Human remains from the Moravian Gravettian: the Dolní Vĕstonice 3 postcrania

To add to our knowledge of European earlier Upper Paleolithic (especially Pavlovian) human biology, the postcranial skeleton of the Dolní Vĕstonic 3 partial skeleton was excavated and reassembled. It represents the remains of an adult female, who was buried in a tightly flexed position with the ventral side down and turned slightly to the left. Subsequent compaction led to extensive damage to the axial skeleton and long bone epiphyses. It nonetheless retains the C1 and C2, fragments of the C5 to S3, portions of the pelvis, most of the long bone diaphyses, and a number of manual and pedal remains. Dolní Vĕstonice 3 was a relatively gracile individual in terms of diaphyseal robusticity and especially muscular attachment rugosity, despite the strong development of femoral and tibial diaphyseal structural buttresses. Upper limb asymmetry is slight and variable. She is similar to other earlier Upper Paleolithic remains in having warm temperate to tropical body proportions but is at the lower limit of Gravettian variation in body size indicators. There is no evidence of significant antemortem lesions on the preserved postcrania.