The Red Lady of El Mirón is a skeleton belonging to a woman of Upper Paleolithic (

Magdalenian The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madele ...

) found at

El Mirón Cave The El Mirón Cave is a large cave in the upper Asón River valley towards the eastern end of Cantabria in northern Spain, near the border of the Basque Country. It is an archeological site in Ramales de la Victoria. It is known for a skeleton b ...

in eastern Cantabria, Spain.

Background

The discovery was published in 2015 by a team of archaeologists from Universidad de Burgos, Universidad de Cantabria and

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

. The publication covers an entire August issue of the ''

Journal of Archaeological Science The ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers "the development and application of scientific techniques and methodologies to all areas of archaeology". The journal was established in 1974 by Aca ...

''. The woman's age is estimated to be between 35 and 40 years. Her bones were coated with

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

, a red iron-based pigment, hence, her name.

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

indicates that the woman was buried around 18,700 years ago. The team of archaeologists, led by Lawrence Straus of the University of New Mexico and Manuel González Morales of the University of Cantabria, had been investigating the El Mirón Cave since 1996. They initially found a number of prehistoric remains. In 2010, they explored a narrow space behind a large

limestone block Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when th ...

inside the cave, where they discovered the Red Lady. Other than the skull and some bones, her skeleton was relatively intact. This indicates that she was properly buried after death. According to the archaeologist, the ochre painting and the limestone block were markers of her grave. Further, the engraving of a letter V on the wall suggest the indication of a woman's burial. Gnaw-marks on the leg bone (

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

) shows that a

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

(estimated to be about the size of a dog or wolf) bit the bone when the flesh had decomposed. The skull and long bones were likely removed after this incident, perhaps, for display or reburial. These activities suggest that the people might have had burial rituals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Lady of El Miron Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens fossils Prehistoric burials in Spain Magdalenian