Pluridisciplinary evidence for burial for the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal child

Abstract

The origin of funerary practices has important implications for the emergence of so-called modern cognitive capacities and behaviour. We provide new multidisciplinary information on the archaeological context of the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal skeleton (grand abri of La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France), including geochronological data -¹⁴C and OSL-, ZooMS and ancient DNA data, geological and stratigraphic information from the surrounding context, complete taphonomic study of the skeleton and associated remains, spatial information from the 1968-1973 excavations, and new (2014) fieldwork data. Our results show that a pit was dug in a sterile sediment layer and the corpse of a two-year-old child was laid there. A hominin bone from this context, identified through Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) and associated with Neandertal based on its mitochondrial DNA, yielded a direct ¹⁴C age of 41.7-40.8 ka cal BP (95%), younger than the ¹⁴C dates of the overlying archaeopaleontological layers and the OSL age of the surrounding sediment. This age makes the bone one of the most recent directly dated Neandertals. It is consistent with the age range for the Châtelperronian in the site and in this region and represents the third association of Neandertal taxa to Initial Upper Palaeolithic lithic technocomplex in Western Europe. A detailed multidisciplinary approach, as presented here, is essential to advance understanding of Neandertal behavior, including funerary practices.

Figure 1

(A) Zenithal view of the 3D model of the LF8 excavation area after the 2014 field season, with (B) the different excavations performed in the area: the easternmost part (x = 50–100) was excavated in 1970 (green), the westernmost part in 1973 (red) and the area shown in the black square in 2014. This latter area includes a column of approximately 20 × 60 × 80 cm in the westernmost area and the surface of the southern part of the area excavated in 1973. The location of the schematic representation of the LF8 remains is shown. (C) Schematic representation of the LF8 remains (modified from and original documentation), including the position of the different anatomical parts, in which we have added the horncore remains (in red) based on the available spatial information. (D) Left: Northern profile of the LF8 area after the 2014 excavation (the numbers of the photos indicate a stratigraphic division in which the uppermost layer would be equivalent to the L2B-L2Bj complex from Delporte). Center: The depth where the OSL samples were taken in this profile. Right: W–E scatterplot (XZ) of the 1970–1973 findings. Note the west–east downwards inclination of the elements found in layers L2B, L2Bj and M1, the reverse east–west downward inclination of the elements found in layer M2, and the absence of archaeo-paleontological findings between the elements found in layer M2 and those of the overlying layers, as well as the sterile basal part of M2 in the eastwards direction (highlighted in grey). The archaeo-paleontological findings (found in the layer that contained the child in 1970—green dots—and 1973—red dots) extend for c. 120 cm in the E–W orientation, c. 50 cm in the N–S orientation and a regular vertical extension of c. 25 cm, taking into account that the finds, when plotted as a group, show an inclination of 15º to the west. Here we also show the location of the Neandertal tooth fragment (LF13) discovered in 2014 in the dirt layer of the previous excavations. The yellow dots correspond to the samples used for the radiocarbon chronology and the blue dots correspond to the OSL samples. We also summarize here the radiocarbon ages in cal BP (95.4%) and OSL dates (see Table 1 for the detail and Supplementary data, Fig. S10 for a more complete visualization of the position of the dated samples).