La Chapelle-aux-Saints

▪ anthropological and archaeological site, France

      cave site near the village of La Chapelle-aux-Saints in central France where the bones of an adult Neanderthal male were found in 1908. Studies of the remains published in 1911–13 by French anthropologist Marcellin Boule (Boule, Marcellin) became the classic early 20th-century description of Neanderthals as apelike and evolutionarily divergent from modern humans. Despite decades of subsequent research that has revised and rejected this semihuman depiction, Boule's description still lingers as the popular image of the Neanderthals.

      The well-preserved skull and less-complete trunk and limb bones exhibit a suite of characteristics in common with other Neanderthals: stocky, cold-adapted body proportions; a skull with a large and projecting midface (especially the teeth and nose), a rounded browridge, and a large but long, low, and rounded braincase; and stout limb bones with strongly marked attachments for the arm and hand muscles.

      The La Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton shows evidence that Neanderthals led stressful lives with high risk of injury and that they experienced considerable bodily degeneration from daily activities. Such evidence includes the loss of most of the cheek teeth and associated degeneration of the jaw joint; inflammation of the ear canals, indicating a possible loss of hearing; serious osteoarthritis of one shoulder; massive osteoarthritic degeneration of the neck vertebrae; a damaged hip joint; and a healed rib fracture. Though this individual died in his 30s, he survived for years with these degenerative conditions and injuries. The skeleton therefore demonstrates not only that Neanderthals had the physical strength partly to compensate for limitations in their technology but also that they had a social network that enabled long-term survival of injured and infirm members of the group. The skeleton also provided the first evidence of mortuary ritual among the Neanderthals, as the body was intentionally buried in a pit in the middle of the small cave.

Erik Trinkaus

 

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