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Science 1 October 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5437, pp. 128 - 131
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5437.128
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Reports

Neanderthal Cannibalism at Moula-Guercy, Ardèche, France

Alban Defleur, 12* Tim White, 2 Patricia Valensi, 3 Ludovic Slimak, 4 Évelyne Crégut-Bonnoure 5

The cave site of Moula-Guercy, 80 meters above the modern Rhone River, was occupied by Neanderthals approximately 100,000 years ago. Excavations since 1991 have yielded rich paleontological, paleobotanical, and archaeological assemblages, including parts of six Neanderthals. The Neanderthals are contemporary with stone tools and faunal remains in the same tightly controlled stratigraphic and spatial contexts. The inference of Neanderthal cannibalism at Moula-Guercy is based on comparative analysis of hominid and ungulate bone spatial distributions, modifications by stone tools, and skeletal part representations.

1 UMR 6569 du CNRS, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie, Faculté de Médecine, Secteur Nord, Boulevard Pierre Dramart, 13916 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
2 Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
3 Laboratoire de Préhistoire du Lazaret, 33 bis Boulevard Franck Pilatte, 06300 Nice, France.
4 UMR 6636 du CNRS, 5 Rue du Chateau de l'Horloge, Boite Postale 647, 13094 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 2, Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille I, France.
5 Museé Requien, Rue Joseph Vernet, 84000, Avignon, France.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: defleur{at}voltaire.timone.univ-mrs.fr

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