Human remains from Valdegoba Cave (Huérmeces, Burgos, Spain).
Systematic excavations, begun in 1987, at the Valdegoba cave site in northern Spain have yielded the remains of five individuals associated with a Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology and Pleistocene fauna. A fragmentary mandible of an adolescent (VB1), preserving nearly a full set of teeth, exhibits a symphyseal tubercle and slight incurvatio mandibulae anterior on the external symphysis. Both the superior and inferior transverse tori are present on the internal aspect. A second individual (VB2) is represented by a set of ten deciduous teeth consistent with an age at death of 6-9 months. A proximal manual phalanx (VB3) displays a relatively broad head, a characteristic which is found in both Neandertals, as well as European Middle Pleistocene hominids. VB4 is a fourth metatarsal that lacks the distal epiphysis, indicating it comes from an adolescent individual, and has a relatively high robusticity index. Finally, VB5 is a fifth metatarsal of an adult. The VB1 mandible shows a combination of archaic characteristics as well as more specific Neandertal morphological traits. The VB2 deciduous teeth are very small, and both the metrics and morphology seem more consistent with a modern human classification. The postcranial elements are undiagnostic, U-Th dating has provided an age of >350 ka for the base of the sequence and a date of <73.2+/-5 ka for level 7, near the top. Faunal analysis and radiometric dates from other nearby Mousterian sites suggests that the Valdegoba site is correlative with oxygen isotope stages 3-6 on the Iberian peninsula, and an Upper Pleistocene age for the Valdegoba hominids seems most reasonable.
Quam
R M
RM
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, 13902-6000, USA.
Arsuaga
J L
JL
Bermúdez de Castro
J M
JM
Díez
C J
CJ
Lorenzo
C
C
Carretero
J M
JM
García
N
N
Ortega
A I
AI
D000293:Adolescent; D001641:Bicuspid / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003481:Cuspid / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010161:Paleodontology; D010163:Paleontology; D011631:Pubic Symphysis / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D013030:Spain; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D019228:Tooth Crown / Q000033:anatomy & histology