Abstract
The question of intentional Neanderthal interment continues to be debated in paleoanthropology. Among the criteria that can be used to investigate the intentionality of a burial, many of them rely on geoarchaeological data that speak to the context of the human remains. In this paper, we revisit the original attribution of the Roc de Marsal Neandertal infant as an intentional burial by evaluating the sedimentary context, pit structure, and taphonomical aspects of the remains and their integration with data from the most recent excavations at the site. From a geoarchaeological point of view, no clear anthropogenic ritual signature was found. On the contrary, all the available evidence points towards natural formation processes associated with the initial deposition and subsequent burial of the Roc de Marsal Neandertal infant.
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Acknowledgments
We have made note in the text of this article that Isabelle Couchoud (2001, 2003) was the first to suggest that the context of the Roc de Marsal child was possibly a natural phenomenon. This should have been made clear in an earlier publication (Sandgathe et al. 2011) that also dealt with the question of the context of this particular Neanderthal skeleton. Excavations at Roc de Marsal had the financial support of the US National Science Foundation (grants no. 0917739 and 0551927), the Leakey Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, the Service Régional de l'Archéologie, and the Conseil Général de la Dordogne.
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Goldberg, P., Aldeias, V., Dibble, H. et al. Testing the Roc de Marsal Neandertal “Burial” with Geoarchaeology. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 9, 1005–1015 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-013-0163-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-013-0163-2