Determining whether or not Neanderthals were in Navarre was an incomplete puzzle. We had evidence of lithic art and open-air sites, but missing definitive evidence, which recently appeared in the Abantz Caves. And the most important thing is that it has done it in the best way for science, since it has an exceptional level of preservation.
Discovery. Earlier this week, an international team presented what they recovered in Level 101 of Abantz Cave: six bones of an adult male Neanderthal individual. In particular, these are three metacarpal bones and a phalanx of the right hand, to which two other small bone fragments have been added.
The problem is that identifying such fragmented remains is not an easy task, and this is where the technical “magic” comes in, since these last two fragments belonged to Neanderthals, achieved through protein analysis.
the challenge This discovery helps us to know exactly when these Neanderthals lived. According to the latest technical report published Archaeological work of Navarre, Cave Level 101 has an age that is constrained by the physical limits of radiocarbon dating.
Here ‘Carbon-14’ dating of a bone fossil provided a minimum age of 46,900 calibrated years before present. The problem is that researchers are already applying complementary techniques as this dating method approaches its limits of application. But what is clear is that Abauntz is the only place in all of Navarra where there are undeniable signs of Neanderthal presence.
Background. For prehistorians, the Abauntz cave is not just any place, since its stratigraphic sequence covers 50,000 years of history, serving as an important connection point between the Ebro valley, the Aquitaine region and the Cantabrian corridor.
The cave was already world famous for the discovery of a carved stone fragment from the Magdalenian. This block was interpreted by the scientific community as a Paleolithic “map” representing the surrounding landscape, although this is a theory that still generates a healthy debate among experts. Now, with the Neanderthal discovery, Abantz shows that its secrets go back much further in time.
It’s a puzzle. The Navarrese discovery is not an isolated incident, but completes a regional map that has brought much joy to paleontology in recent years. One of the most recent examples is Sima I of Polvorin Cave, where 16 new human remains of an adult with Neanderthal morphological features were presented, or a revision of the classic fossils of Axlor (Dima).
Picture | great
In Xataka | One of the most surprising things we discovered about Neanderthals is that they were also carpenters
