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Skull of a Cro-Magnon individual, Musée de l'Homme, Paris

The term Cro-Magnon (pronounced /kroʊˈmæɡnən/, French [kʀomaɲɔ̃]) refers to one of the main types of early modern humans (Homo sapiens) of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon like humans are dated to 30,000 radiocarbon years. The name is taken from the cave of Crô-Magnon in southwest France, where the first specimen was found.

The Cro-Magnon term falls outside the usual naming conventions for early humans and is often used in a general sense to describe the oldest modern people in Europe, while remaining, anthropologically speaking, a specific (but very frequent) subtype among the fossil remains. In recent scientific literature the term "European early modern humans" is used instead.

The oldest definitely dated European early modern humans (EEMH) specimen ^[1] with modern and archaic, possibly Neanderthal, mosaic of traits is Oase 1 from 34,000–36,000 ¹⁴C years ago.^[2]

Assemblages and specimens

The geologist Louis Lartet discovered the first five skeletons of this type in March 1868 in the Cro-Magnon rock shelter. Other specimens have since come to light in other parts of Europe and neighboring areas.

Cro-Magnon 1

Female Cro-Magnon skull

Male Cro-Magnon skull

Cro-Magnon 1 was discovered in a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France. The type specimen from this find is Cro-Magnon 1, dated to about 28,000 years BP (before the present)^[3] (27,680 ± 270 BP). The skeletons showed the same high forehead, upright posture and slender (gracile) skeleton as modern humans.

The condition and placement of the remains of Cro-Magnon 1, along with pieces of shell and animal tooth in what appear to have been pendants or necklaces raises the question whether they were buried intentionally. If Cro-Magnons buried their dead intentionally it suggests they had a knowledge of ritual, by burying their dead with necklaces and tools, or an idea of disease and that the bodies needed to be contained.^[4]

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 believed in community support and took care of each others' injuries.^[4]

Oase 1

The oldest EEMH remains are from Peştera cu Oase near the Iron Gates in the Danubian corridor. Oase 1 holotype revealed specific traits combining a variety of archaic Homo, derived early modern humans, and possibly Neanderthal features. Modern human attributes place it close to European early modern humans among Late Pleistocene samples. The fossil is one of the few finds in Europe which could be directly dated and is considered the oldest known early modern human fossil from Europe. Two laboratories independently yielded collagen ¹⁴C averaging to 34,950, +990, and –890B.P.^[5] The Oase 1 mandible was discovered on February 16, 2002.

Other

Cro-Magnon, remains of Grimaldi, found at Monaco

All EEMH dates are direct fossil dates provided in ¹⁴C years B.P.^[6]

• Kostenki 1 = 32,600 ± 1,100. tibia and fibula^[6][7][8]
• Mladeč = 31 k ¹⁴C years^[9],
• Mladeč 2 = 31,320 +410, -390 ^[6]
• Mladeč 9a = 31,500 +420, -400 ^[6]
• Mladeč 8 = 30,680 +380, -360 ^[6]
• Muierii 2 = 30,150 ± 800, cranial and postcranial remains ^[6]
• Cioclovina 1 = 29,000 ± 700, cranium ^[6][10]
• Kent's Cavern 4 > 30,900 ± 900 ^[6]

Not direct dates. Radiocarbon dated were elements from adjacent layers.

• Les Roisà Mouthiers << 32 k ^[6]
• La Quina Aval ≈ max 33 - 32 k (juvenile partial mandible)^[6]

Calendar years

• Abrigo do Lagar Velho 24 k ^[11].

Other sites, assemblages or specimens: Brassempouy, La Rochette, Vogelherd. Engis, Hahnöfersand, St. Prokop, Velika Pećina ^[12]

Cro-Magnon life

Cave painting from Lascaux, France dated to approximately 16,000 years ago (Upper Paleolithic).

Cro-Magnon were anatomically modern, only differing from their modern day descendants in Europe by their more robust physiology and slightly larger cranial capacity.^[13] Of modern nationalities, Finns are closest to Cro-Magnons in terms of anthropological measurements.^[14]

Surviving Cro-Magnon artifacts include huts, cave paintings, carvings and antler-tipped spears. The remains of tools suggest that they knew how to make woven clothing. They had huts, constructed of rocks, clay, bones, branches, and animal hide/fur. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and may have created the first calendar around 15,000 years ago^[15].

The flint tools found in association with the remains at Cro-Magnon have associations with the Aurignacian culture that Lartet had identified a few years before he found the skeletons.

Qafzeh humans seem to have coexisted with Neanderthals for up to 60,000 years in the Levant^[16] although Qafzeh are logical representatives of sub-Saharan Africans but not of Cro-Magnon and subsequent Europeans^[17]. Earlier studies^[18] argue for more than 15,000 years of Neanderthal and EEMH coexistence in France^[19]; newer for east-west cline of patterns between Neanderthals and EEMH. Additionally, the observed reversal of Châtelperronian over Aurignacian cultures may be a mistaken conclusion based on interstratified ("chronologically mixed") paleo-layers, or layers of sediments disrupted by earlier quasi-scientific digs in the cave.^[20]

Genetics

A 2003 sequencing on two Cro-Magnons, 23 and 24,000 years old Pelosi 1 and 2, mitochondrial DNA, published by an Italo-Spanish research team led by David Caramelli, identified the mtDNA as Haplogroup N.^[21] Haplogroup N is found among modern populations of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, and its descendant haplogroups are found among modern North African, Eurasian, Polynesian and Native American populations.^[22]

See also

• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• List of human evolution fossils
• Neanderthal interaction with Cro-Magnons
• Earth's Children, a series of historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel, taking place in ancient Europe
• The Inheritors, a 1955 novel by William Golding about the extinction of Homo Neanderthalensis through conflict with Cro Magnon civilisation
• The Man from Earth, a 2007 motion picture in which a self-described Cro-Magnon reveals himself to his closest friends

References

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia has an article on:

Cro-Magnon

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

Cro-Magnon is the name of a cave in the Dordogne, France, where the first skeletons were found in 1868.

Noun

Cro-Magnon (plural Cro-Magnons)

1. The earliest known form of modern humans, Homo sapiens, to be found in Europe, dating from the late Paleolithic.