Human remains from Valdegoba Cave (Huérmeces, Burgos, Spain)

Abstract

Systematic excavations, begun in 1987, at the Valdegoba cave site in
northern Spain have yielded the remains of five individuals associated
with a Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology and Pleistocene
fauna. A fragmentary mandible of an adolescent (VB1), preserving
nearly a full set of teeth, exhibits a symphyseal tubercle and slight
incurvatio mandibulae anterior on the external symphysis. Both the
superior and inferior transverse tori are present on the internal aspect.
A second individual (VB2) is represented by a set of ten deciduous
teeth consistent with an age at death of 6–9 months. A proximal
manual phalanx (VB3) displays a relatively broad head, a characteristic
which is found in both Neandertals, as well as European Middle
Pleistocene hominids. VB4 is a fourth metatarsal that lacks the distal
epiphysis, indicating it comes from an adolescent individual, and has
a relatively high robusticity index. Finally, VB5 is a fifth metatarsal of
an adult. The VB1 mandible shows a combination of archaic characteristics
as well as more specific Neandertal morphological traits. The
VB2 deciduous teeth are very small, and both the metrics and
morphology seem more consistent with a modern human classification.
The postcranial elements are undiagnostic, U-Th dating has
provided an age of >350 ka for the base of the sequence and a date of
<73·2 ± �5 ka for level 7, near the top. Faunal analysis and radiometric
dates from other nearby Mousterian sites suggests that the Valdegoba
site is correlative with oxygen isotope stages 3–6 on the Iberian
peninsula, and an Upper Pleistocene age for the Valdegoba hominids
seems most reasonable.