PALEOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE SKELETONS FR OM THE SEPULCHRAL CAVE OF ELZARREKO-KARBIA (BRONZE-AGE, BASQUE COUNTRY)

Through paleogenetic studies we have characterised the sampling of a s epulchral cave named Elzarreko Karbia, in the Basque Country (France). Four people had been buried in this cave in the Ancient Bronze Age, t hree men, including an adolescent, and a woman, dating from 3 700 BP. In addition to a confirmation of the anatomical sex determination thro ugh amelogenin first intron amplification, we obtained a mitochondrial second hypervariable region (HVR II) sequence for each individual, an d thus, we excluded maternal relationship between some of the skeleton s. ((C) Academie des sciences/Elsevier, Paris.).