One of several elements making Cussac cave an exceptional site is the preservation of many prehistoric human remains lying on the ground, including an individual in a bear nest (Locus 2) in ventral decubitus, subject L2A. The protected status of the site does not allow for excavations or direct manipulation of the remains, at least for the near future. Thus, the tools of virtual anthropology were employed to further study this individual, after preliminary analyses in situ in 2014 raised several questions on its biological characteristics. A high-resolution 3D photogrammetric record of Locus 2 allowed for the virtual reconstruction of the ossa coxarum and cranium to be measured in TIVMI. Metric data from the ossa coxarum were used to apply the DSP, which indicated a male sex assessment for the left side. The linear variables and log shape ratios extracted from the cranium were compared to a reference sample composed of 46 Upper Paleolithic (UP) subjects. The cranial morphology of L2A is closer to the male variability for the UP, but displays an unusual pattern, with a short cranial height and a wide splanchnocranium. The biological peculiarities of this subject are discussed with regard to Gravettian funerary practices and the depositional context of Cussac cave.
External auditory exostoses (EAE) have been noted among the Neandertals and a few other Pleistocene humans, but until recently they have been discussed primary as minor pathological lesions with possible auditory consequences. An assessment of available western Eurasian late Middle and Late Pleistocene human temporal bones with sufficiently preserved auditory canals (n = 77) provides modest levels of EAE among late Middle Pleistocene archaic humans (≈20%) and early modern humans (Middle Paleolithic: ≈25%; Early/Mid Upper Paleolithic: 20.8%; Late Upper Paleolithic: 9.5%). The Neandertals, however, exhibit an exceptionally high level of EAE (56.5%; 47.8% if two anomalous cases are considered normal). The levels of EAE for the early modern humans are well within recent human ranges of variation, frequencies which are low for equatorial inland and high latitude samples but occasionally higher elsewhere. The Early/Mid Upper Paleolithic frequency is nonetheless high for a high latitude sample under interpleniglacial conditions. Given the strong etiological and environmental associations of EAE development with exposure to cold water and/or damp wind chill, the high frequency of EAE among the Neandertals implies frequent aquatic resource exploitation, more frequent than the archeological and stable isotopic evidence for Middle Paleolithic/Neandertal littoral and freshwater resource foraging implies. As such, the Neandertal data parallel a similar pattern evident in eastern Eurasian archaic humans. Yet, factors in addition to cold water/wind exposure may well have contributed to their high EAE frequencies.
Using cross-sectional geometry (CSG), entheseal changes (ECs), and presence of external auditory meatus exostosis (EAE), this study tests hypothesis -bases on isotopic and zooarchaeological evidence -that in the Sicilian Mesolithic terrestrial rather than marine resources were predominantly exploited, in substantial continuity with previous Epigravettian hunters. Results show similarities in the general frequency of ECs -a rough proxy for overall activity -with Late Pleistocene hunters, in contrast with Mesolithic coastal foragers or Neolithic herders/farmers. Yet, CSG suggests that this possible continuity in the type of resources exploited was accompanied by a behavioral change, and in particular the abandonment of the throwing technology, possibly in favor of new tools such as traps and the bow and arrow. In fact, the dramatic decrease in humeral bilateral asymmetry documented at a European level with the Pleistocene-Holocene transition can be found also in the Sicilian Mesolithic. Results for the lower limb appear compatible with a certain degree of terrestrial mobility in a rugged environment. The frequency of EAE suggests that activities related to water were present but not common; however, their prominence is difficult to determine 2 given the small sample size. The pattern of information provided by the proxies for activity used here is complex and partially contrasting, but has the potential to integrate and enrich archaeological methods and biochemical approaches. This study corroborates a varied scenario of continuity and discontinuity in subsistence at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and highlights the importance of a regional bioarchaeological approach of human biological and behavioral adaptations.
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