eighth millennium cal BC and assigned to an adult male, with remarkable skeletal robusticity. Furthermore, near the original entrance of Tito Bustillo cave, several isolated postcranial human remains (Tito Bustillo 2) possibly from a destroyed Neolithic burial have been identified. In another site, La Lloseta cave, near the entrance to the lower gallery, an isolated incomplete skull was discovered. Several of the presumed skull bone fragments were dated to the twelfth-millennium cal BC. To verify its antiquity a cranium sample has been directly dated with a result corresponding to the eighteen-millennium cal BC. Most of the individual's neurocranium is preserved, filled with cemented breccia and sediment. We present a detailed bioanthropological study of the fossils from both caves, including Computed Tomography performed on Tito Bustillo 1 and La Lloseta. The studied fossils provide new information about the dwellers of the Sella Valley from the end of the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic and Neolithic.