Les squelettes mésolithiques et néolithiques de l'abri des Autours (province de Namur, Belgique)

The ‘Autours’ rockshelter (province of Namur, Belgium) excavated in 1992–1993 revealed three burials dated to different periods. Two of them are collective and belong to cultural contexts for which funerary practices were until then unknown. The first belongs to the Middle Neolithic and contained the remains of three adults and six children. In the second burial dated to the Early Mesolithic, six adults (one of them was cremated) and six children were discovered. The most ancient burial corresponds to a single interment. It is also dated to the Early Mesolithic and it contained the skeleton of a mature woman. The biometrical study of the fossils shows the presence of archaic morphological features.