Fallen and Lost into the Abyss? A Mesolithic Human Skull from Sima Hedionda IV (Casares, Málaga, Iberian Peninsula)

The presence of scattered prehistoric human bones in caves and sinkholes is common in many regions of Iberia. These are usually interpreted as erratic elements coming from burial contexts, usually collective associations. These burial contexts are very frequent in karst areas of the Iberian Peninsula since the Early Neolithic, mostly in the Late Neolithic, and Copper Age, while findings from earlier chronologies are much more unusual. In this work, we present partial remains of a human skull from the Mesolithic period, recovered from a cave in the Strait of Gibraltar area. Although there is no conclusive evidence pointing to a dismantled burial context, this constitutes an isolated find, where its final location appears to be consistent with gravitational fall followed by water transportation.
We are grateful to members of the caving groups GES Casares (Casares Underground Exploration Group) and SE Mainake (Speleo-Excursionist Society), and the town Council of Casares for their help throughout the work of survey and archaeological research inside Sima Hedionda II/IV. The frontal bone SHII/IV/7001-7 (known as Cecilín) was first located by Carlos Pintos Zanca, Juan Antonio Rodriguez Alarcón, Rafael Beltran, and Pascal Boutery de la SE Mainake. CT scan was carried out in the Clinical Veterinary Hospital of the University of Cordoba. We would like to thank especially Dr Manuel Novales Durán (Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, UCO) for his help in the scanning process. We would also appreciate the help of Alvaro Perea (Ergonidámica Clínica, Córdoba) in composing Figures 5 and 6 using the OsiriX DICOM Wiever software. Dating Beta-424650 was funded by an internal research grant from La Trobe University. The “Archaeological Survey Project in Sima Hedionda II/IV, Casares (Málaga)” was partly 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 to the efforts of the last institution, this cave is now gated and protected. This work has been carried out in the framework 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 anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and efforts in improving our manuscript.