, Paris) In 1868, workmen found animal bones, flint tools, and human skulls in the rock shelter. French geologist
Louis Lartet was called for excavations, and found the partial skeletons of four prehistoric adults and one infant, along with perforated shells used as ornaments, an object made from ivory, and worked reindeer antler. These "Cro-Magnon men" were identified as the prehistoric human species of Europe, as distinct from
Neanderthal Man, described a few years earlier by
William King based on the
Neanderthal 1 fossil discovered in
Germany in 1856. Lartet proposed the
subspecies name
Homo sapiens fossilis in 1869. The term "Cro-Magnon Man" soon came to be used in a general sense to describe the oldest modern people in Europe. By the 1970s, the term was used for any early modern human wherever found, as was the case with the far-flung
Jebel Qafzeh remains in
Israel and various
Paleo-Indians in
the Americas.
Cro-Magnon 1 consists of a skull and partial skeletal remains belonging to a male individual, approximately 40 years old. It is dated to 27,680 ± 270
Before Present (BP). The
cranial cavity measures . The capacity of a modern adult
anatomically modern human's cranial cavity is .
Cro-Magnon 2 is a partially preserved female skull with marked facial similarities to
Mladeč 2.
Cro-Magnon 3 is a partial skull of a male adult. The remains are thought to represent adults who died at an advanced age, who were placed at the site, along with pieces of shell and animal teeth in what appear to have been
pendants or necklaces, in an apparent intentional
burial. The presence of necklaces and tools suggests the concept of
grave goods. Analysis of the
pathology of the
skeletons shows that the humans of this period led a physically difficult life. In addition to infection, several of the individuals found at the shelter had fused
vertebrae in their necks, indicating traumatic injury; the adult female found at the shelter had survived for some time with a skull fracture. As these injuries would be life-threatening even today, this suggests that Cro-Magnons relied on community support and took care of each other's injuries. Compared to Neanderthals, the skeletons showed the same high forehead, upright posture and slender (
gracile) skeleton as modern humans. The other specimens from the site are a female, Cro-Magnon 2, and male remains, Cro-Magnon 3. == See also ==