RT Journal Article
T1 Fallen and Lost into the Abyss? A Mesolithic Human Skull from Sima Hedionda IV (Casares, Málaga, Iberian Peninsula)
A1 Martínez Sánchez, Rafael M.
A1 Vera Rodríguez, Juan Carlos
A1 Pardo Gordó, Salvador
AB The presence of scattered prehistoric human bones in caves and sinkholes is common in manyregions of Iberia. These are usually interpreted as erratic elements coming from burial contexts, usuallycollective associations. These burial contexts are very frequent in karst areas of the Iberian Peninsula sincethe Early Neolithic, mostly in the Late Neolithic, and Copper Age, while findings from earlier chronologiesare much more unusual. In this work, we present partial remains of a human skull from the Mesolithicperiod, recovered from a cave in the Strait of Gibraltar area. Although there is no conclusive evidencepointing to a dismantled burial context, this constitutes an isolated find, where its final location appears tobe consistent with gravitational fall followed by water transportation.
PB De Gruyter
SN 2300-6560 (electrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22121
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22121
LA eng
NO Martinez-Sanchez, R. M., Bretones-García, M. D., Valdiosera, C., Vera-Rodríguez, J. C., López Flores, I., Simón-Vallejo, M. D., Ruiz Borrega, P., Martínez Fernández, M. J., Romo Villalba, J. L., Bermúdez Jiménez, F., Martín de los Santos, R., Pardo-Gordó, S., & Cortés Sánchez, M. (2022). Fallen and Lost into the Abyss? A Mesolithic Human Skull from Sima Hedionda IV (Casares, Málaga, Iberian Peninsula). In Open Archaeology (Vol. 8, Issue 1, pp. 892–904). Walter de Gruyter GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2022-0267
NO We are grateful to members of the caving groups GES Casares (Casares UndergroundExploration Group) and SE Mainake (Speleo-Excursionist Society), and the town Council of Casares for theirhelp throughout the work of survey and archaeological research inside Sima Hedionda II/IV. The frontalbone SHII/IV/7001-7 (known as Cecilín) was first located by Carlos Pintos Zanca, Juan Antonio RodriguezAlarcón, Rafael Beltran, and Pascal Boutery de la SE Mainake. CT scan was carried out in the ClinicalVeterinary Hospital of the University of Cordoba. We would like to thank especially Dr Manuel NovalesDurán (Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, UCO) for his help in the scanning process. We wouldalso appreciate the help of Alvaro Perea (Ergonidámica Clínica, Córdoba) in composing Figures 5 and 6using the OsiriX DICOM Wiever software. Dating Beta-424650 was funded by an internal research grant fromLa Trobe University. The “Archaeological Survey Project in Sima Hedionda II/IV, Casares (Málaga)” waspartly self-financed by the team members themselves, and also partly (Technical equipment, transportation,other datings, maintenance, and accommodation) with the support of the Casares Town Council. Thanks tothe efforts of the last institution, this cave is now gated and protected. This work has been carried out in theframework of the Project “Archaeobiology of the Neolithic of the Southern Iberian Peninsula” (NeArqBioSI)A-HUM-460-UGR18 by Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad. FEDER Programme– Junta de Andalucía-Universidad de Granada. Call 2019. SPG is Juan de la Cierva Incorporación(IJC2019-038830-I) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. We would like to thank the anonymousreviewers for their thoughtful comments and efforts in improving our manuscript.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 15 jun 2026