Mortuary practices at the Krapina Neandertal site

Abstract

It has often been reported that the Krapina Neandertal remains bear incised linear striations which appear to be cutmarks. Here, the plausibility of the striations as cutmarks is tested by comparing them to Mousterian butchery marks on large fauna and to cutmarks on modern human skeletons known to have been defleshed with stone tools. The anatomical location, gross appearance, and frequency of occurrence of the striations on the Krapina material do not resemble Mousterian butchery marks on reindeer. The Krapina striations do closely match authenticated cutmarks on 22 modern human skeletons defleshed with stone tools after partial decomposition, preparatory to secondary burial. Data are presented supporting the hypothesis that the striations on the Krapina Neandertal remains are consistent with postmortem processing of corpses with stone tools, probably in preparation for burial of cleaned bones.

Artificial grooves on the Krapina Neanderthal teeth

“…Several specimens, such as teeth 48, 106, 146, and 176, may have artificial grooves, but these could not be confirmed with certainty and are not included in this analysis. Other techniques (e.g., SEMf might demonstrate the existence of more artifically grooved teeth, but, at present, it is impossible to remove the shellac from the material (Russell, 1987), so SEM techniques cannot be applied.…”

Canibalismo en el Pleistoceno. Canibalism during the Pleistocene

“…Sin embargo, la mayor parte de las veces se trata de sitios con pocos restos humanos o en los que por la antigüedad de los hallazgos, el precario estado de las superficies óseas o la falta de información contextual, sólo es posible afirmar la manipulación humana de los cadáveres. Es el caso, entre otros, de Marillac (Le Mort, 1988), Neanderthal Feldhofer (Schmitz y Pieper, 1992), Zhokoudian (Boaz y Ciochon, 2004), L'Aragó (Lumley, 2015) o Krapina y Vindija (Russell, 1987;Ullrich, 1989).…”

An interesting rock from Krapina

“…Most of the Neandertal remains derive from level 4, which Gorjanović-Kramberger labeled the Homo zone, but fragmentary human fossils are scattered in most levels. There has been considerable debate about the mode of deposition of the human remains, with some arguing that the fragmentation relates to cannibalism (Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1899;Ullrich, 1989), while another explanation for the bones is defleshing and secondary burial (Russell, 1987a(Russell, , 1987b, subsequently disrupted by cave bear denning. Presence of hearths, processed animal remains and a large number of tools suggest that the site was from time to time occupied by Neandertals.…”