Loschbour - The first Luxembourger
The scientific documentary presenting two 3D animations is devoted to the two oldest prehistoric occupants of the Grand-Duchy discovered in the Müllerthal-region in Luxembourg.
Based on new anthropological examinations and the latest scientific advances in paleogenetics, this documentary reveals two different burial rites practiced by the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers between 9,000 and 8,000 years ago.
The documentaries:
The Loschbour Man – an anthropological study
What did Luxembourg's oldest inhabitant, one of the last Mesolithic hunters, look like? Recent advances in genetics, the growing number of global databases and the falling costs of DNA sequencing, allowed paleogeneticists, paleoanthropologists and prehistorians to answer this question, while refining their hypotheses and scenarios on the evolution of man and the settlement phases of Europe. New DNA data have enabled CNRA prehistorians, under the direction of Foni Le Brun and in collaboration with MNHN paleoanthropologists, to propose an animated three-dimensional reconstruction, produced by Nic Herber of Osweiler-based Anubis. The virtual face of the oldest Luxembourger dated to almost 6,000 years BCE (Loschbour 1: 6220-5990 BCE calibrated), i.e. almost 8,000 years ago, was reconstructed by scanning the skull, then remodeling the soft tissue using specialised facial morphology reconstruction software. The information provided by the DNA results then enabled us to propose hair, skin and eye coloration and pigmentation for the Loschbour man 1.
The woman of Loschbour - a prehistoric cremation
The subject of this documentary is Luxembourg's oldest burial site, discovered in a sandstone rock shelter in the Mullerthal. Yet unpublished, it consists of charred human remains unearthed at a place called Loschbour in Heffingen. Currently the only one of its kind in Europe, this exceptional cremation is to be distinguished from the more recent Late Mesolithic burial discovered nearby, known as the Loschbour Man. This short film presents a reconstruction of burial practices carried out in the Middle Mesolithic period, almost 9,000 years ago. This scientific animation was produced by the Centre National de Recherche Archéologique du Luxembourg (CNRA) and a multidisciplinary team. Two prehistorians (F. Le Brun and L. Brou, CNRA) worked in partnership with two anthropologists (M. Toussaint and D. Delsate) and a geoarchaeologist (H.-G. Naton, géoarchéon), on the scientific study, anthropological analysis and taphonomic examination of the human remains and their archaeosedimentary context. After scanning the human bones, these preliminary investigations enabled us to reconstruct the funerary gestures of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers using three-dimensional virtual animation (N. Herber, Anubis and Arctron).
The documentaries are available in Luxembourgish; German and English on our Youtube channnel.