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Regourdou

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Site type:
Cave
Lat/Long:
45.05, 1.17
Country:
France
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Le Regourdou (or Le Régourdou) is an archaeological site in the Dordogne department, France, on top of a hill just 800 m (2,600 ft) from the famous cave complex of Lascaux. At this now collapsed 35 m (115 ft) deep ancient karst cavity remarkably well preserved Neanderthal fossils were recovered, that might be skeletal remains of deliberate burials. According to the current excavation team at the site, the correct name of the location is "Regourdou". "Le Régourdou" is considered a misnomer and should be avoided.

Apart from a Neanderthal skeleton discovered in 1957, excavator Eugène Bonifay found a large number of brown bear bones, several pits and stone platforms that contained bear bones. These were interpreted as evidence of a Middle Palaeolithic bear cult. This interpretation, however, was seriously debated given that repeated occupation of the cave by bears followed natural taphonomic phenomena, that reasonably explain the large number of bones.

The first Neanderthal (Regourdou 1), found at the site is a young adult, that initially preserved the mandible, part of the upper limbs, and the sternum. Regourdou 1 has been interpreted as an intentional burial. However, it is difficult to reconcile this with the fact that it has no head and no lower limbs. According to a 2008 publication, a great number of skeletal elements were discovered, all in remarkably good condition. These are the right and left coxal, the right femur, the left tibia, the right patella, the left fibula, the right navicular, the bones of the hands, and the posterior arch of the lumbar vertebra.

Regourdou 1 is often used for Neanderthal comparison studies, as it is the most robust Neanderthal skeleton ever found. Chronostratigraphic comparison to other sites and biostratigraphy suggest an age of Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 or early Oxygen Isotope Stage 4 (c. 70,000 years BP) for the Mousterian sediment, that contains the burial. A second individual (Regourdou 2) is represented by a calcaneus.