Demographic Differences Between Funerary Caves and Megalithic Graves of Northern Spanish Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic Teresa Fern andez-Crespo 1,2 * and Concepci  on de-la-R ua 1 1 Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), B  Sarriena S/N, Leioa, 48940, Bizkaia, Spain 2 Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK KEY WORDS palaeodemography; mortuary variability; Late Neolithic/Early Chalco- lithic; Ebro valley; north-central Iberia Objectives: The study focuses on the estimation of demographic parameters of Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (mid 4th-early 3rd millenniums cal. BC) burial sites from the La Rioja region (Ebro valley, northern Spain) to iden- tify demographic characteristics. Materials and Methods: The human remains come from three caves (Las Yurdinas II, Pe~ na Larga, and La Pe ~ na de Mara~ n on) and three megalithic graves (Alto de la Huesera, San Mart  ın, and Pe ~ na Guerra II). The total skeletal sample consists of a minimum of 261 individuals, 149 being buried in caves and 112 in megalithic graves. Data based on age and sex estimation are analyzed using abridged life tables, mortality rates, and sex ratios. Results: A systematic bias against children under 5 years of age is detected both in caves ( 5 q 0 5 187.92%) and megalithic graves ( 5 q 0 5 71.43%) but also against some juveniles and adults compared with population models, though a statistically significant greater lack of infants is worth noting in the megaliths (t-test, P 5 0.012). More- over, a significant divergence in sex ratios (v 2 , P 5 0.002) is also identified between site types, clearly prioritizing women in caves (sex ratio 5 0.45) and men in megalithic graves (sex ratio 5 1.33). Conclusions: This evidence is interpreted as the result of different selective burial patterns. The mortuary vari- ability could lie behind intragroup differential status relationships, though the hypothesis of two populations per- forming distinct funerary practices in a small region cannot be rejected at the present state of the research. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:284–297, 2016. V C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Archaeological investigations of mortuary sites in the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic of northern Spain have long been dominated by megalithic graves or dolmens, mainly chambered and passage tombs (Barandiar an and Fern andez Medrano, 1958; Barandiar an, 1964; Andr es, 1978; L opez de Calle, 1993; Narvarte, 2005). However, the increasing evidence for natural or non-monumental forms of burial in the region during the last two decades (Fern andez Eraso, 2007) has raised a series of questions regarding the interpretation and possible significance of this funerary variability, in which caves and rockshel- ters, in particular, are identified as important alterna- tive burial places (Fern andez-Crespo, 2012). The first possibility to be considered is that this vari- ability actually reflects change over time. However, both the materials recovered and the radiocarbon dates avail- able show evidence of burial practices that are, if not completely, at least partially contemporary, though the funerary use of dolmens extends later into the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age whereas that of caves and rockshelters does not. The hypothesis of regional variation is more difficult to address, as burials in caves, are inherently con- strained by the presence of suitable landforms. Never- theless, it is reasonably clear that the use of caves and of megalithic graves spatially overlap in a number of regions and specifically in the present study area (Fern andez Eraso and M ugica, 2013). Thus it appears that the explanation for this variabili- ty should be sought in cultural reasons (Delibes, 1995:8; Andr es, 1998:11; Armend ariz and Irigaray, 2007:77), but further research must still be conducted to assess this hypothesis. One obvious and potentially fruitful line of inquiry on this issue involves a comparison of the demo- graphic profiles of the populations found in the two con- texts. In this regard, it is known that all age groups and Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. Grant sponsor: Spanish Ministry of Science and Education; Grant number: HUM2005-04236; Grant sponsor: Basque Government Postdoctoral Research Improvement Program; Grant numbers: POS_2013_1_147, POS_2014_2_24, and POS_2015_2_0001; Grant sponsor: Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; Grant num- bers: HAR2011-26956 and CGL2011-29057; Grant sponsor: Basque Government to Research Groups of the Basque University System; Grant numbers: IT622-13 and IT542-10; Grant sponsor: University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU; Grant number: UFI 11/09. *Correspondence to: Teresa Fern andez-Crespo, Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), B  Sarriena s/n, 48940 Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain. E-mail: teresa.fernandezc@ehu.es Received 28 October 2015; revised 28 January 2016; accepted 29 January 2016 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22963 Published online 17 February 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). Ó 2016 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 160:284–297 (2016)