Gravettian Human Remains Brno II: Postcranial Skeleton - Dockalova - 2005

The discovery of human fossil remains from Francouzská Street in Brno, described as Brno II skeleton, was made as early as in 1891. In 1959 Jan Jelínek revised the whole Upper Paleolithic Brno II for the first time. The present study provides a brief summary of the historical background of the adult male skeleton burial discovery. The main goal of the contribution, however, is to present new data and analyses of the robust Gravettian skeleton Brno II. A complete metrical description of the Brno II postcranial remains (femora, humerus, ulna and clavicle) is provided, and their comparison with other Gravettian postcranial remains (Dolní Věstonice, Pavlov, Sunghir, etc.), as well as a reconstruction of femoral length and body size of the Brno II male. Preliminary paleopathological analysis has shown a possibility of tumour or inflammatory disorder in the Brno II male skeleton, which should be examined in more detail in the future. Changes of compact bone on femora are to be supposed on the basis of metrical comparison of subtrochanteric and midshaft femoral regions. The body size is fully in the range of Central and Eastern European Gravettian males. However, the character of postcranial bones of Brno II skeleton, and some other Gravettian individuals as well, shows the importance of the problem of stress factors acting on Gravettian human populations, like relatively rapid and marked changes of climate and food resources. Such factors could cause long-term stress with marked influence on the organism, which should be examined much more in depth.

Keywords

Upper Paleolithic - Homo sapiens sapiens - Brno II postcranial remains - Moravian Gravettian - Czech Republic - Metric analysis of postcrania - Body size reconstruction

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