"The Female of Loschbour"

[Fire Haired14]

I found a French video about Loschbour-man titled "The Male of Loschbour" from a few years ago and about "The Female of Loschbour" from this year. If there are any French-speakers reading please translate. It's interesting to see an attempt to reconstruct the world that Loschbour and his relatives lived in.

Recap:"Loschbour's" genome is the main reference of "WHG" people who are documented in Ancient DNA to have lived from Spain to Hungary 8,000 year ago, but probably lived in most of Europe and farther east than Anatolia. "WHG" is an accurate genetic category for a people(not ethnic group, untitled by genes) who contributed significant ancestry to all West Eurasians but don't exist in their pure form anymore. Ultimately they are probably mix of the first human settlers of West Eurasia and North Asia.

 

[epoch]

My french is not as good as I wish it was. However, from what I gathered it was:

They found remains of a cremation in Loschbour, an adult woman. There are scratches on a piece of scalp and other places, maybe suggesting defleshing rituals. The scratches are where muscle and sinews are found. Possibly indicating removing the scalp, maybe a ritual. The film does not suggest this was due to cannibalism (See [1]). She was adorned with fossilized shells, which were possibly from the Parisian area, 200 km westward. It is quite an unique find in the area between the Rhine, the Meuse and the Schelde (is that the English name?) as it one of the very few cremations from the mesolithic found. Date: 7041-6728 BC.

[1] However, Papua's eat the brains of their beloved dead. A disease is connected with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)

 

[Fire Haired14]

Was her scalp taken off when alive!!!

 

[epoch]

Was her scalp taken off when alive!!!

These are cremation remains. I doubt if you could tell.

 

[epoch]

There is quite some evidence for cannibalism and/or defleshing with European AMH:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248415000494

The human remains exhibit clear signs of butchery, with 58% of the postcranial sample exhibiting cutmarks, and about a third of the bones (32%) exhibiting percussion damage from marrow processing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excarnation

http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/early-humans-cannibalism-jewelry-110706.htm

There is also quite some evidence for cannibalism with Neanderthals:

http://www.livescience.com/1187-neanderthals-cannibals-study-confirms.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_behavior#Cannibalism_or_ritual_defleshing.3F

 

[epoch]

This could also be the cremation of already buried remains. Reburial practices such as secondary cremation are also known from other mesolithic sites:

http://arheologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/pdf36/36_16.pdf