Krems-Wachtberg Gravettian infant burials published

[Daryl Habel]

Almost buried by today's Neanderthal genome sequencing news, is another article of interest in this week's issue of Nature.

Nature 444, 285 (16 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/444285a; Received 12 August 2006; Accepted 24 October 2006; Published online 15 November 2006

Upper Palaeolithic infant burials
Thomas Einwögerer1, Herwig Friesinger1, Marc Händel1, Christine Neugebauer-Maresch1, Ulrich Simon1 and Maria Teschler-Nicola2

Decorations on the bodies of newborns indicate that they were probably important in their community.

Several adult graves from the Stone Age (Upper Palaeolithic period) have been found but child burials seem to be rare, which has prompted discussion about whether this apparently different treatment of infants could be significant1, 2. Here we describe two recently discovered infant burials from this period at Krems-Wachtberg in Lower Austria, in which the bodies were covered with red ochre and decorated with ornaments and were therefore probably ritually buried. These findings indicate that even newborns were considered to be full members of these hunter-gatherer communities about 27,000 years ago.

1. Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1010 Vienna, Austria
2. Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Correspondence to: Christine Neugebauer-Maresch1 Email: christine.neugebauer-maresch@oeaw.ac.at [/color

The article is available to Nature subscribers HERE and hasn't yet begun to circulate in my network of pirates, so I haven't read it yet.  But the supplementary information is free, and has some nice photographs HERE.

Some background discussion on our Forum: HERE and  HERE

Dar

[Daryl Habel]

Nature 444, 285 (16 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/444285a; Received 12 August 2006; Accepted 24 October 2006; Published online 15 November 2006

Upper Palaeolithic infant burials
Thomas Einwögerer1, Herwig Friesinger1, Marc Händel1, Christine Neugebauer-Maresch1, Ulrich Simon1 and Maria Teschler-Nicola2

I have now read the "Brief communication" referenced above, and brief it is.  One page, with three photographs of the burials.  About the only new information, not known or mentioned in the press releases (see Palanth background discussions) is confirmation of  the determination of the estimated age at death for the three infant individuals.   In the double burial (Burial 1), "...the developmental stage of a deciduous incisor of individual B...allowed the estimation of age at death to be perinatal (ninth to tenth lunar months).  The equal lengths of both right femora indicate that the newborns were the same age at death; their contemporaneous burial suggests they were twins..."  In Burial 2 (the single individual), "...from degree of mineralization of the upper incisors, the infant must have died at 0-3 months after birth...."  The subsidence of the cultural layer (14C dated 26,580 +/- 160 BP; Poz-1290) above the pits "provides evidence that all three infants were buried at the start of the settlement at the site..."

There's no suggestion that they were "triplets", with death of the "twins" occurring at birth, and death of the single (-buried only 1 meter away) infant occurring shortly after birth. However,  the contextual evidence is suggestive (to me) that all three infants shared some sort of close relationship within a single group of Gravettian people.

Dar

[aggsbach]

The Krems-Sites comprise at least 5 locations with paleolithic findings:

1. Krems-Hundssteig where Strobl detected a multilayer Aurignacien-site in beginning of the last century. This is the type site of the Krems-Dufour Aurignacian with a conventional C14 date of about 35 kyrs. The material was published by Obermeier in the early 20th century. Later Joachim Hahn seperated a handfull of clearly Gravettien implements from this location.

2.Durig the last years new excavations took place at the Hundssteig. Selectivly Gravettien-material was excavated. Some information can be found here:
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/praehist/projekte/hund/index.htmland .

3. The Krems Wachtberg ( about 150 m from Hundssteig) site was  first found by Bayer in the 30ies and revealed Gravettien material (conventional C14: 28 000 BP) with the fragments of clay figurines similar to those known from Dolni Vestonice.  The new excavation with the burials took place near the margins of Bayers old excavations.

4. The Krems Stazing site is about 8 km east of the Hundsteig-Site and "ordinary" Aurigncian ( AMS C14 in average about 31-32 Kyrs) and the find spot of the famous "Fanny" figurine.

5. In Krems-Stein an Aurignacien workshop was detected in the 20ies.

Unfortunately most of the reports available are written in German and astonishing few informations have been described in the international literature.
Some informations about this unique paleolithic landscape  in the Krems vicinity can be found here:

Philip R. Nigst, The first modern humans in the Middle Danube Area? New Evidence from Willendorf II (Eastern Austria), in: N. J. Conard (Hrsg.), Neanderthals and Modern Humans Meet?, Proceedings of an International Workshop in Blaubeuren/Tübingen, July 7-10, 2004, Tübingen Publications in Prehistory, Kerns Verlag, Tübingen.
Free puplication can be found here: http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/pdf/Nigst2006.pdf



Michaela Lochner, Thomas Einwögerer et al. Die jungpaläolithische Station auf dem Wachtberg in Krems, Niederösterreich. Eine Rekonstruktion und wissenschaftliche Darlegung der Grabung von J. Bayer aus dem Jahre 1930.  Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2000


Strobl J., Obermaier H., Die Aurignacien-Station von Krems (N.-Ö.), Jahrb. f. Altertumskunde III, 1909, 129 - 148, Taf. XIII - XXI.

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

The Krems-Sites comprise at least 5 locations with paleolithic findings:

1. Krems-Hundssteig where Strobl detected a multilayer Aurignacien-site in beginning of the last century. This is the type site of the Krems-Dufour Aurignacian with a conventional C14 date of about 35 kyrs. The material was published by Obermeier in the early 20th century. Later Joachim Hahn seperated a handfull of clearly Gravettien implements from this location.

2.Durig the last years new excavations took place at the Hundssteig. Selectivly Gravettien-material was excavated. Some information can be found here:
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/praehist/projekte/hund/index.htmland .

3. The Krems Wachtberg ( about 150 m from Hundssteig) site was  first found by Bayer in the 30ies and revealed Gravettien material (conventional C14: 28 000 BP) with the fragments of clay figurines similar to those known from Dolni Vestonice.  The new excavation with the burials took place near the margins of Bayers old excavations.

4. The Krems Stazing site is about 8 km east of the Hundsteig-Site and "ordinary" Aurigncian ( AMS C14 in average about 31-32 Kyrs) and the find spot of the famous "Fanny" figurine.

5. In Krems-Stein an Aurignacien workshop was detected in the 20ies.

Unfortunately most of the reports available are written in German and astonishing few informations have been described in the international literature.
Some informations about this unique paleolithic landscape  in the Krems vicinity can be found here:

Philip R. Nigst, The first modern humans in the Middle Danube Area? New Evidence from Willendorf II (Eastern Austria), in: N. J. Conard (Hrsg.), Neanderthals and Modern Humans Meet?, Proceedings of an International Workshop in Blaubeuren/Tübingen, July 7-10, 2004, Tübingen Publications in Prehistory, Kerns Verlag, Tübingen.



Michaela Lochner, Thomas Einwögerer et al. Die jungpaläolithische Station auf dem Wachtberg in Krems, Niederösterreich. Eine Rekonstruktion und wissenschaftliche Darlegung der Grabung von J. Bayer aus dem Jahre 1930.  Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2000


Strobl J., Obermaier H., Die Aurignacien-Station von Krems (N.-Ö.), Jahrb. f. Altertumskunde III, 1909, 129 - 148, Taf. XIII - XXI.

Thanks for passing on this additional material. It might also be useful to note that further information on the recent work carried out at Krems-Wachtberg has also been presented at the March 2007 Paleoanthropology meeting held in Philadelphia. Here is the abstract:

The Gravettian Infant Burials from Krems-Wachtberg, Austria

M. Teschler-Nicola, Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna, AUSTRIA
T. Einwöegerer, Austrian Prehistoric Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences, AUSTRIA
M. Händel, Austrian Prehistoric Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences, AUSTRIA
C. Neugebauer-Maresch, Austrian Prehistoric Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences, AUSTRIA
U. Simon, Austrian Prehistoric Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences, AUSTRIA

Within the last decade the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences focused on the investigation/re-investigation of Paleolithic sites in eastern Austria. Among the documented find-spots, the settlements of Krems, Krems-Hundssteig, and Krems-Wachtberg became a particular concern. In 2005 and 2006, two burials of infants, dated to 27,000 years, were discovered at the Gravettian open air site of Krems-Wachtberg. While Upper Paleolithic graves of adults are extensively documented, burial evidence of pre-adolescents is rare and arguments concerning the putatively different treatment of adults and infants abound. The recently discovered infant burials at Krems-Wachtberg were abundantly covered with red ochre and decorated with ornaments, implying clearly that these are deliberate burials associated with a ritual, and furthermore emphasizing that even newborns were considered full members of Gravettian hunter-gatherer communities. They substantially enrich the debate about rituals and document that infants were considered full members of hunter-gatherer communities. Furthermore, they enlarge our sample size of human fossil remains and help resolve issues of ontogeny of early modern humans. The present contribution deals with practical aspects, e.g., the conservation practices used, restorative aspects, and taphonomic issues; moreover using CT- and laser techniques, we will discuss the first morphometric investigations and results of comparative analysis.

Hopefully, this will followed up by a full article. In the meantime, one can obtain more information on the program (including the full set of abstracts) of the 2007 meeting by clicking HERE.

Jacques