Institute of Archaeology [Slovenian]

Home Members Programme Projects Laboratory
Database Publications Library Links Archive

DIVJE BABE I. Upper Pleistocene Palaeolithic site in Slovenia
Part I: Geology and Palaeontology

15. Metric study of cave bear skulls from Divje babe I

Borut TOŠKAN

Abstract

Morphometric analysis of 12 relatively well preserved cave bear skulls from facies A and B showed a predominance of males. Comparison with material from some other Upper Pleistocene sites showed that differences in the morphology of skulls among specimens of the same sex from various sites are essentially less than differences among skulls of males and females from the same site. The analysed skulls from Divje babe I do not differ in the measured dimensions in any way from chronologically slightly more recent specimens from Potočka zijalka.



Bear skulls from Divje babe I: a - Ursus spelaeus (D. b. 1848; Layer 8); b - Ursus arctos (D. b. 1606a; Layer 6). Photograph M. Zaplatil.

***

2007, (Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae, 13), 480pp, 10 colour photoogaphs, 178 b-w drawings, photoogaphs and maps, 89 tabels and 38 annexes; 20 x 29 cm, hardcover, ISBN 978-961-254-019-7.

Contents       Top