The archaeological discovery and analysis of the "Hombre de Loizu"

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Basque Archaeology: Current Research and Future Directions" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2020, during a speleological intervention in a cave located in the Erro Valley (Navarra), the oldest set of skeletal remains in the region was discovered. Radiocarbon dating revealed the individual to be more than 11,000 years old, placing the remains in the early Mesolithic period. Due to the significance of the discovery, a multidisciplinary, international team of 26 researchers was formed to reconstruct the funerary context, taphonomic history and osteobiography of the individual.

This presentation discusses some of the challenges associated with accessing the remains within a deep cave network, and the results of the osteological and isotopic analysis, through which extensive information on the individual was obtained. Of particular note was the presence of a cranial injury, which was likely the cause of the individual's death. Experimental forensic studies suggest that this was likely a violent injury resulting from an episode of interpersonal violence. The discovery of the "Man of Loizu" represents one of the most publicized discoveries in modern Basque archaeology, and was wide-reaching implications for the understanding of Mesolithic funerary practices in Navarre and beyond.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Basque Archaeology: Current Research and Future Directions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51627