The human remains found in 1967 in Axlor: Still not convincingly Neandertals: A reply to González‐Urquijo et al

Abstract

In 2020, we published a study that described all the human remains found during J. M. de Barandiarán's excavations in Axlor (Dima, Biscay). Our study first presented two deciduous teeth and a parietal fragment found in an undisturbed Mousterian context, all of which show morphological features consistent with a Neandertal classification (G omez-Olivencia et al., 2020). Our study also reassessed the human remains previously described by Basabe (1973), likely belonging to a single individual and traditionally classified as a Neandertal (see e.g., Rostro Carmona, 2013). However, our metric and morphological assessment suggested stronger affinities with modern humans.Recently, a reply to our article has been published, focusing on the remains previously published by Basabe (1973). In their reply, González-Urquijo et al. (2021, p. 553) state that "Axlor's level IV human remains are convincingly Neanderthals," thus concluding that our taxonomic classification "is not supported by the anatomical evidence" and that the "balance of the evidence-morphological and stratigraphic-is most consistent with a Neandertal classification for these teeth" (González-Urquijo et al., 2021, p. 557). These authors take issue with two aspects: the taxonomic classification of the human remains found in 1967 and the discussion and reinterpretation of the stratigraphic context of these remains.Here, we address the points raised by González-Urquijo et al.(2021) regarding the taxonomic attribution of the human remains found in 1967, the dental morphological analysis and the stratigraphic study.The human remains found in 1967 comprise four teeth (left P 4 -M 3 ) found on September 7, 1967 in the square 13F at a depth of 265 cm. Two of these teeth (M 1 and M 2 ) were found in a maxillary fragment. Additionally, a left canine was found on September 8 in the square 13 E at a depth of 285 cm (G omez-Olivencia et al., 2020: figure S6). Two of these teeth (the C 0 and the M 2 ) are currently lost, and therefore, our taxonomic assessment was based on the P 4 , M 1 and M 3 . All these remains were originally attributed to the Mousterian

Late Pleistocene Neanderthal exploitation of stable and mosaic ecosystems in northern Iberia shown by multi-isotope evidence

“…These recent analyses identified two teeth stemming from Layers IV and V as belonging to Neanderthals and also confirmed the taxonomic and stratigraphic identification of a Neanderthal cranial fragment from Layer VIII identified during the Barandiarán excavations (Gómez-Olivencia et al, 2020). Other hominin remains, described initially by Basabe (1973), have recently come under debate, with some researchers suggesting a Homo sapiens taxonomic identification and an origin from the upper layers of the stratigraphy that may have been redeposited due to earlier disturbances of the site during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Gómez-Olivencia et al, 2020, 2023), while others support the original assignment to Neanderthals and argue against any influence of disturbance (González-Urquijo et al, 2021). A recent reply to the latter marks the end of this debate (Gómez-Olivencia et al, 2023), which will likely only be definitively solved using biomolecular evidence and direct dating.…”