The Lagar Velho Skeleton
In late 1998 archeological reconnaissance
in the Lapedo Valley in central Portugal resulted in the discovery of a
large Upper Paleolithic rockshelter, now known as the Abrigo do Lagar Velho.
The deposits had been largely removed in 1992, exposing the remains of
a rich Gravettian through Solutrean archeological sequence at the western
end of the shelter and coming within centimeters of the child's burial
in the otherwise unoccupied eastern portion of the rockshelter. Salvage
excavation of the burial ensued in late 1998 to early 1999, and Prof.
Erik Trinkaus was invited by Dr. João Zilhão and Cidália
Duarte of the Instituto Português de Arquelogia to assist with the
analysis of the remains. Subsequently the three of them have put together
an international anthropological team to analyze the archeological remains
from the site, including the child's skeleton.
In addition to providing evidence of a 25,000 year old ritual burial (with burnt pine branches, red ochre, pierced teeth and shell) of a 4 year old Paleolithic child, the analysis has revealed that the child exhibits distinctive characteristics of both contemporaneous European early modern humans and preceding Neandertals. It therefore provides evidence of previous admixture between Neandertals and early modern humans in southwestern Europe. As a result, it has become a focus of ongoing research by Prof. Trinkaus and others concerning the evolutionary dynamics of the emergence of modern humans across the Old World.
Large image (654k)
References
Duarte, C., Maurmcio, J., Pettitt, P.B., Souto, P., Trinkaus, E., van der Plicht, H., & Zilhão, J. (1999) The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human emergence in Iberia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) 96, 7604-7609.Photograph © Instituto Português de ArquelogiaTrinkaus, E., Zilhão, J. & Duarte, C. (1999) The Lapedo child: Lagar Velho 1 and our perceptions of the Neandertals. Mediterranean Prehistory Online. http://www.med.abaco-mac.it/issue001/articles/doc/013.htm.