Complex mortuary dynamics in the Upper Paleolithic of the decorated Grotte de Cussac, France

Abstract

<jats:p>The Mid-Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian) karstic Grotte de Cussac (France) contains two areas of human remains in the context of abundant (and spectacular) parietal engravings. The first area (loci 1 and 2) includes the skeleton of a young adult male in a bear nest, rearranged by postdecomposition inundation, and the variably fragmentary remains of at least two individuals distributed across two bear nests, sorted anatomically and with most of the elements constrained to one side of one nest. The second area (locus 3) retains remains of two adults and an adolescent, in upper hollows and variably distributed down the slope, largely segregated into upper versus lower body groups. The only decoration associated with the human remains is red pigment on some of the bones or underlying sediment. The human remains indicate variable nonnatural deposition and manipulation of human bodies, body portions, and skeletal elements of at least six individuals. Moreover, Cussac is unusual in the association of these remains with exceptional parietal art. The complex Cussac mortuary pattern joins growing evidence from other Gravettian sites of variable treatment of individuals after death, within and across sites, in terms of formal deposition of the body versus postmortem manipulation versus surface abandonment. It provides a window onto the social diversity and the complex interactions of the living and the dead among these successful Late Pleistocene foragers.</jats:p>

Gravettian cranial morphology and human group affinities during the European Upper Palaeolithic

“…Several sites in SWF also delivered female figures carved on cave-wall (Cussac) or fallen rocks (Laussel) or made of ivory (Brassempouy, Lespugue) or soft stones (Tursac, Sireuil), that are often stylistically compared to the ones known in the rest of Europe (see for instance 30 , 31 ). Gravettian in SWF is also characterized by complex funerary behaviours implying deliberate commingling of the remains of several individuals, unique in the MUP mortuary landscape 32 – 34 . To date, no nuclear DNA has been extracted from SWF MUP human remains, but a mitochondrial DNA (i.e.…”

Evidence of the use of soft footwear in the Gravettian cave of Cussac (Dordogne, France)

“…All the evidence suggests a minimal number of incursions, maybe one generation of human groups. Meanwhile, we cannot affirm that the bodies deposited in the bear nests and the individuals who deposited them belonged to the same group 44 although this is the most parsimonious hypothesis in the current state of analysis. Nevertheless, the study of foot bones found in the cave will also shed new light on the question of footwear.…”

Subsistence practices in western Mediterranean Europe during the Final Gravettian. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of faunal remains from level D of Arbreda Cave (Serinyà, NE Iberian Peninsula)

“…Cro‐Magnon and Abri Pataud, among others), funerary traditions possibly included the alteration of burials, displacements and mixing of human remains (Kacki et al . 2020). Both study of allochthonous lithic raw material origin (as far as 240 km northeast in the Iberian Middle Gravettian) and similarities in personal ornament (such as pierced deer femoral heads) and burial practices between Aquitanian and Catalan regions suggest the permanence of long‐distance trans‐Pyrenean contact during the Final Gravettian (Marreiros et al .…”