The Sunghir Human Skeletal Remains

Abstract

The Sunghir human remains originally consisted of the three associated skeletons from the two burials, Sunghir 1, 2, and 3, plus the remains of six other individuals. Sunghir 1 to 3 consist of largely complete skeletons that sustained the inevitable partial crushing, fragmentation, and bone disintegration that accompanies human remains buried in open air sites for 28,000 years. Sunghir 4 is the adult femur shaft that was ritually placed in the Sunghir 2 and 3 burial, next to the left shoulder of Sunghir 2 (chapter 3). Sunghir 5 is a partial adult cranium, found in the sediments above Grave 1. Sunghir 6 is a mature hemimandible, identified as human after excavation from among the faunal remains above Grave 2. There were also the unnumbered remains of the skeleton in Grave 2bis, which were not retained (see discussion in chapter 3). In addition to these human fossils, the remains of three additional individuals were originally found, numbered Sunghir 7 to 9. Sunghir 7 was found in the deposits between the two graves and consisted of a portion of a human femur, variously described as adolescent or from a young adult female. Sunghir 8 consisted of portions of a femur and a skull (a frontal bone, a probable parietal bone, and a temporal bone), found in 1969 in an additional clay pit. Sunghir 9 was a partial skeleton found in 1972 in an additional clay pit. None of the Sunghir 7 to 9 human remains can be currently located. The Sunghir 7 and 8 remains were briefly described by anthropologists and forensic scientists in Moscow, and the limited information on Sunghir 9 is based on reports by the Vladimir Ceramic Works workers. The available human remains from Sunghir therefore consist of the Sunghir 1 to 3 partial skeletons, the Sunghir 4 partial femur, and the Sunghir 5 and 6 cranium and mandible. These specimens are currently curated in the Laboratory of Anthropological Reconstruction of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.