The analysis of the human remains from the megalithic tomb at Alto de Reinoso represents the widest integrative study of a Neolithic collective burial in Spain. Combining archaeology, osteology, molecular genetics and stable isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr, δ15N, δ13C) it provides a wealth of information on the minimum number of individuals, age, sex, body height, pathologies, mitochondrial DNA profiles, kinship relations, mobility, and diet. The grave was in use for approximately one hundred years around 3700 cal BC, thus dating from the Late Neolithic of the Iberian chronology. At the bottom of the collective tomb, six complete and six partial skeletons lay in anatomically correct positions. Above them, further bodies represented a subsequent and different use of the tomb, with almost all of the skeletons exhibiting signs of manipulation such as missing skeletal parts, especially skulls. The megalithic monument comprised at least 47 individuals, including males, females, and subadults, although children aged 0–6 years were underrepresented. The skeletal remains exhibited a moderate number of pathologies, such as degenerative joint diseases, healed fractures, cranial trauma, and a low intensity of caries. The mitochondrial DNA profiles revealed a pattern pointing to a closely related local community with matrilineal kinship patterns. In some cases adjacent individuals in the bottom layer showed familial relationships. According to their strontium isotope ratios, only a few individuals were likely to have spent their early childhood in a different geological environment, whilst the majority of individuals grew up locally. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, which was undertaken to reconstruct the dietary habits, indicated that this was a homogeneous group with egalitarian access to food. Cereals and small ruminants were the principal sources of nutrition. These data fit in well with a lifestyle typical of sedentary farming populations in the Spanish Meseta during this period of the Neolithic.
Danube Private University, Krems, Austria;Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science and Hightech Research Center, Basel University, Basel, Switzerland;State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt and State Museum of Prehistory, Halle, Germany;German Mummy Project, Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, Germany;Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain;Curt Engelhorn Centre Archaeometry gGmbH, Mannheim, Germany;Laboratory of Archaeogenetics, Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary;Institute of Anthropology, Mainz University, Mainz, Germany;Arcadia-General Foundation of Valladolid University, Valladolid, Spain;Department of Applied and Analytical Paleontology, Mainz University, Mainz, Germany;Department of Prehistory, University of the Basque Government, Vitoria, Spain;Laboratoire TRACES UMR5608, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France;Institute of Anthropology, Mainz University, Mainz, Germany;Private Technical Archaeologist, Zaragoza, Spain;Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, Valladolid University, Valladolid, Spain
Recommended Citation:
Kurt W. Alt,Stephanie Zesch,Rafael Garrido-Pena,et al. A Community in Life and Death: The Late Neolithic Megalithic Tomb at Alto de Reinoso (Burgos, Spain)[J]. PLOS ONE,2016-01-01,11(1)