RT Journal Article
T1 Human remains from Valdegoba Cave(Huérmeces, Burgos, Spain)
A1 Quam, R.
A1 Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis
A1 Bermúdez de Castro, José María
A1 Díez Fernández-Lomana, Juan Carlos
A1 Lorenzo Merino, Carlos
A1 Carretero, José Miguel
A1 García García, Nuria
A1 Ortega Martínez, Ana Isabel
AB Systematic excavations, begun in 1987, at the Valdegoba cave site innorthern Spain have yielded the remains of five individuals associatedwith a Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology and Pleistocenefauna. A fragmentary mandible of an adolescent (VB1), preservingnearly a full set of teeth, exhibits a symphyseal tubercle and slightincurvatio mandibulae anterior on the external symphysis. Both thesuperior and inferior transverse tori are present on the internal aspect.A second individual (VB2) is represented by a set of ten deciduousteeth consistent with an age at death of 6–9 months. A proximalmanual phalanx (VB3) displays a relatively broad head, a characteristicwhich is found in both Neandertals, as well as European MiddlePleistocene hominids. VB4 is a fourth metatarsal that lacks the distalepiphysis, indicating it comes from an adolescent individual, and hasa relatively high robusticity index. Finally, VB5 is a fifth metatarsal ofan adult. The VB1 mandible shows a combination of archaic characteristicsas well as more specific Neandertal morphological traits. TheVB2 deciduous teeth are very small, and both the metrics andmorphology seem more consistent with a modern human classification.The postcranial elements are undiagnostic, U-Th dating hasprovided 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 radiometricdates from other nearby Mousterian sites suggests that the Valdegobasite is correlative with oxygen isotope stages 3–6 on the Iberianpeninsula, and an Upper Pleistocene age for the Valdegoba hominidsseems most reasonable.
PB Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam
SN 0047-2484
YR 2001
FD 2001
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/59256
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/59256
LA eng
DS Docta Complutense
RD 25 dic 2025