The Grotte du Bison Neandertals (Arcy-sur-Cure, France)

The Grotte du Bison, in Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne, France), yielded a large assemblage of 49 Neandertal remains from late Mousterian layers, offering critical insights for the study of Middle to Upper Paleolithic populations of Western Europe. Previous studies described the external morphology of 13 isolated teeth and a partial maxilla. Building on this previous work, the current study provides further descriptions and analyses of the remains, including one postcranial fragment, six cranial fragments, two maxillary fragments, and 40 isolated teeth. The dental remains are examined for a more detailed assessment of the metric and nonmetric variability of their external and internal morphologies. We focus our description on preservation, health status, and age at death, and we assess the minimum number of individuals. The dental variability is also compared to that of Middle and Upper Pleistocene hominins. Our results indicate that the collection represents at least nine to 17 individuals, comprising mostly children and adolescents. Five to seven pairings are identified based on shared dental traits, developmental criteria, such as perikymata and pitted hypoplasia, wear patterns, and taphonomic alterations. This collection exhibits characteristic Neandertal features, including occasionally markedly expressed traits (e.g., I¹ and P³ ridging and tubercular expressions), as well as a homogenous expression of accessory structures (particularly for the molars). The highest morphological variability is observed on maxillary premolar roots, which display different stages of root fusion, mesially placed hypercementosis, and pulp cavity extension. This collection also reflects the morphological and behavioral diversity observed in the other Arcy-sur-Cure caves.