PIECE DATA SHEET

                         CRANE 
Cova Beneito (Muro d'Alcoi)

Beneito Cave (Muro d'Alcoi)
Human bones
h: 17.6 cm; w: 10 cm; e: 13.5 cm
Upper Palaeolithic
Solutreogravetian, 17,000 BP 
 

Partially reconstructed skull belonging to a young adult female (20-25 years old). It has a broad forehead, a medium-sized cranial vault, graceful and with reliefs of muscular insertions, generally not very marked. Near the right eye there is an imprint of a small healed trauma. The roof of the orbit shows signs of cribra orbitalia (small holes in the bone) which are related to anaemia, fever or infectious processes. An operation was carried out on the skull as it showed incisions in the bone made with a flint instrument. This has been interpreted as certain ritual practices, as described for other known specimens from the rest of Western Europe.
In the same levels, a fragment of cranial calotte was found belonging to another younger individual. Both isolated skulls have been interpreted as secondary burials.
C.S: 1600
ITURBE POLO, G. et alii., 1994.