Dolní Věstonice's triple grave

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Coordinates: 48 ° 53 ′ 2.8 "  N , 16 ° 39 ′ 17.6"  E

Dolní Věstonice's triple grave
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Condition after the exposure in 1986 BC l. No. DV 13 - DV 15 - DV 14 (reconstruction in Pavlov Archeopark)

Condition after the exposure in 1986
BC l. No. DV 13 - DV 15 - DV 14
(reconstruction in Pavlov Archeopark )

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Triple grave of Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic)
Dolní Věstonice's triple grave
When about 30,000 years ago
Where Dolní Věstonice in South Moravia , Czech Republic

The triple grave of Dolní Věstonice was a Upper Paleolithic multiple burial that was found in 1986 near Dolní Věstonice in South Moravia ( Czechoslovakia , now the Czech Republic ). In the roughly 30,000 year old grave, the skeletons of three young, male Cro-Magnons as well as jewelry and other artifacts were preserved in mostly very good condition. Apart from this and the find in the Barma Grande cave in Italy , no further triple burials from the middle Upper Paleolithic are known.

Context and find

The hills of the Pollau Mountains , sloping towards the river Thaya , have been the target of numerous archaeological excavations since 1924 . In the neighboring villages Dolní Věstonice, Pavlov and Milovice in were Loess since thirteen Begehhorizonte from the archaeological culture of Pavlovian exposed. In addition to countless mammoth remains , stone and bone tools , figures made of mammoth ivory and baked clay ( Venus of Dolní Věstonice ) and six complete human skeletons, teeth and parts of skulls were recovered. The inventory of the sites at Pavlov alone already comprised over 1 million artifacts in the early 1990s.

In 1986, large quantities of loess were extracted from the area above the Dolní Věstonice I (DV I) site, which had already been explored, for the construction of a dam on the Thaya. Since further layers of finds were suspected in the area, archaeologists accompanied this project. After a settlement horizon had emerged at a depth of 5 m at the beginning of May, the dredging work was stopped. In a subsequent rescue excavation by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences , the remains of an outdoor station with several fireplaces and other human skull fragments were uncovered. The site was then named Dolní Věstonice II (DV II).

On August 13, 1986, the archaeologist Bohuslav Klíma found a multiple burial with the skeletons of three individuals placed side by side on the flat slope below the camp. The extraordinary find with the skeletons, most of which are very well preserved, was uncovered, prepared and examined in situ by a specialist commission. On 18./19. In August 1986, the arm and leg bones were first recovered individually and then the torso skeletons with the skulls each en bloc .

Finding

Dolní Věstonice II - The triple burial site was about 10 m from the embankment at the height of the arrowhead. At the end of the 1980s, the loess was dug up to today's level.

The three dead were placed side by side with their legs stretched out in a sunk-in grave pit, their skulls facing south, faces facing west. As a result of the consecutive numbering usual for all anthropological finds from Dolní Věstonice, the individuals were given the designations DV 13 (left), DV 14 (right) and DV 15 (center). At the joint burial, DV 15 was initially placed in the supine position with ankle joints placed on top of one another in the middle of the hollow. Then DV 13 was buried on the left, also in the supine position. Due to the shape of the pit, the body was slightly inclined to DV 15. Both hands were positioned on the groin region of DV 15, the forearms were exactly on top of each other, stretched at an angle of 120 °. Most recently, DV 14 was placed face down on the right edge of the grave, his left arm lay on the left arm of DV 15.

Then the three skulls were covered with a mixture of clay and red chalk, in which pierced wolf and fox teeth as well as small perforated ivory beads were preserved. Originally these were probably attached to headgear or headbands. The lap of DV 15 was sprinkled with red chalk. A retouched flint blade and several pleats were placed between the thighs . Between the jaws of DV 15 was a piece of horse rib that the scientists interpreted as a chewing stick for pain relief.

Finally, a layer of spruce branches and trunks was burned over the grave and this was then covered with earth. Similar in a Kohlenmeiler the wood has been converted to a large extent in charcoal. This created very good conservation conditions in the grave. The age of the burial could be determined from the charcoal with the radiocarbon method. It was between 24,470 ± 190  BP and 27,660 ± 80 BP, which corresponds to an age calibrated with CalPal between 27,290 ± 485 BC. And 30,246 ± 218 BC Corresponds to (samples GrN-11003 and GrN-13962). Direct dating, with samples from the thigh bones of the three individuals, indicated slightly higher ages.

Individuals

Possible condition shortly after the burial (reconstruction in the Anthropos pavilion in Brno )

Each of the three skeletons has a number of peculiarities and anomalies, some of which can be used to draw conclusions about living conditions, causes of death and the genetic relationships among each other. Based on the massive structure of the skull and the shape of the pelvic bones , DV 13 and DV 14 could be clearly identified as male. In DV 15, the unusually large pubic symphysis in the pelvic area and the sacrum, which is atypical in shape (spade instead of triangular) and size (- 50%) for both sexes , are noticeable. Because of the graceful skull structure, until 2014 it was assumed that it was a female or intersex individual. However, it was also a man.

DV 13 : male, approx. 21-25 years, 168-169 cm, approx. 65 kg, haplogroup U8c . Anatomical features: Healed injuries with scars on the forehead and parietal bone, possibly from blows with blunt objects such as long bones or wooden poles. Fatal stab wound in the pelvic area from a wooden spear with a fracture of the right ischium . Additional finds: 20 pierced wolf and fox teeth and small, teardrop-shaped ivory beads, fragment of a spear in the pelvic area.

DV 14 : male, approx. 16–20 years, 179–180 cm, approx. 68 kg, haplogroup U5. Anatomical features: Fatal skull injury from a blow with a blunt object, splintered skull fracture over the entire back of the head with a defect 6 cm in diameter in the occiput . Additional finds: 3 pierced wolf and fox teeth and small, teardrop-shaped ivory beads.

DV 15 : male, approx. 21-25 years, 159 cm, 66-68 kg, haplogroup U5. Anatomical features: The condition of the tooth crowns suggests repeated, infectious, febrile diseases and vitamin D deficiency during the growth phase. As a consequence it came to flexing of the right femur back and a leg length difference of 15 mm, in turn, to a pelvic tilt with right -shifted spine resulted. The right humerus also shows a curve, the left forearm bones are shortened. The malformations of the shoulder blades and the pelvis and the hip dysplasia could also be congenital. Additional finds: 4 pierced fox teeth, a horse's rib as a chewing stick, flint splits and a retouched flint blade.

Based on the circumstances of the find and the age of death of the individuals, it was initially assumed that siblings or relatives of the 2nd degree could be buried in the grave . In order to be able to prove a possible family relationship, the skeletons were examined for common norm variants . Several morphological peculiarities could be determined in all individuals , which indicated a close genetic relationship: In the shoulder girdle area , in addition to signs of a Sprengel deformity with an elevated shoulder, abnormally curved edges of the shoulder blades and flap-like formations on the shoulder ridges could be detected, as otherwise only found occur in pigs . A positive similarity analysis of rare features on the tooth crowns and roots as well as the lack of a right frontal sinus in all individuals were rated as the main indicators for the presence of siblings. An aDNA analysis initially provided the result that the three dead carry different mtDNA sequences and therefore could not have been siblings or cousins. Later investigations showed that DV 14 and DV 15 have the same haplotype and were therefore closely related on the maternal line and possibly siblings.

See also

literature

  • Jiří A. Svoboda et al. Dolní Vĕstonice II: Chronostratigraphy, Paleoethnology, Paleoanthropology (Dolní Vĕstonice Studies 21), Brno 2016
  • Jiří A. Svoboda: Perspectives on the Upper Palaeolithic in Eurasia: the Case of the Dolní Vestonice-Pavlov sites in Human Origin Sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia . UNESCO, Paris 2015, ISBN 978-92-3-100107-9 , pp. 190–204
  • Jiří A. Svoboda: Dolní Věstonice - Pavlov, Unter-Wisternitz and Pollau, location: South Moravia, time 30,000 years BC Chr. Regional Museum Mikulov (ed.), Mikulov 2010, ISBN 978-80-85088-37-3 , pp. 64-69
  • Emanuel Vlček: The mammoth hunters from Dolní Věstonice - anthropological processing of skeletons from Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov . Archeology and Museum Issue 022, Liestal / Switzerland, 1991, ISBN 3-905069-17-2
  • Bohuslav Klíma: The Upper Paleolithic mammoth hunter settlements Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov in South Moravia . Archeology and Museum Issue 023, Liestal / Switzerland, 1991, ISBN 3-905069-18-0

Remarks

  1. ↑ "All three individuals carry a different mtDNA sequence and are therefore not directly maternally related, ie no siblings or cousins."
  2. ↑ "The two individuals DV 14 and DV 15 found together with DV 13 in a triple burial share a common haplotype, indicating that they are closely related through the maternal lineage, possibly siblings."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Erik Trinkaus: The Dolní Věstonice Studies Volume 20/2014 - Life, death and burial at Dolní Věstonice II . Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Ed.), Brno 2014, p. 67-72 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Emanuel Vlček: The mammoth hunters from Dolní Věstonice - anthropological processing of skeletons from Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov . Archeology and Museum Issue 022, Liestal / Switzerland 1991.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Jiří A. Svoboda: Dolní Věstonice - Pavlov, Unter-Wisternitz and Pollau, location: South Moravia, time 30,000 years BC Chr. Mikulov Regional Museum (ed.), Mikulov 2010.
  4. ↑ Vincenzo Formicola, Brigitte M. Hol: Tall guys and fat ladies: Grimaldi's Upper Paleolithic burials and figurines in an historical perspective . Journal of Anthropological Sciences 93, 2015, pp. 1-18 .
  5. ↑ Bohuslav Klíma: The Upper Paleolithic Mass Grave of Dolní Věstonice, preliminary communication . Brno.
  6. ↑ Helen Fewlass, Sahra Talamo, Bernd Kromer, Edouard Bard, Thibaud Thuna, Yoann Fagault, Matt Sponheimer, Christina Ryder, Jean-Jacques Hublin , Angela Perri, Sandra Sázelová, Jiří A. Svoboda: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports . tape 27 , 2019, Direct radiocarbon dates of mid Upper Palaeolithic human remains from Dolní Věstonice II and Pavlov I, Czech Republic, p. 1-8 .
  7. ^ A b c d Alissa Mittnik, Johannes Krause: The Dolní Věstonice Studies, Dolní Věstonice II - Chronostratigraphy, Paleoethnology, Paleoanthropology . Ed .: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Archeology. tape 21 . Brno 2016, ISBN 978-80-7524-004-0 , Genetic analysis of the Dolní Věstonice human remains, p. 377-384 .
  8. ^ Kurt W. Alt, Sandra Pichler, Werner Fach: The triple burial of Dolní Věstonice, Moravia / CR - collaterals versus affinal relatives . Anthropologie XXXIV / 1–2, Mikulov 1996, pp. 115-122 .
  9. ↑ Johannes Krause, Jiří A. Svoboda: First genetic analysis from triple burial of Dolní Věstonice . Vesmír, 2011, p. 282-284 .