Disentangling Cro-Magnon: The adult upper limb skeleton

Abstract The Cro-Magnon human remains, associated with the Mid Upper Paleolithic (MUP), have been commingled since 1868. Only one comprehensive attempt to reassociate the bones and partial description of them, now more than fifty years old, has been published. This article provides a comprehensive description and reassessment of the adult upper limb remains. We used a visual and morphometric approach, combined with virtual anthropology, to allocate 14 of the 24 upper limb bones to four individuals. This analysis illustrates the relative morphological homogeneity of the MUP sample and highlights the striking differences between MUP individuals and the more recent Upper Pleistocene human groups in western Eurasia. This study also reinforces the hypothesis of gender roles during the MUP, with women more frequently than men involved in physical activities requiring both upper limbs.