Krapina (archaeological site)

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The lower jaw J from Krapina

Krapina is an approximately 130,000 year old archaeological site in Croatia , where numerous bones and artifacts of Neanderthals have been discovered since 1895 . The Krapina finds contributed to a century of scientific debate about the existence of cannibalism among Neanderthals. Today this assumption is considered refuted, but ritual acts are given a high probability at least on one of the skulls found in Krapina.

In 2010 the Neanderthal Museum was opened in Krapina .

Discovery, dig

Bust in memory of the Krapina excavator Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger in Krapina
Participants in the Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida conference , which took place on September 17, 1976 on the occasion of the 120th birthday of Gorjanović Kramberger and the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Neanderthal remains in Krapina (from left to right: Mirko Malez , Stjepan Nežmahit. Es Baric).

In 1895 two teachers discovered a row of bones in an abbey on Hušnjakovo Brdo (Hušnjak Hill) near the town of Krapina . This prompted the director of the Department of Geology and Paleontology of the Zagreb Natural History Museum Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger to carry out excavations between August 1899 and 1905, on which he wrote numerous publications. During the excavations at the site 45 km north of Zagreb, at least 884 pieces of bone and 198 teeth from at least 23 early Neanderthals from around 130,000 years ago were discovered. Several hundred stone tools and animal bones were also found. In 1906 the excavator published a monograph on the site.

Cannibalism thesis

Gorjanović-Kramberger suspected that this was a burial place where ritual cannibalism was carried out. But other explanations for the numerous traces of breaks and cuts have also been tried, such as explosions, the collapse of a cave ceiling, actions of later workers, cave bears, the ritual removal of meat, burial preparations for the purpose of a second burial, but also cannibalism again and again. If one disregards the destruction in the course of the excavations, the sheer trampling of visitors to the cave again and again, solifluction and other processes, prehistoric treatments of the body remain the most likely explanation.

The work of Fred H. Smith from the University of Tennessee , who documented the site as a former burial site and believed that he could also prove cannibalism, was of great significance for the continuation of the cannibalism thesis .

For several years this thesis has been increasingly questioned. Erik Trinkaus and Mary Doria Russell in particular contradicted this assumption and tended to follow the burial theory. However, comparisons with other excavation sites are extremely difficult, and at the same time the number of bones that definitely showed cutting marks decreased with each examination.

Re-examination

From 2003 the bones in the Natural History Museum in Zagreb were systematically recorded, described and photographed in order to create the basis for a new examination. The history of the find was also recapitulated. A total of three fragmented cranios, three skull fragments, 237 smaller skull and jaw fragments and 198 isolated teeth came together in the recount (a total of 293 teeth, as Facchini and Belcastro report). In addition, there were 483 fragments, often very small, that did not belong to the skull. Overall, it turned out that certain areas of the skeleton were preserved much more often than others. It is possible that the Krapinica brook decimated the elements. Cranium 1 is a severely deformed child's skull after death, of which, similar to cranium 2, only large parts have been preserved. Cranium 3 is best preserved.

The place had long been used as a sand pit by the residents of Krapina. Skeletal parts repeatedly came to light, but they were not secured. When the excavations began, not only were shovels and hoes used, but blasting was also carried out. Gorjanović-Kramberger's excavation book was also consulted; he had recognized the stratigraphy and dug it out according to horizontal layers; the finds were numbered accordingly. A total of 9 layers were found in the 11 m thick sediments, but the majority of the finds can no longer be assigned. There is also no longer any association with the surrounding remains of the fauna or the sandstone. Layers 3 and 4, which contained most of the bone fragments, lay under a several-meter-thick ceiling collapse, which may have caused the bones to be shattered. There were also other fallen sandstone blocks.

The dominant species was the cave bear, of which at least 30 specimens have been identified. Remains of wolverines , wolves , red foxes , wild cats , Eurasian lynxes , leopards and cave hyenas were also found .

Krapina 3

The cuts on Krapina 3 , more precisely the frontal bone, were made with certainty after death, because there are no signs of healing. The 35 incisions in the scalp were apparently made in one go, so that since 2006, at least for this case, a ritual act has been assumed. However, the dead person was not scalped. The cuts were made in a 5 to 6 cm area. The cuts are only 1 to 1.5 cm long.

Follow-up examinations of the fracture patterns and cutting marks showed that the fracture patterns were in no way caused by human actions. Apparently, they were more likely caused by rock falls and carnivore bites. An examination using a scanning electron microscope could not be carried out because the bones were coated with shellac for conservation reasons . However, it turned out that neither the orientation nor the anatomical arrangement of the incision traces corresponded to those that would have been created during the cutting up or deflacing. In some cases it was even possible to prove that the traces of machining are quite young, for example in the case of a "cut trace" that leads through modern lettering or cuts that go back to metal tools. "However, there is no evidence of cannibalism in the human remains of Krapina," stated Jörg Orschiedt in 2008 .

Other investigations

The age of some individuals could be determined. Five of the bones belonged to Neanderthals between the ages of 14 and 16 years, one belonged to a 17 to 19 year old, five to 20 year olds. Overall, this confirms the impression that the life expectancy of Neanderthals was perhaps thirty years.

literature

  • The Krapina Neanderthal. A Comprehensive, Centennial, Illustrated Bibliography. ( Memento of October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Bibliography of all research papers on Krapina (PDF; 2.9 MB)
  • Jörg Orschiedt : The Krapina case - new results on the question of cannibalism in Neanderthals. In: Quaternary. Volume 55, 2008, pp. 63-81.
  • Jörg Orschiedt: Manipulation of human skeletal remains. Taphonomic processes, secondary burials or cannibalism? MoVince-Verlag, Tübingen 1999.
  • Milford H. Wolpoff , Jakov Radovčić, Fred H. Smith and Erik Trinkaus : The Krapina Hominids. An Illustrated Catalog of the Skeletal Collection. Mladost Press and the Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb 1988.
  • Milford H. Wolpoff: The Krapina Dental Remains. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 50, 1979, pp. 67–114, full text (PDF)
  • Erik Trinkaus : Cannibalism and burial at Krapina. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 14, No. 2, 1985, pp. 203-216.
  • Fred H. Smith: The Neandertal remains from Krapina, northern Yugoslavia: An inventory of the upper limb remains. In: Journal of Morphology and Anthropology. Volume 67, No. 3. 1976, pp. 275-290.
  • Michaela E. Beals, David W. Frayer, Jakov Radovčić, Cheryl A. Hill: Cochlear labyrinth volume in Krapina Neandertals , in: Journal of Human Evolution 90 (2016) 176-182 (based on examinations of the inner ear, provides evidence that the for Neanderthals audible frequencies corresponded to those of today's humans). ( online )

Web links

Commons : Krapina (archaeological site)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. Mirko Malez (ed.): Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida: zbornik predavanja održanih na Znanstvenom skupu "Krapinski pračovjek i evolucija hominida" u Krapini dne 17th rujna 1976. Jugoslavenska academy i umjetnosti 1978, p. 21st.
  2. ^ Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger: The diluvial man of Krapina in Croatia. A contribution to paleoanthropology. CW Kreidel, Wiesbaden 1906, also available in digital form from the University Library of Vienna .
  3. ^ Fred H. Smith, The Neandertal remains from Krapina, northern Yugoslavia: An inventory of the upper limb remains. In: Journal of Morphology and Anthropology. Volume 67, No. 3, 1976, pp. 275-290.
  4. Erik Trinkaus: Cannibalism and burial at Krapina. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 14, No. 2, 1985, pp. 203-216.
  5. ^ Mary Doria Russell: Bone breakage in the Krapina hominid collection. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 72, 1987, pp. 373-379 and this: Mortuary practices at the Krapina Neandertal site. there, pp. 381-397.
  6. ^ Fiorenzo Facchini , Maria Giovanna Belcastro: La lunga storia di Neandertal. Biologia e comportamento. Editoriale Jaca Book, 2009, p. 218.
  7. ^ David W. Frayer, Jörg Orschiedt, Jill Cook, Mary Doria Russell, Jakov Radovčić: Krapina 3: Cut Marks and Ritual Behavior? In: Periodicum Biologorum. Volume 108, No. 4, 2006, pp. 519-524.
  8. Jörg Orschiedt: The Krapina case - new results on the question of cannibalism in Neanderthals. In: Quaternary. Volume 55, 2008, pp. 63–81, here: p. 80.
  9. Facchini, Belcastro, p. 218.

Coordinates: 46 ° 9 ′ 55.6 ″  N , 15 ° 51 ′ 47.5 ″  E