Abstract
El Sidrón Cave is an archaeological and anthropological reference site of the Neanderthal world. It shows singular activity related to cannibalisation, and all existing processes are relevant to explain the specific behaviour of the concerned individuals. This paper presents geoarchaeological data, primarily based on mineralogical and petrographic techniques, from an investigation of the nature of the encrustations or hard coatings that affect a large part of the Neanderthal bone remains and their relationship with the depositional and post-depositional processes at the archaeological site. Crusts and patina were found to be numerous and diverse, mainly composed of calcite and siliciclastic grains, with different proportions and textures. The analysis indicated different origins and scenarios from their initial post-mortem accumulation to the final deposit recovered during the archaeological work. The presence of micromorphological features, such as clotted-peloidal micrite, needle-fibre calcite (NFC) aggregates, clay coatings, iron–manganese impregnation, and/or adhered aeolian dust may indicate that a significant proportion of the remains were affected by subaerial conditions in a relatively short period of time in a shelter, cave entrance, or shallower level of the karstic system, prior to their accumulation in the Ossuary Gallery.
Highlights
The Neanderthal fossils from the archaeological site of El Sidrón cave comprise, for the moment, the largest and most complete anthropological collection of these species found on the Iberian Peninsula
This paper presents geoarchaeological data related to hard coatings and patina covering Neanderthal bones from a mineralogical and petrographic study in order to further investigate the circumstances of the original deposition, the post-depositional processes, and the preservation of the archaeological site
All the bone remains from El Sidrón cave are embedded in a dense, poorly sorted, sandy-silt matrix with a porphyritic, coarse-/fine-related distribution
Summary
The Neanderthal fossils from the archaeological site of El Sidrón cave comprise, for the moment, the largest and most complete anthropological collection of these species found on the Iberian Peninsula. A multi-dating approach has been undertaken at the site, and it has given a consistent date of 48,400 ± 3200 years BP for the archaeological and the fossil assemblage, which places it between Heinrich’s H4 and H5 events of the paleoclimatic stage MIS 3 [12,13,14] It is precisely this period in which a good percentage of the so-called “classic Neanderthals” are concentrated, among which we can place the El Sidrón Neanderthal group. Geo–archaeo–stratigraphic analyses have suggested that the bones went into the cave in a massive water-driven deposit and fell into the Ossuary Gallery through a vertical shaft, probably resulting from a flood event after a thunderstorm [15,16,17,18,19] This rapid event into the cave allowed for the good preservation of both sediments and archaeological remains. This paper presents geoarchaeological data related to hard coatings (crusts) and patina covering Neanderthal bones from a mineralogical and petrographic study in order to further investigate the circumstances of the original deposition, the post-depositional processes, and the preservation of the archaeological site
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