Human remains from the Moravian Gravettian: Morphology and taphonomy of isolated elements from the Dolni Vestonice II site

The excavation and palaeoanthropological analysis of the early Upper Palaeo lithic site of Dolni Vstonice II has yielded a series of incomplete and iso lated human remains, comprising cranial vaults, teeth (including a series f rom an infant), ribs, arm bones, hand phalanges, leg bones, tarsals, metata rsals and pedal phalanges. Morphologically and morphometrically the element s are similar to those from buried individuals at Dolni Vstonice I and II a nd Pavlov I, as well as to other European early Upper Palaeolithic human re mains. They differ principally in the high percentage of cortical areas of the distal humerus and femur. The Dolni Vstonice 36 infant's teeth may well derive from an undisturbed burial with in situ bone destruction. Geologica l processes are unlikely to have produced the taphonomic patterns observed, and the preservation and damage patterns of the elements (other than Dolni Vstonice 36) suggest that the original bodies were processed by some combi nation of scavenging agents. Moreover, the original number of burials at Do lni Vstonice II may have been greater than the four currently known. Copyri ght 2000 Academic Press