ArticlePDF Available

The Gravettian burial known as the Prince ("II Principe"): New evidence for his age and diet

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

The famous upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian) burial with shell ornaments known as "Il Principe" was discovered in Italy sixty years ago. Here the authors present recent scientific research on his skeleton, leading to new assessments of the date of the burial and indications of diet.
Content may be subject to copyright.
15
Research
The Gravettian burial known as the
Prince (“Il Principe”): new evidence for
his age and diet
P. B. Pettitt, M. Richards, R. Maggi & V. Formicola*
The famous upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian) burial with shell ornaments known as “Il
Principe” was discovered in Italy sixty years ago. Here the authors present recent scientific
research on his skeleton, leading to new assessments of the date of the burial and indications
of diet.
Keywords: Gravettian, burial, Italy
Introduction
“Il Principe” (the Prince) is the nickname given to a spectacular Mid Upper Palaeolithic
(Gravettian) burial discovered at Arene Candide, Italy in 1942. Arene Candide is a large cave
located about 90 m above sea level on the slope of the Caprazoppa promontory, along the
Ligurian coast near Finale Ligure (Savona, Italy). The cave is named after a dune of white
siliceous sand of aeolian origin, banked against the wall of the promontory, today destroyed
by quarrying activity. Systematic excavation of its rich deposit was carried out at the beginning
of the 1940’s by Bernabò Brea and Cardini who exposed a stratigraphic sequence which
ranged from the Upper Palaeolithic to historical times and included many burials of Late
Epigravettian and Neolithic date (Bernabò Brea, 1946; Cardini 1980 1994; Maggi 1977).
The burial of “Il Principe” (Arene Candide 1) came to light on 1 May 1942, during the
excavation of a sondaggio (test core) into the Pleistocene deposits, shortly before the excavations
were interrupted by the war (Cardini 1942). The skeleton of an adolescent male (Sergi et al.
1972), spectacularly ornamented (hence “Il Principe”), was found at a depth 6.70 m in a bed
of red ochre, its head surrounded by hundreds of perforated shells and canines of deer,
probably originally forming a kind of cap. Shells (Ciprea sp.), pendants of mammoth ivory,
four perforated “bâtons de commandement” of elk antler, three of which were decorated
with thin radial striations around the hole (Molari 1994), and a 23 cm long flint blade held
in the right hand were additional components of the extraordinary ornamentation of this
specimen (Figure 1).
*Pettitt, Department of Archaeology, Keble College, Oxford OX1 3PG, UK. (paul.pettitt@keble.ox.ac.uk)
Richards, Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK (M.P.Richards@Bradford.ac.uk)
Maggi, Soprintendenza Archeologica della Liguria, via Balbi 10, 16126 Genova, Italy. (museoarchiavari@libero.it)
Formicola, Dpt. di Etologia Ecologia ed Evoluzione, via A. Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy. (vformi@discau.unipi.it)
Received 13 December 2001; Revised 9 January 2003.
16
P. B. Pettitt, M. Richards, R. Maggi & V. Formicola
The recent work carried
out by the authors and
reported here employed
scientific analysis of Il
Principe’s skeleton, preserved
in the Museo di Archeologia
Ligure, to measure a direct
date by AMS and examine
the stable isotope assemblage
for information about diet.
AMS radiocarbon
dating
A sample of 380mg drilled
from a femur of the Arene
Candide 1 skeleton was pre-
treated using the standard
Oxford procedure for bone.
As the curatorial history of
the sample was unknown, it
was suspected that an
unidentified form of
preservative may have been
used and pre-treatment
methods were undertaken
assuming potential
contamination. Of particular relevance was the use of an ultrafilter (Brown et al. 1988),
which has been shown to successfully remove preservatives applied to bones. This allowed us
to be confident about the absence of contaminating carbon from the sample we measured.
After pre-treatment, a sample of 0.4 mg carbon was measured in the Oxford Accelerator
Mass Spectrometer, and the result was as follows:
OxA–10700 Arene Candide 1 “Il Principe”, bone, Homo sapiens,–δ13C=––17.6
δ15N = 12.4, C/N ratio = 3.2.
23440 ± 190 years BP
The result is uncalibrated and expressed in radiocarbon years BP (where Before Present =
AD1950), using the half life of 5568 years. Isotopic fractionation has been corrected for
using the measured δ13C values quoted (to ± 0.3 per mil relative to VPDB). At two standard
deviations, the result shows that the burial was emplaced between 23820 – 23060 BP, clearly
within the 24th millennium (uncal) BP.
Comparison with other 14C dates available for the archaeological layers at Arene Candide
shows that our direct date is statistically the same age at one standard deviation as that
Figure 1. Arene Candide 1 (“Il Principe”). Note perforated shell ‘cap’, perforated
batons, flint blade grasped in right hand, and mass of yellow ochre between the left
clavicle and mandible.
17
Research
The Gravettian burial known as the Prince (“Il Principe”): new evidence for his age and diet
obtained from charcoal recently recovered from “Hearth VI” of Cardini’s stratigraphy (Beta–
53983: 23450 ± 220, 23890 – 23010 at 2σ: Macphail et al. 1994). At first sight this is
potentially problematic as the two dates pertain to distinct stratigraphical units: Arene Candide
1 was found “just below or at the bottom of the fifth of a series of eight hearths” (Cardini
1994:38), so, based on the amount of deposit between hearth V and VI (see Bietti and
Molari 1994: Figure 7), one might expect some age difference between the two.
However, all but the fifth of the so-called “hearths” were nothing more than “shallow and
limited lenses of fine charcoal occurring where the deposit was stone free” (Cardini 1994:37).
The charcoal sample was taken in 1991 during work to preserve the exposed sections of the
1942 trench. It is difficult to correlate the archaeological sections exposed today with Cardini’s
original stratigraphy, particularly in relation to the correspondence between “hearths” (Bietti
and Molari, 1994; Macphail et al. 1994). Moreover, both dates clearly belong to the 24th
millennium (uncal) BP, and reading the two results at two standard deviations, up to 800
radiocarbon years may separate the two.
Dietary information
The carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values of the extracted and dated collagen provide us
with information on the diet of ‘Il Principe’. Stable isotope analyses provides information on
protein sources in diets over the last years of life, and is particularly well suited to distinguishing
between marine and terrestrial protein sources (Tauber 1981, Chisholm et al. 1982, Richards
and Mellars 1998, Richards and Hedges 1999). The δ13C value of –17.6 and the associated
δ15N value of 12.6% are indicative of a contribution of marine foods to the diet. If we use
Holocene end-point values of –20 ± 1% for a 100% terrestrial diet and –12 ± 1 for a 100%
marine diet, the ‘Il Principe’ values indicate that approximately 20 to 25% of dietary protein
is from marine protein, probably from the Mediterranean. This links in well with a larger
study of Gravettian humans from Eurasia which have also been dated directly using the
AMS Radiocarbon technique (Richards et al. 2001) in which evidence for the use of aquatic
resources was indicated for a number of individuals through stable isotope analyses.
Wider context
These results fit well with the emerging context of reliable dates for other Mid Upper
Palaeolithic ochred and accompanied European burials (summarized in Table 1). Mid Upper
Palaeolithic burials were clearly emplaced from the 27th to 24th (and possibly early 23rd)
millennia BP. The new AMS result suggests that Arene Candide 1 was one of the last known
elaborate mid Upper Palaeolithic burials. The new stable isotope data for Arene Candide 1
supports the notion of significant increase in dietary breadth from at least c. 27 000 BP.
18
P. B. Pettitt, M. Richards, R. Maggi & V. Formicola
Acknowledgements
We are most grateful to the curators of the Museo di Archeologia Ligure in Genoa Pegli for their kind assistance
during the sampling of Arene Candide 1, and to the staff of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit for
carrying out the Radiocarbon measurement. This work was supported by the National Environmental Research
Council Radiocarbon Facility (P.B.P.), MURST and IIPP (R.M.) and CNR (99.03689.PF.36) (V.F.).
Table 1.
Site Sample context Date Reference
Paviland 1 (the “Red skeleton OxA–1815, 26350 ± 550; Aldhouse-Green &
Lady”), Wales OxA–8025, 25840 ± 280 Pettitt 1998, Pettitt 2000
Lagar Velho 1, Portugal fauna and charcoal OxA–8421, 24660 ± 260; Duarte et al. 1999
from grave fill OxA–8423, 24520 ± 240;
OxA–8422, 23920 ± 220;
GrA–13310, 24860 ± 200
Brno 2 (Francousk· skeleton OxA–8293, 23680 ± 200 Pettitt & Trinkaus 2000
Street), Czech Republic
Dolní Vestonice site From the “triple burial” GrN–14831, 26640 ± 110 van der Plicht 1997
II DVXIII–XV,
Czech Republic
Sungir, Russia skeletons of adult male Respectively Pettitt and Bader 2000
(burial 1) and double OxA–9036 22,930 ± 200;
burial (2 & 3) OxA–9037 23830 ± 220;
OxA–9038 24100 ± 240
References
ALDHOUSE-GREEN, S. H. R. & P. B. PETTITT 1998.
Paviland Cave: contextualizing the Red Lady.
Antiquity 72(278). 756–772.
BERNABÒ BREA, L. 1946. Gli scavi nella Caverna delle
Arene Candide, (Bordighera: Istituto di Studi
Liguri).
BIETTI, A. & C. MOLARI. 1994. The Upper Pleistocene
deposit of the Arene Candide cave (Savona, Italy):
general introduction and stratigraphy. Quaternaria
Nova 4: 9–27.
BROWN, T. A., D. E. NELSON & J. R. SOUTHON. 1988.
Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin
method. Radiocarbon 30:171–177.
CARDINI, L. 1942. Nuovi documenti sull’antichità
dell’uomo in Italia: reperto umano del Paleolitico
superiore nella Grotta delle Arene Candide. Razza
e Civiltà 3:5–25.
CARDINI, L. 1980. La necropoli mesolitica delle Arene
Candide (Liguria). Memorie dell’Istituto Italiano di
Paleontologia Umana, n.s. 3:9–31.
CARDINI, L. (ed. Taschini, M) 1994. Le industrie dei
livelli mesolitici e paleolitici della caverna delle
Arene Candide (Savona). Quaternaria Nova 4:29–
78.
CHISHOLM, B.S., D. E. NELSON & H. P. SCHWARCZ.
1982. Stable carbon ratios as a measure of marine
versus terrestrial protein in ancient diets. Science
216:1131–1132.
DUARTE, C., J. MAURCIO, P. B. PETTITT, P. SOUTO, E.
TRINKAUS & J. ZILHAO. 1999. An earlier Upper
Palaeolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do
Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human
emergence in Iberia. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (USA), 96. 7604–9.
MACPHAIL, R.I., J. HATHER, S. HILLSON & R. MAGGI.
1994. The Upper Pleistocene deposits at Arene
Candide: soil micromorphology of some samples
from the Cardini 1940–42 excavations.
Quaternaria Nova 4:79–100.
MAGGI, R. 1997. The excavations by Luigi Bernabò
Brea and Luigi Cardini of the cave of Arene
Candide within the historical context of the study
of Prehistory in Italy. In R. Maggi (ed.) Arene
Candide: a functional and environmental
assessment of the Holocene sequence (excavations
Bernabò Brea-Cardini 1940–1950). Memorie
dell’Istituto di Paleontologia Umana,n.s. 5, 11–30.
MOLARI, C. 1994. The industry on bone of the
Pleistocene layers from the Arene Candide Cave
(Savona, Italy). Quaternaria Nova IV, 297–340.
19
Research
The Gravettian burial known as the Prince (“Il Principe”): new evidence for his age and diet
PETTITT, P. B. 2000. Radiocarbon chronology, faunal
turnover and human occupation at the Goat’s
Hole, Paviland. In Aldhouse-Green, S. (ed)
Paviland Cave and the ‘Red Lady’: a Definitive
Report. (University of Wales College, Newport and
National Museums and Galleries of Wales. Bristol:
Western Academic and Specialist Press): 63–71.
PETTITT, P. B. & O. N. BADER. 2000. Direct AMS
Radiocarbon dates on the Sungir mid Upper
Palaeolithic burials. Antiquity 74: 269–70.
PETTITT, P. B. & E. TRINKAUS. 2000. Direct radiocarbon
dating of the Brno 2 Gravettian human remains.
Anthropologie (Brno). 38.2:149–50.
RICHARDS, M.P., & R.E.M. HEDGES. 1999. Stable
isotope evidence for similarities in the types of
marine foods used by Late Mesolithic humans at
sites along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of
Archaeological Science 26:717–722.
RICHARDS, M.P. & P. MELLARS. 1998. Stable isotopes
and the seasonality of the Oronsay middens.
Antiquity 72:178–184.
RICHARDS, M. P., P.B. PETTITT, M. STINER & E.
TRINKAUS. 2001. Stable isotope evidence for
increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-
Upper Palaeolithic. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science (USA) 98(11): 6528–6532.
SERGI, S., R. PARENTI & G. PAOLI. 1974. Il giovane
paleolitico della Caverna delle Arene Candide.
Memorie dell’Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia
Umana, n.s. 2:13–38.
TAUBER, H. 1981. 13C evidence for dietary habits of
prehistoric man in Denmark. Nature 292:332–333
VAN DER PLICHT, J. 1997. The Radiocarbon dating. In:
Pavlov I – Northwest, the Upper Paleolithic burial
and its settlement context. The Dolni Vestonice
Studies, Vol. 4 (Academy of Sciences of the Czech
Republic, Brno). ISBN 80–86023–04–4.
... The majority of individuals for whom a puberty status could be suggested are male. While these biases broadly reflect those of the Upper Palaeolithic skeletal record as a whole (Pettitt, 2011;Riel-Salvatore and Gravel-Miguel, 2013;French and Nowell, 2022;Arenas del Amo et al., 2024), neither this wider skeletal record nor our adolescent sample can be considered wholly representative of the living population from which they derive. ...
... Data from the Upper Paleolithic adolescents suggest that puberty began for both males and females between the ages of 11 and 14 years, with completion of sexual maturation reached between 17 and 20 years for the majority of individuals. When trying to gain a picture of the timing and tempo of sexual maturation in the Upper Paleolithic, it is important to note that these individuals are intrinsically unusual in that they were specifically selected for burial, perhaps as a means of containing or sanctioning distinctive individuals (Formicola, 2007;Pettitt, 2011). The range of variability noted in the sample, for example, with the later development of AC1 than the other males of a similar age, nonetheless suggests that a normal pattern of adolescent development is being captured, with some individuals being slightly ahead of, or behind their peers, just as with modern adolescents. ...
... A mass of yellow ochre fills the space between his left clavicle and mandible where both bones are largely missing due to trauma. The grave goods include hundreds of perforated shells and deer canines encircling the head (suggestive of the former presence of a shell cap), four mammoth ivory pendants, four perforated 'batons de commandement' made from elk antler, and a 23-cm long flint blade held in his right hand (Pettitt et al., 2003). ...
... During the upper Palaeolithic, the presence of red pigments in burials increased. The earliest evidence of this tendency includes the socalled red lady, a male burial from Paviland (South Wales, 26.000 years agoAldhouse- Green, 2000), the grave of a young prince at Arene Candide (Italy, 24.000 years ago Pettitt et al., 2003) and the double child burial at Sunghir (Russia, 24.000 years ago Formicola and Buzhilova, 2004). In all these cases, the pigment was sprinkled on the bodies. ...
Article
Full-text available
Numerous researchers point out the emergence of human symbolism is related to the evolution of the complexity of human cognition. Red mineral pigments have been used extensively, particularly with anatomically modern humans, for various purposes. However, the management and supply of these pigments during prehistoric periods remains poorly investigated. Still today, the limited application of physico-chemical analyses often leads to a simplistic attribution of these pigments as ochre. The studies of data from recent literature presented in our paper show a progressive introduction and exploitation of cinnabar ore, to achieve a red pigment, from the seventh millennium BC. In this panorama, the new data obtained from the analyses of samples of artefacts from La Marmotta (Italy) show a wide use of cinnabar in central Italy from the early Neolithic and attest to the earliest use of this ore in the western Mediterranean area.
... In Europe, the use of ochre in burial rites is documented from Sicily to Scandinavia (Maviglia 1941;Graziosi 1947;Aldhouse-Green and Pettitt 1998;Aldhouse-Green 2001;Pettitt et al. 2003;Einwögere et al. 2006;Giacobini 2007;Fahlander, 2008Svoboda 2008Zagorska 2008;González-Morales and Straus 2009;Villotte and Henry-Gambier 2010;Straus et al. 2011;Martini et al. 2012aMartini et al. , 2017Riel-Salvatore et al., 2013;Formicola and Holt 2015;Petersen 2015;Reynold et al., 2017;Orschiedt 2018;Sparacello, 2018;Petru, 2018). It was used as is or transformed by heating to obtain the red colour or by grinding to obtain powder. ...
Article
Full-text available
The Grotta d’Oriente, on the island of Favignana (Egadi, Sicily) has yielded a series of burials and human remains attributable to the final Epigravettian and Mesolithic. The Epigravettian burial, known as Oriente A, is characterised by funerary equipment consisting of perforated shells and a pebble with traces of red ochre. This site is one of the rare cases in which there is evidence of the use of ochre in a funerary context in Sicily and therefore the archaeological reconstruction requires the chemical-mineralogical characterization of this pigment using SEM, EDS, XRD, FORS and Raman spectroscopy. The comparative analysis of this pigment with a series of Terra Rossa from Favignana and other areas of Sicily has demonstrated that the Oriental A ochre does not derive from these sediments. This study shows the importance of applying different analysis methods for the characterization of ochres to try to define their origin.
... During the upper Palaeolithic, the presence of red pigments in burials increased. The earliest evidence of this tendency includes the socalled red lady, a male burial from Paviland (South Wales, 26.000 years agoAldhouse- Green, 2000), the grave of a young prince at Arene Candide (Italy, 24.000 years ago Pettitt et al., 2003) and the double child burial at Sunghir (Russia, 24.000 years ago Formicola and Buzhilova, 2004). In all these cases, the pigment was sprinkled on the bodies. ...
... We must therefore focus on the indirect evidence for clothing that might be preserved. Commonly examined in studies of early clothing is the evidence for personal adornment and the arrangement of ornaments including ivory beads and armlets found in the excavated burials of modern humans, such as the Prince at Arene Candide (Pettitt et al., 2003) or the three individuals at Sunghir (Trinkaus and Buzhilova 2018), have been argued to suggest the existence of a well-developed, decorated and tailored clothing by 35 ka, with the distribution of beading found in these funerary arrangements implying that they may have originally been stitched onto cloth and worn as fitted clothing. As yet, there is no evidence for this type of behaviour before this date. ...
Article
Full-text available
Evidence that Neanderthals had mastered the production of birch bark tar as an adhesive has generated important and timely debate concerning behavioural complexity. Increased resolution of the data on palaeo-climatic conditions has also brought into sharp focus the need for hominins living in high latitudes to possess complex cultural mechanisms to deal with cold environments. Whilst evidence for fire is readily available for Neanderthals, evidence for clothing remains obscure. Due to taphonomic constraints only indirect evidence for clothing can be examined. The recovery of eyed needles only from sites related to Homo sapiens, along with a longstanding presumption that Neanderthals were less culturally adaptive has resulted in a belief that Neanderthals lacked complex, tailored clothing. However, if hominins in high latitude, glacial environments needed complex clothing for survival, and other technologies might serve in place of the eyed needle, it is possible to re-focus the debate on Neanderthal clothing and cognition. In this paper we present an experimental pilot study which suggests that birch bark glue was a possible component of the Neanderthal technological repertoire for making tailored and, perhaps more importantly, waterproof garments.
Article
Full-text available
Arene Candide Cave, a key site for Western Mediterranean prehistory, is famous for the discovery of the richly adorned Mid–Upper Palaeolithic burial of the ‘Young Prince’ and for its use as a burial site at the end of the Pleistocene (Late Epigravettian). In both contexts, red ochre was a conspicuous element of the burial practices. Unfortunately, few provenance studies and analytical data are available for the pigments recovered in the cave. Likewise, the geographical and geological origins of these colouring materials, which are naturally abundant in the Liguro‐Provençal Arc, have received little to no attention despite their technical and symbolic value. During the 2008–2013 archaeological excavation at Arene Candide Cave, micromorphological samples were collected from the Upper Palaeolithic portion of the 1940s stratigraphic profiles, permitting a first description of site formation processes during the Gravettian. This led to the recognition of a Late Gravettian layer characterized by poorly sorted sediment rich in very small ochre fragments. This study establishes the provenance of these ochre fragments through the combined use of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction. The results reveal a strong correspondence between the Arene Candide ochres and local ore sites, which were never considered before as potential sources. The mineralogical composition of the samples, characterized by the presence of barium sulphate and iron oxides, indicates that the Finalese area (NW Liguria) in which the site is located was the most likely source of the colouring pigments used by the Upper Palaeolithic hunter‐gatherers of the Arene Candide Cave.
Article
Full-text available
Adornments such as pendants, beads, and other perforated objects are an important finds category in Upper Paleolithic sites. Raw materials, production technology, and use-wear can tell us much about the objects and technocultural context of their carriers. Excavations from 2005–2015 at the Gravettian (Pavlovian) site of Krems-Wachtberg provided 110 objects which can be interpreted as adornments. They consist of mammoth ivory beads and pins, perforated canine teeth and molluscs, and fossil Serpulidae. More than half of these objects were found in the context of a double burial of infants. A recently conducted investigation describes all adornments and places them into a chronological and technological context. Analyses of all objects in this study were carried out using a Keyence VHX 7000 stereomicroscope. Micro photos were produced for all objects and allowed a wide range of measurements which would otherwise not have been possible to make considering the objects’ poor state of preservation. The produced micro photos will allow for additional non-destructive morphological analyses in the future. Information concerning the preservation of the raw material, use-wear, traces of production, method of perforation, fire exposure, and residues were collected in a database. The 53 mammoth ivory beads found in the double burial in particular allowed not only for reconstructing a chaîne opératoire for the manufacture, but provided interesting information regarding the objects’ lifecycle. Polishing on the bridges of some of the pendants’ perforations, presumably caused by a thread, and the location of the polished areas in relation to their positions show that some beads had already been worn before being deposited in the burial. This suggests that they were not explicitly made for the infants’ burial as previously suggested.
Article
Full-text available
The transition to farming brought on a series of important changes in human society, lifestyle, diet and health. The human bioarchaeology of the agricultural transition has received much attention, however, relatively few studies have directly tested the interrelationship between individual lifestyle factors and their implications for understanding life history changes among the first farmers. We investigate the interplay between skeletal growth, diet, physical activity and population size across 30,000 years in the central Mediterranean through a ‘big data’ cross-analysis of osteological data related to stature (n = 361), body mass (n = 334) and long bone biomechanics (n = 481), carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) stable isotopes (n = 1986 human, n = 475 animal) and radiocarbon dates (n = 5263). We present the observed trends on a continuous timescale in order to avoid grouping our data into assigned ‘time periods’, thus achieving greater resolution and chronological control over our analysis. The results identify important changes in human life history strategies associated with the first farmers, but also highlight the long-term nature of these trends in the millennia either side of the agricultural transition. The integration of these different data is an important step towards disentangling the complex relationship between demography, diet and health, and reconstruct life history changes within a southern European context. We believe the methodological approach adopted here has broader global implications for bioarchaeological studies of human adaptation more generally.
Article
Paviland is the richest Early Upper Palaeolithic site in the British Isles and has produced Britain's only ceremonial burial (the 'Red Lady') of that age. Excavations in the 19th and early 20th centuries, combined with the action of the sea, have removed virtually all of the cave's sedimentary sequence. A new, definitive study of the site and its finds, together with over 40 radiocarbon dates, shows that Paviland currently holds the key to our understanding of the chronology of human activity and settlement from c. 30,000 to 21,000 years ago. The age of the 'Red Lady' is also finally resolved at c. 26,000 b.p.
Article
The site of Sungir (alternatively Sounghir) lies east of the town of Vladimir, about 200 km northeast of Moscow. It is a large mid Upper Palaeolithic ('Eastern Gravettian' sensu lato ) cultural accumulation on the left bank of the Kliazma river, of which some 1500 sq. m was excavated in several seasons between 1957 and 1964 (Bader 1965; 1967; 1978; 1998).The single burial (Grave 1/Sungir 1) was excavated in 1964. It is that ofan adult male in extended, supine position, with his head oriented to the northeast and hands placed over his pubis (Figure 1). The second grave was discovered in 1969 and contained two adolescents — one male (Sungir 2) and one (probably) female (Sungir 3) — both extended, supine and lying head to head (Figure 2). All three burials were covered in red ochre and Sungir 1 was possibly associated with fires in a manner intriguingly similar to the DVXVI male burialat Dolní Větonice, Moravia (Svoboda et al . 1996).