106 



S.E. CHURCHILL 



Figs 9, 10 Cough's Cave 1 radii, in ventral (a), medial (b). dorsal (c) and lateral (d) views; 9, right-side radius (note that the distal end is reconstructed): 

 10, left-side radius; x 0.5. 



COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF THE 

 UPPER LIMB REMAINS 



In most measures, the Gough's Cave 1 upper limb skeleton is 

 comparable to that of other European males alive during the final 

 Pleistocene and early Holocene. In both gross external and cross- 

 sectional dimensions of the humerus, radius and ulna, Gough's Cave 

 1 is unremarkable compared to his contemporaries. These bones 

 tend to be slightly longer (on average) than those of his male 

 contemporaries, yet to have epiphyseal dimensions and diaphyseal 

 diameters roughly equivalent to the mean values observed in the 

 comparative sample males (Tables 7, 10 and 13). Thus relative to 

 length, the upper limb long bones of Gough's Cave 1 are somewhat 

 gracile when seen in the context of other similarly aged fossils. This 

 characterization holds for size-standardized measures of the me- 

 chanical strength of the humerus and ulna as well (Tables 8 and 1 1 ), 

 suggesting that the habitual biomechanical loads incurred in the 

 upper limbs of Gough's Cave 1 were somewhat meager relative to 

 other Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic foragers. 



Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the upper limbs (used here 

 in the broad sense to include the pectoral girdles) is the robusticity of 

 Gough's Cave 1 's right clavicle. In terms of length, the right clavicle 

 falls between the mean values for males and females in the compara- 

 tive sample (Table 2). However, in external dimensions (Table 2) and 

 unstandardized cross-sectional properties (Table 3). Gough's Cave 

 I's right clavicle tends to fall on or above the male sample means. 

 The superoinferior, dorsoventral and maximum 2nd moments of 

 area, as well as the polar moment of area, are two or more standard 

 deviations above the (admittedly small) male sample means (Table 

 3). Given that Gough's Cave 1 's claviculae were relatively short, the 

 clavicular strength values are all the more striking. Consideration of 

 the cross-sectional geometric properties presented in Table 3 shows 

 that the large values for bending rigidity (2nd and polar moments of 

 area) in Gough's Cave 1 's right clavicle are due in part to the overall 

 size of the cross-sections (TA). The right clavicle has a midshaft 

 coilical area (CA) close to the comparative male mean, but this 

 cortical bone is distributed further from the geometric centre of the 

 section. This results in a relatively large medullary cavity, a relatively 

 low percent cortical area, and relatively high 2nd moments of area. 



