Лингвофорум

Grotte du Bichon
The small cave "Grotte du Bichon" is situated in the Swiss Jura Mountains, a few kilometres north of the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds (canton Neuchâtel), at an altitude of 845 m a.s.l. (Supplementary Fig. 6). During its first excavation, undertaken by speleologists in 1956, bones of a young man were discovered intermingled with the remains of a female brown bear (Ursus arctos) and nine flint projectile points, apparently stemming from the hunter's weapons.

Both skeletons as well as the flints were located about 15 m from the entrance, at a recess of the cave, and were associated with charcoal concentrations but with no other archaeological material. Although a hunting accident was already envisioned at that time, without further indications the remains of the bear were considered not to be related to the human skeleton and therefore stored at the natural history museum of La Chaux-de-Fonds, while the human bones and the flints were kept in the archaeology museum of Neuchâtel (Laténium).

Only in 1991, during re-examination of the animal bone material, did archaeozoologist Philippe Morel discover an impact trace and two flint chips (probably a broken tip of an arrowhead) in a cervical vertebra of the bear, thus establishing a clear connection between the animal and the man24. This discovery prompted new excavations that were carried out between 1991 and 1995. During these new investigations, using modern excavation techniques (including water sieving), all of the missing long bones from the two skeletons were recovered, together with some more flint artefacts. The small lithic assemblage now contained 10 backed points, 16 backed bladelets and one retouched blade fragment, characteristic of final (Azilian) Palaeolithic industries.  It seems that the cave was never used as a camp site as unretouched debitage products were not recovered. Four radiocarbon measurements performed on the bones from the bear and the man (two on each) and eight dates obtained from charcoal, from willow (Salix sp.) and from pine (Pinus sylvestis) ranged from 10,950 to 11,760 uncal. BP25. A new direct date on the human skeleton 11,855 ± 50 uncal. BP (OxA-27763) or 13,560- 13,770 cal. BP (95.4% CI, previously unpublished) is in agreement with the dates of the charcoal and pine...

...Bichon belongs to Y haplogroup  I2a (see methods). Haplogroup I has been found at high frequencies in Europe but is virtually absent elsewhere. This haplogroup is suggested to have a European pre-LGM origin and has been found in ancient samples with hunter-gatherer backgrounds from central and northern Europe.