Anthropological Finds from the 2nd Dwelling Complex of Kostenki 1(I)

Three isolated human deciduous teeth have been discovered in the course of working with the collection from the 2nd dwelling complex of Kostenki 1(I) which is stored at IHMC RAS. No information about these teeth has been published until now. The teeth come from the southern part of the complex; they were found not far from the hearth line. The context of their discovery testifies that neither structure nor filling of this part of the excavation radically differed from those of the other studied areas of the complex, which suggests that the occurrence of the teeth in the cultural layer had a random character. The morphological examination of the teeth shows that they could belong to two or three children: a six-year-old and a nine-year-old, or a six-year-old and two nine-year-olds. Comparative odontometric analysis of the first upper deciduous incisors and the first lower deciduous molars of individual finds from the Upper Palaeolithic sites indicates that the isolated teeth from Kostenki 1(I) do not fundamentally differ from European and Siberian Homo sapiens finds. To date, these teeth represent the only anthropological remains associated with the two Kostenki-Avdeevo dwelling complexes of Kostenki 1(I).