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The Homo aurignaciensis hauseri from Combe-Capelle – A Mesolithic burial
Journal of Human Evolution 61 (2011) 211e214
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Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol
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The Homo aurignaciensis hauseri from Combe-Capelle e A Mesolithic burial Almut Hoffmann a, Jean-Jacques Hublin b, Matthias Hüls c, Thomas Terberger d, * a
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Spandauer Damm 22, D-14059 Berlin, Germany Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany c Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Kiel University, Max-Eyth-Str. 11-13, D-24118 Kiel, Germany d University of Greifswald, Hans-Fallada-Straße 1, D-17489 Greifswald, Germany b
a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 22 July 2010 Accepted 25 February 2011
On August 26, 1909, a laborer, employed by Otto Hauser discovered a human skull at the site of Roc de Combe-Capelle in the department of the Dordogne (southwestern France). Hauser, who was absent from the site at the time, was immediately made aware of the important nature of the remains, which were discovered about 2 m below the surface (Hauser, 1924). In the subsequent weeks, he organized the excavation of the burial with the support of anthropologist Hermann Klaatsch. The find was rather welldocumented for that time and according to a series of photographs, the skeleton, estimated to be between 40 and 50 years of age, was lying in a flexed position, turned to the right, in a NeS direction (Fig. 1). Hauser and Klaatsch proposed that the burial was connected with the lowermost ‘Aurignacian’ layer. This was the only identified early Upper Paleolithic assemblage recognized at this time, as corroborated by a number of supposed grave goods and 16 mollusc shells, mostly perforated, which were found close to the skull (Klaatsch and Hauser, 1910). Otto Hauser was also a businessman and within a few weeks he made Combe-Capelle well-known as an early modern human burial site. Hauser offered to sell the find, together with the Neandertal specimen found in 1908 at Le Moustier (France), for 160,000 Goldmark. The Berlin Museum arranged to purchase the finds, with the support of donors such as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and both burials were on display in the German capital from 1910 onwards. On February 3, 1945, the postcranial remains of the skeletons were destroyed during the bombing of the MartinGropius building, while the skulls were safely deposited in the storage rooms (Hoffmann, 2003). In 1955, a few burnt human bones
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Terberger). 0047-2484/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.03.001
were identified during the excavation of the fire debris of the exhibition, but the “skeletons of Combe-Capelle and Le Moustier [were] lost for science” (Heberer, 1957: 68). In 1945, during the transportation of many valuable artifacts from the Berlin Museum to Russia by the Red Army, the Combe-Capelle skull was apparently lost without a trace. However, in 2001 A. Hoffmann was able to reidentify the skull remains of Combe-Capelle amongst materials that had been returned to Berlin, and it became clear that in 1958 the specimen had been given back to the GDR without any identifying information (Hoffmann, 2003: 45). Today, the skull is on display in the Neues Museum, Berlin (Fig. 2). Since the excavation by Hauser, the lower Upper Palaeolithic layers of the Roc de Combe-Capelle have been re-interpreted. The earliest ‘Aurignacian type Châtelperron’ (Breuil, 1913), was reinterpreted as an assemblage called ‘Lower Perigordian’ by D. Peyrony (1933). In Peyrony’s view, the Aurignacian had been made by the ‘Cro-Magnon race,’ which replaced the earlier ‘Combe-Capelle race,’ makers of the Lower Perigordian in southwestern France. Today, the Lower Perigordian is called ‘Châtelperronian,’ and it is at the center of many debates related to its nature. Many scientists consider the Châtelperronian as the product of the evolution of a local Mousterian (likely the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition B). This raises the question of a possible biological continuity between the western European Mousterian Neandertals and the makers of the Châtelperronian. The reliability of the association between the Combe-Capelle human remains and the Châtelperronian layers of the site has repeatedly been questioned (e.g. Asmus, 1964; Gambier, 1989). However, it was not before Leroi-Gourhan’s work at Arcy-sur-Cure (France) (Leroi-Gourhan, 1958) that the possibility was raised that the makers of the Châtelperronian could be non-modern. This was confirmed by the discovery of Saint-Césaire (France) (Lévêque and Vandermeersch, 1980) and by the re-examination of the human remains from Arcy-sur-Cure (Hublin et al., 1996; Bailey and Hublin, 2006). The Châtelperronian, represented at about 120 sites in southwestern and central France and North Spain, is currently considered to be an assemblage rooted in the local Mousterian and produced by late Neandertals, but displaying some Upper Paleolithic features. In this context, it was a long felt desire to produce direct dates of the Roc de Combe-Capelle specimen in order to resolve the growing inconsistency of its occurrence in a Châtelperronian layer.
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A. Hoffmann et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 61 (2011) 211e214
Figure 1. Photographs of the Combe-Capelle grave during excavation (after Klaatsch and Hauser, 1910).
Material and methods In 2009, the authors initiated the direct dating of the lower left molar from the skull at Leibniz Labor Kiel.1 The skeleton had been treated with preservatives,2 and a waxy coating of the surface was visible under the microscope. Infrared spectroscopy of a sample from the preservative showed no similarities with protein substances such as bone glue. The sample (tooth) was cleaned by hot water extraction (75 C, one hour), followed by solvent extraction (three times) of tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, petrolether, methanol, and acetone (Bruhn et al., 2001). The tooth was
1 A first attempt to recover collagen from the mandible by the Department of Human Evolution of the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig failed. 2 No information on the treatment with preservatives is available in the museum. The documents mention the good condition of the skeletal remains and intensive treatment is not to be expected.
then crushed and split for further treatment into a dentine fraction, comprising mainly material from the root, for collagen extraction and an enamel fraction from the tooth crown. From the cleaned dentine, collagen was extracted using a modification of the Longin protocol (Grootes et al., 2004). The extracted collagen was split in half for a) direct graphitization and AMS measuring, and b) an additional ultrafiltration cleaning step in order to remove degraded and low molecular proteins (Bronk Ramsey et al., 2004; Huels et al., 2009) using two ultrafilters with a molecular cut-off of 30 kDa (VS20Ô and VS15RÔ from VIVASCIENCE). To test whether preservatives in the organic bone fraction had not been completely removed, the inorganic fraction, e.g., the carbonated apatite of the enamel and dentine, was also dated. To remove contamination such as secondary calcites and authigenic formed apatites, the sample material (enamel from the tooth crown) was sequentially leached by acetic acid (preferential removal of calcite due to its larger solubility) and hydrochloric acid, which attacks all dental minerals. However, unlike the organic fraction, the apatite fraction is more reactive and prone to isotopic exchange.
A. Hoffmann et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 61 (2011) 211e214
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Discussion and conclusion
Figure 2. State of preservation of the Combe-Capelle skull (photograph by C. Plamp).
Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that using selective leaching to properly clean can lead to a more reliable measurement of radiocarbon dates on this fraction (Cherkinsky, 2009). Three radiocarbon measurements were taken with ultrafiltered and non-ultrafiltered collagen. The AMS measurement and data reduction was done following Nadeau et al. (1997, 1998). The three AMS measurements produced consistent results. Results The dentine fraction of the tooth contained a sufficient amount of collagen for dating (w40 mg from 587 mg dentine, e.g., 7.0 wt% collagen). The collagen fractions of the dentine and enamel contain >45 wt% C and 0.8 wt% C, respectively, which is within the expected range for these sample fractions (see Table 1). All three sample fractions provided more than the recommended minimum amount of 1 mg carbon for reliable dating. All of the collagen ages centered around 8561 27 years BP. Not unexpectedly, the measured apatite age is significantly younger (6835 30 14C years), which is caused by the incomplete removal of diagenetic altered apatite with an admixture of younger carbon. However, the apatite age lends general support to the reliability of the early Holocene age of the collagen fraction. Therefore, the dates assign the Combe-Capelle burial to the Boreal at c. 7596e7577 cal BC (68.2% probability; 7601e7547 cal BC, 95.4% probability; OxCal4.1, Bronk Ramsey, 2009; on the basis of IntCal09, Reimer et al., 2009). This result clearly contradicts the traditional interpretation of the find and makes Homo aurignaciensis hauseri a Mesolithic burial.
For the early Holocene (Preboreal to Boreal), a wide spectrum of burial treatments has been reported. Several examples of bone deposits in caves or rock shelters are known, e.g., in Avelines Hole, Great Britain; Grotte Margaux, Belgium; and recently in Blätterhöhle, Germany (e.g., Grünberg, 2000: 20e21; Crombé and Cauwe, 2001: 57; Orschiedt et al., 2008; Schulting, 2009: 586). We also know of some earthen burials in Avelines Hole and other caves.3 In 1957, two burials were excavated in the small rock shelter of Abri Sous Balme near Culoz, located in the Upper Rhône area of eastern France (Vilain, 1966). Feature 1 is a grave of a ca. 50e55 year old man who was deposited in a flexed position on the right hand side. Grave 2 contained a 30e35 year old man buried in a flexed position, which has been directly dated to the Boreal (Ly-1668: 8640 380 BP/c. 7750 cal BC) (Meiklejohn, 1986; Grünberg, 2000: 90). Burial 1 yielded a single bear tooth, while Burial 2 contained 12 perforated molluscs (Columbella rustica) and 10 roe deer teeth, most of which were found close to the head. Burial 2 of Abri Sous Balme closely parallels the CombeCapelle find in regard to the location, position of the skeleton, and decoration with molluscs, which were used as parts of a decorated cap or necklace. Thus, the Boreal dating of Combe-Capelle fits well with the Mesolithic burial record of western Europe. After 100 years of research, Combe-Capelle is now identified as an early Holocene burial and, in combination with previous corrections (e.g., Smith et al., 1999; Terberger et al., 2001; HenryGambier, 2002; Svoboda et al., 2002, 2004; Conard et al., 2004), we are now better able to reliably identify the record of early modern humans in Europe (Trinkaus, 2007). The earliest and most complete finds are from Mlade c Cave in the Czech Republic and from Oase Cave in Romania. The Mlade c material is dated to ca. 31.000 BP/ 33.000 cal BC (Wild et al., 2005), and a date of 35.000 BP/38.000 cal BC has been proposed for the Oase finds (Trinkaus et al., 2003). It should be noted, however, that in both cases, the discoveries cannot be connected to clear archaeological context, although in Mlade c the relation to the Aurignacian has been inferred from the occurrence of bone projectile points at the site. However, more fragmentary human remains that are indisputably anatomically modern are known from an Aurignacian context and occasionally in association with the early stage of this assemblage (contra Henry-Gambier et al., 2004; Bailey and Hublin, 2005; Trinkaus, 2005; Bailey et al., 2009). Our results support the scenario that no modern human burials are present in Europe before the middle Upper Paleolithic. Although the biological nature of the Châtelperronian makers have been recently questioned (Bar-Yosef and Bordes, 2010; Higham et al., 2010), our results confirm that to date only Neandertal remains have been found in Châtelperronian contexts. The date at which modern humans first arrived in Europe remains debated, as most of the socalled ‘transitional assemblages’ underlying the Aurignacian or overlying the last Mousterian in Europe have not yet yielded diagnostic human material. However, the age of the Oase specimen at ca. 35 000 BP/38 000 cal BC provides a minimum age for this arrival. The first description of the Combe-Capelle skull already emphasized its long and narrow shape (Klaatsch and Hauser, 1910: 295), in contrast with the cranial shape observed in other early modern European specimens. Historically, the Combe-Capelle type had been called a counterpart to the early modern humans of ‘CroMagnon type,’ consistent with an interpretation at the time of the archaeological record that is today obsolete. The morphological differences between the Combe-Capelle skull and the robust early
3 Two earthen child burials from Abri Bettenroder Berg IX in lower Saxonia, originally assigned to the (early) Mesolithic, have recently been AMS-dated to the early Iron Age (Grote and Terberger, in press).
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Table 1 Results of radiocarbon measurements. Sample fractions
C-content (wt%)
PMC (corrected)
Radiocarbon Age BP
d13C(&)a
Calibrated calendar ages (1 s, 68.2%) 7599BC (58.1%) 7568BC 7561BC (10.1) 7551BC 7582BC (68.2%) 7527BC 7673BC (2.3%) 7668BC 7659BC (65.9%) 7582BC 7596BC (68.2%) 7577BC
Dentine Lcol
45.8
34.47 0.18
8555 40 BP
18.79 0.22
UFcol (VS15R), >30 kDa UFcol (VS20), >30 kDa
54.4 56.0
34.76 0.23 34.21 0.19
8490 55 BP 8615 45 BP
15.85 0.07 17.33 0.27
R_Combine (8561 27), X2-Test: df ¼ 2 T ¼ 3.2(5% 6.0) Enamel 0.8 42.71 0.15
6835 30 BP
13.03 0.23
Calibrated calendar ages (2 s, 95.4%) 7633BC 7611BC 7597BC 7736BC
(0.8%) 7625BC (94.6%) 7525BC (95.4%) 7481BC (95.4%) 7575BC
7601BC (95.4%) 7547BC
(Lcol ¼ collagen without ultrafiltration, UFcol (VS15R), >30 kDa ¼ supernatant of ultrafiltered collagen with VS15R, UFcol (VS20), >30 kDa ¼ supernatant of ultrafiltered collagen with VS20). Calibration to calendar years was done using OxCal4.1 (Bronk Ramsey, 2009). a Note that the d13C includes the fractionation occurring in the sample preparation as well as in the AMS measurement and therefore cannot be compared to a massspectrometer measurement.
modern humans encountered in the early Upper Paleolithic of Europe (Trinkaus, 2007) can now be explained by the Mesolithic dating of the find. References Asmus, G., 1964. Kritische Bemerkungen und neue Gesichtspunkte zur jungpaläolitischen Bestattung von Combe Capelle, Perigord. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart, 15, 181e186. Bailey, S.E., Hublin, J.-J., 2005. Who made the early Aurignacian? A reconsideration of the Brassempouy dental remains. Bull. Mém. Soc. Anthropol. Paris 17, 115e121. Bailey, S.E., Hublin, J.-J., 2006. Dental remains from the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-surCure (Yonne). J. Hum. Evol. 50, 485e508. Bailey, S., Weaver, T.D., Hublin, J.-J., 2009. Who made the Aurignacian and other early Upper Paleolithic industries? J. Hum. Evol. 57, 11e26. Bar-Yosef, O., Bordes, J.-G., 2010. Who were the makers of the Châtelperronian culture? J. Hum. Evol. 59, 586e593. Breuil, H., 1913. Les subdivisions du Paléolithique supérieur et leur signification. In: Congrès International d’Anthropologie et d’Archéologie préhistoriques, pp. 165e238. Compte-rendu de la 14ème session, Genève 1912. Bronk Ramsey, C., Higham, T., Bowles, A., Hedges, R., 2004. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46, 155e163. Bronk Ramsey, C., 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51, 337e360. Bruhn, F., Duhr, A., Grootes, P.M., Mintrop, A., Nadeau, M.-J., 2001. Chemical removal of conservation substances by ‘soxhlet’-type extraction. Radiocarbon 43, 229e237. Cherkinsky, A.E., 2009. Can we get a good radiocarbon age from “bad bone”? Determining the reliability of radiocarbon ages from bioapatite. Radiocarbon 51, 647e655. Crombé, Ph., Cauwe, N., 2001. The Mesolithic. In: Cauwe, N., Hauzeur, A., van Berg, P.-L. (Eds.), Prehistory in Belgium, vol.112. Anthropologica et Praehistorica, pp. 49e62. Conard, N., Grootes, P.M., Smith, F.H., 2004. Unexpected recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd. Nature 430, 198e201. Gambier, H., 1989. Fossil hominids from the early Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian) of France. In: Mellars, P., Stringer, C.B. (Eds.), The Human Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Humans. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 194e211. Grootes, P.M., Nadeau, M.-J., Rieck, A., 2004. 14C-AMS at the Leibniz-Labor: radiometric dating and isotope research. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B 223e224, 55e61. Grote, K., Terberger, T., in press. Die prähistorischen Kinderbestattungen vom Abri Bettenroder Berg IX im Reinhäuser Wald bei Göttingen. Archäol. Korresponden. Grünberg, J., 2000. Mesolithische Bestattungen in Europa. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Gräberkunde. II: Catalogue. Int. Arch., 40. Hauser, O., 1924. Der Mensch vor 100000 Jahren, Jena. Heberer, G., 1957. Bericht über die Bergung der Skelettreste von Combe Capelle und Le Moustier aus dem Brandschutt des Berliner Museums für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Bericht der 5. Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Berlin, pp. 67e72. Henry-Gambier, D., 2002. Les fossiles de Cro-Magnon (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne): Nouvelles donnees sur leur Position chronologique et leur attribution culturelle. Bull. Mém. Soc. Anthropol. Paris 14, 89e112. Henry-Gambier, D., Maureille, B., White, R., 2004. Vestiges humains des niveaux de l’Aurignacien ancien du site de Brassempouy (Landes). Bull. Mém. Soc. Anthropol. Paris 16, 49e88. Higham, T., Jacobi, R., Julien, M., David, F., Basell, L., Wood, R., Davies, W., Bronk Ramsey, C., 2010. Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the Châtelperronian. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 20234e20239. Hublin, J.-J., Spoor, F., Braun, M., Zonneveld, F., Condemi, S., 1996. A late Neanderthal associated with Upper Palaeolithic artefacts. Nature 381, 224e226.
Hoffmann, A., 2003. Neanderthaler und Homo sapiens e Otto Hausers Funde aus Le Moustier und Combe Capelle. In: Hoffmann, A. (Ed.), Le Moustier und Combe Capelle. Die altsteinzeitlichen Funde des Schweizer Archäologen Otto Hauser, Berlin, pp. 40e44. Huels, C.M., Grootes, P.M., Nadeau, M.-J., 2009. Ultrafiltration: bone or bane. Radiocarbon 51, 613e625. Klaatsch, H., Hauser, O., 1910. Homo aurignaciensis Hauseri. Ein paläolithischer Skelettfund aus dem unteren Aurignacien der Station Combe Capelle bei Montferrand (Perigord). Prähistorische Zeitschrift 1, 275. Leroi-Gourhan, A., 1958. Etude des restes humains fossiles provenant des grottes d’Arcy-sur-Cure. Ann. Paléont. 44, 87e148. Lévêque, F., Vandermeersch, B., 1980. Découverte de restes humains dans un niveau castelperronien à Saint-Césaire (Charente-Maritime). C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 291, 187e189. Meiklejohn, Ch, 1986. Old bone, new dates: recent radiocarbon results from mesolithic human remains. Mesolithic Miscellany 7, 9e16. Nadeau, M.-J., Schleicher, M., Grootes, P.M., Erlenkeuser, H., Gottdang, A., Mous, D.J.W., Sarnthein, J.M., Willkomm, H., 1997. The Leibniz-Labor AMS facility at the Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B 123, 22e30. Nadeau, M.-J., Grootes, P.M., Schleicher, M., Hasselberg, P., Rieck, A., Bitterling, M., 1998. Sample throughput and data quality at the Leibniz-Labor AMS facility. Radiocarbon 40, 239e245. Orschiedt, J., Kegler, J.F., Gehlen, B., Schön, W., Gröning, F., 2008. Die Blätterhöhle in Hagen (Westfalen): Vorbericht der ersten archäologischen Untersuchungen. Archäol. Korresponden. 38, 13e32. Peyrony, D., 1933. Les industries “aurignaciennes“ dans le bassin de la Vézère. Bull. Soc. Préhist. Fr. 30, 543e559. Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Southon, J.R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E., 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0e50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51 (4), 1111e1150. Schulting, R., 2009. Non-monumental burial in Britain: a (largely) cavernous view. Berichte der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission, 88, 581e603. Smith, F., Trinkaus, E., Pettitt, P.B., Karavanic, I., Paunovic, M., 1999. Direct radiocarbon dates for Vindija G1 and Velika Pecina Late Pleistocene hominin remains. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 96, 12281e12286. Svoboda, J., van der Plicht, J., Kuzelka, V., 2002. Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic human Fossils from Moravia and Bohemia (Czech Republic): some new 14C dates. Antiquity 76, 957e962. Svoboda, J., van der Plicht, J., Vl cek, E., Ku zelka, V., 2004. New radiocarbon datings of human fossils from caves and rockshelters in Bohemia (Czech Republic). Anthropologie 42, 161e166. Terberger, T., Street, M., Bräuer, G., 2001. Der menschliche Schädelrest aus der Elbe bei Hahnöfersand und seine Bedeutung für die Steinzeit Norddeutschlands. Archäol. Korresponden. 31, 521e526. Trinkaus, E., 2005. Early modern humans. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 34, 207e230. Trinkaus, E., 2007. European early modern humans and the fate of the Neandertals. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104, 7368. r, A., Sarcina, L., Athreya, S., Bailey, S., Trinkaus, E., Moldovan, O., Milota, S¸, Bîlga Rodrigo, R., Mircea, G., Higham, T., Bronk Ramsey, C., van der Plicht, J., 2003. An early modern human from the Pestera cu Oase, Romania. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 100, 11231e11236. Vilain, R., 1966. Le gisement de Sous-Balme à Culoz (Ain) et ses industries microlithiques. Documents des Laboratoires de Géologie de la Faculté de Lyon, Lyon, p. 13. Wild, E.M., Teschler-Nicola, M., Kutschera, W., Steier, P., Trinkaus, E., Wanek, W., 2005. Direct dating of Early Upper Palaeolithic human remains from Mlade c. Nature 435, 332e335.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol
News and Views
The Homo aurignaciensis hauseri from Combe-Capelle e A Mesolithic burial Almut Hoffmann a, Jean-Jacques Hublin b, Matthias Hüls c, Thomas Terberger d, * a
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Spandauer Damm 22, D-14059 Berlin, Germany Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany c Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Kiel University, Max-Eyth-Str. 11-13, D-24118 Kiel, Germany d University of Greifswald, Hans-Fallada-Straße 1, D-17489 Greifswald, Germany b
a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 22 July 2010 Accepted 25 February 2011
On August 26, 1909, a laborer, employed by Otto Hauser discovered a human skull at the site of Roc de Combe-Capelle in the department of the Dordogne (southwestern France). Hauser, who was absent from the site at the time, was immediately made aware of the important nature of the remains, which were discovered about 2 m below the surface (Hauser, 1924). In the subsequent weeks, he organized the excavation of the burial with the support of anthropologist Hermann Klaatsch. The find was rather welldocumented for that time and according to a series of photographs, the skeleton, estimated to be between 40 and 50 years of age, was lying in a flexed position, turned to the right, in a NeS direction (Fig. 1). Hauser and Klaatsch proposed that the burial was connected with the lowermost ‘Aurignacian’ layer. This was the only identified early Upper Paleolithic assemblage recognized at this time, as corroborated by a number of supposed grave goods and 16 mollusc shells, mostly perforated, which were found close to the skull (Klaatsch and Hauser, 1910). Otto Hauser was also a businessman and within a few weeks he made Combe-Capelle well-known as an early modern human burial site. Hauser offered to sell the find, together with the Neandertal specimen found in 1908 at Le Moustier (France), for 160,000 Goldmark. The Berlin Museum arranged to purchase the finds, with the support of donors such as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and both burials were on display in the German capital from 1910 onwards. On February 3, 1945, the postcranial remains of the skeletons were destroyed during the bombing of the MartinGropius building, while the skulls were safely deposited in the storage rooms (Hoffmann, 2003). In 1955, a few burnt human bones
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Terberger). 0047-2484/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.03.001
were identified during the excavation of the fire debris of the exhibition, but the “skeletons of Combe-Capelle and Le Moustier [were] lost for science” (Heberer, 1957: 68). In 1945, during the transportation of many valuable artifacts from the Berlin Museum to Russia by the Red Army, the Combe-Capelle skull was apparently lost without a trace. However, in 2001 A. Hoffmann was able to reidentify the skull remains of Combe-Capelle amongst materials that had been returned to Berlin, and it became clear that in 1958 the specimen had been given back to the GDR without any identifying information (Hoffmann, 2003: 45). Today, the skull is on display in the Neues Museum, Berlin (Fig. 2). Since the excavation by Hauser, the lower Upper Palaeolithic layers of the Roc de Combe-Capelle have been re-interpreted. The earliest ‘Aurignacian type Châtelperron’ (Breuil, 1913), was reinterpreted as an assemblage called ‘Lower Perigordian’ by D. Peyrony (1933). In Peyrony’s view, the Aurignacian had been made by the ‘Cro-Magnon race,’ which replaced the earlier ‘Combe-Capelle race,’ makers of the Lower Perigordian in southwestern France. Today, the Lower Perigordian is called ‘Châtelperronian,’ and it is at the center of many debates related to its nature. Many scientists consider the Châtelperronian as the product of the evolution of a local Mousterian (likely the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition B). This raises the question of a possible biological continuity between the western European Mousterian Neandertals and the makers of the Châtelperronian. The reliability of the association between the Combe-Capelle human remains and the Châtelperronian layers of the site has repeatedly been questioned (e.g. Asmus, 1964; Gambier, 1989). However, it was not before Leroi-Gourhan’s work at Arcy-sur-Cure (France) (Leroi-Gourhan, 1958) that the possibility was raised that the makers of the Châtelperronian could be non-modern. This was confirmed by the discovery of Saint-Césaire (France) (Lévêque and Vandermeersch, 1980) and by the re-examination of the human remains from Arcy-sur-Cure (Hublin et al., 1996; Bailey and Hublin, 2006). The Châtelperronian, represented at about 120 sites in southwestern and central France and North Spain, is currently considered to be an assemblage rooted in the local Mousterian and produced by late Neandertals, but displaying some Upper Paleolithic features. In this context, it was a long felt desire to produce direct dates of the Roc de Combe-Capelle specimen in order to resolve the growing inconsistency of its occurrence in a Châtelperronian layer.
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A. Hoffmann et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 61 (2011) 211e214
Figure 1. Photographs of the Combe-Capelle grave during excavation (after Klaatsch and Hauser, 1910).
Material and methods In 2009, the authors initiated the direct dating of the lower left molar from the skull at Leibniz Labor Kiel.1 The skeleton had been treated with preservatives,2 and a waxy coating of the surface was visible under the microscope. Infrared spectroscopy of a sample from the preservative showed no similarities with protein substances such as bone glue. The sample (tooth) was cleaned by hot water extraction (75 C, one hour), followed by solvent extraction (three times) of tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, petrolether, methanol, and acetone (Bruhn et al., 2001). The tooth was
1 A first attempt to recover collagen from the mandible by the Department of Human Evolution of the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig failed. 2 No information on the treatment with preservatives is available in the museum. The documents mention the good condition of the skeletal remains and intensive treatment is not to be expected.
then crushed and split for further treatment into a dentine fraction, comprising mainly material from the root, for collagen extraction and an enamel fraction from the tooth crown. From the cleaned dentine, collagen was extracted using a modification of the Longin protocol (Grootes et al., 2004). The extracted collagen was split in half for a) direct graphitization and AMS measuring, and b) an additional ultrafiltration cleaning step in order to remove degraded and low molecular proteins (Bronk Ramsey et al., 2004; Huels et al., 2009) using two ultrafilters with a molecular cut-off of 30 kDa (VS20Ô and VS15RÔ from VIVASCIENCE). To test whether preservatives in the organic bone fraction had not been completely removed, the inorganic fraction, e.g., the carbonated apatite of the enamel and dentine, was also dated. To remove contamination such as secondary calcites and authigenic formed apatites, the sample material (enamel from the tooth crown) was sequentially leached by acetic acid (preferential removal of calcite due to its larger solubility) and hydrochloric acid, which attacks all dental minerals. However, unlike the organic fraction, the apatite fraction is more reactive and prone to isotopic exchange.
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Discussion and conclusion
Figure 2. State of preservation of the Combe-Capelle skull (photograph by C. Plamp).
Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that using selective leaching to properly clean can lead to a more reliable measurement of radiocarbon dates on this fraction (Cherkinsky, 2009). Three radiocarbon measurements were taken with ultrafiltered and non-ultrafiltered collagen. The AMS measurement and data reduction was done following Nadeau et al. (1997, 1998). The three AMS measurements produced consistent results. Results The dentine fraction of the tooth contained a sufficient amount of collagen for dating (w40 mg from 587 mg dentine, e.g., 7.0 wt% collagen). The collagen fractions of the dentine and enamel contain >45 wt% C and 0.8 wt% C, respectively, which is within the expected range for these sample fractions (see Table 1). All three sample fractions provided more than the recommended minimum amount of 1 mg carbon for reliable dating. All of the collagen ages centered around 8561 27 years BP. Not unexpectedly, the measured apatite age is significantly younger (6835 30 14C years), which is caused by the incomplete removal of diagenetic altered apatite with an admixture of younger carbon. However, the apatite age lends general support to the reliability of the early Holocene age of the collagen fraction. Therefore, the dates assign the Combe-Capelle burial to the Boreal at c. 7596e7577 cal BC (68.2% probability; 7601e7547 cal BC, 95.4% probability; OxCal4.1, Bronk Ramsey, 2009; on the basis of IntCal09, Reimer et al., 2009). This result clearly contradicts the traditional interpretation of the find and makes Homo aurignaciensis hauseri a Mesolithic burial.
For the early Holocene (Preboreal to Boreal), a wide spectrum of burial treatments has been reported. Several examples of bone deposits in caves or rock shelters are known, e.g., in Avelines Hole, Great Britain; Grotte Margaux, Belgium; and recently in Blätterhöhle, Germany (e.g., Grünberg, 2000: 20e21; Crombé and Cauwe, 2001: 57; Orschiedt et al., 2008; Schulting, 2009: 586). We also know of some earthen burials in Avelines Hole and other caves.3 In 1957, two burials were excavated in the small rock shelter of Abri Sous Balme near Culoz, located in the Upper Rhône area of eastern France (Vilain, 1966). Feature 1 is a grave of a ca. 50e55 year old man who was deposited in a flexed position on the right hand side. Grave 2 contained a 30e35 year old man buried in a flexed position, which has been directly dated to the Boreal (Ly-1668: 8640 380 BP/c. 7750 cal BC) (Meiklejohn, 1986; Grünberg, 2000: 90). Burial 1 yielded a single bear tooth, while Burial 2 contained 12 perforated molluscs (Columbella rustica) and 10 roe deer teeth, most of which were found close to the head. Burial 2 of Abri Sous Balme closely parallels the CombeCapelle find in regard to the location, position of the skeleton, and decoration with molluscs, which were used as parts of a decorated cap or necklace. Thus, the Boreal dating of Combe-Capelle fits well with the Mesolithic burial record of western Europe. After 100 years of research, Combe-Capelle is now identified as an early Holocene burial and, in combination with previous corrections (e.g., Smith et al., 1999; Terberger et al., 2001; HenryGambier, 2002; Svoboda et al., 2002, 2004; Conard et al., 2004), we are now better able to reliably identify the record of early modern humans in Europe (Trinkaus, 2007). The earliest and most complete finds are from Mlade c Cave in the Czech Republic and from Oase Cave in Romania. The Mlade c material is dated to ca. 31.000 BP/ 33.000 cal BC (Wild et al., 2005), and a date of 35.000 BP/38.000 cal BC has been proposed for the Oase finds (Trinkaus et al., 2003). It should be noted, however, that in both cases, the discoveries cannot be connected to clear archaeological context, although in Mlade c the relation to the Aurignacian has been inferred from the occurrence of bone projectile points at the site. However, more fragmentary human remains that are indisputably anatomically modern are known from an Aurignacian context and occasionally in association with the early stage of this assemblage (contra Henry-Gambier et al., 2004; Bailey and Hublin, 2005; Trinkaus, 2005; Bailey et al., 2009). Our results support the scenario that no modern human burials are present in Europe before the middle Upper Paleolithic. Although the biological nature of the Châtelperronian makers have been recently questioned (Bar-Yosef and Bordes, 2010; Higham et al., 2010), our results confirm that to date only Neandertal remains have been found in Châtelperronian contexts. The date at which modern humans first arrived in Europe remains debated, as most of the socalled ‘transitional assemblages’ underlying the Aurignacian or overlying the last Mousterian in Europe have not yet yielded diagnostic human material. However, the age of the Oase specimen at ca. 35 000 BP/38 000 cal BC provides a minimum age for this arrival. The first description of the Combe-Capelle skull already emphasized its long and narrow shape (Klaatsch and Hauser, 1910: 295), in contrast with the cranial shape observed in other early modern European specimens. Historically, the Combe-Capelle type had been called a counterpart to the early modern humans of ‘CroMagnon type,’ consistent with an interpretation at the time of the archaeological record that is today obsolete. The morphological differences between the Combe-Capelle skull and the robust early
3 Two earthen child burials from Abri Bettenroder Berg IX in lower Saxonia, originally assigned to the (early) Mesolithic, have recently been AMS-dated to the early Iron Age (Grote and Terberger, in press).
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Table 1 Results of radiocarbon measurements. Sample fractions
C-content (wt%)
PMC (corrected)
Radiocarbon Age BP
d13C(&)a
Calibrated calendar ages (1 s, 68.2%) 7599BC (58.1%) 7568BC 7561BC (10.1) 7551BC 7582BC (68.2%) 7527BC 7673BC (2.3%) 7668BC 7659BC (65.9%) 7582BC 7596BC (68.2%) 7577BC
Dentine Lcol
45.8
34.47 0.18
8555 40 BP
18.79 0.22
UFcol (VS15R), >30 kDa UFcol (VS20), >30 kDa
54.4 56.0
34.76 0.23 34.21 0.19
8490 55 BP 8615 45 BP
15.85 0.07 17.33 0.27
R_Combine (8561 27), X2-Test: df ¼ 2 T ¼ 3.2(5% 6.0) Enamel 0.8 42.71 0.15
6835 30 BP
13.03 0.23
Calibrated calendar ages (2 s, 95.4%) 7633BC 7611BC 7597BC 7736BC
(0.8%) 7625BC (94.6%) 7525BC (95.4%) 7481BC (95.4%) 7575BC
7601BC (95.4%) 7547BC
(Lcol ¼ collagen without ultrafiltration, UFcol (VS15R), >30 kDa ¼ supernatant of ultrafiltered collagen with VS15R, UFcol (VS20), >30 kDa ¼ supernatant of ultrafiltered collagen with VS20). Calibration to calendar years was done using OxCal4.1 (Bronk Ramsey, 2009). a Note that the d13C includes the fractionation occurring in the sample preparation as well as in the AMS measurement and therefore cannot be compared to a massspectrometer measurement.
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