The Châtelperronian Neanderthals of Cova Foradada (Calafell, Spain) used imperial eagle phalanges for symbolic purposes

Abstract

Evidence for the symbolic behavior of Neanderthals in the use of personal ornaments is relatively scarce. Among the few ornaments documented, eagle talons, which were presumably used as pendants, are the most frequently recorded. This phenomenon appears concentrated in a specific area of southern Europe during a span of 80 thousand years. Here, we present the analysis of one eagle pedal phalange recovered from the Châtelperronian layer of Foradada Cave (Spain). Our research broadens the known geographical and temporal range of this symbolic behavior, providing the first documentation of its use among the Iberian populations, as well as of its oldest use in the peninsula. The recurrent appearance of large raptor talons throughout the Middle Paleolithic time frame, including their presence among the last Neanderthal populations, raises the question of the survival of some cultural elements of the Middle Paleolithic into the transitional Middle to Upper Paleolithic assemblages and beyond.

Hypoxia in Paleolithic decorated caves: the use of artificial light in deep caves reduces oxygen concentration and induces altered states of consciousness

“…In recent years, it has become evident that Neanderthals, in the framework of the Middle Paleolithic period (ca. 200-45 kyr), entered deep, dark caves in order to construct mysterious circular structures and used fire while in the cave (Jaubert et al 2016), climbed up a volcano soon after it erupted (Panarello et al 2020), dived into deep water in order to retrieve fresh shells for making tools (Villa et al 2020), and routinely extracted and used bird feathers and talons (Finlayson et al 2019;Morin and Laroulandie 2012;Peresani et al 2011;Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al 2019;Romandini et al 2014). In our view, all these behaviors might be viewed as liminal, suggesting that even the Neanderthals were already heavily engaged in their relationships with the upper and lower worlds and used using transformative and landscape features as mediators between the worlds.…”

Revolutionary Fossils, Ancient Biomolecules, and Reflections in Ethics and Decolonization: Paleoanthropology in 2019

“…In view of other new discoveries this year, such as symbolic behavior in the form of pendant manufacture from eagle talons (Rodríguez‐Hidalgo et al. 2019) and the finding that there are no significant differences between early humans and Neanderthals in the use of their anterior teeth as tools (Krueger et al. 2019), a behavioral trait that was previously only associated with Neanderthals and regarded as unsophisticated, there is growing consensus among scholars that the commonly perceived extensive cultural differences between early H. sapiens and Neanderthals may be negligible.…”

Unravelling the Taphonomic Stories of Bird Bones from the Middle Pleistocene Layer VIII of Grotte Vaufrey, France

“…Thus, birds, as other small animal remains, had commonly passed unnoticed from accurate taphonomic studies under the general assumption that they were introduced to the archaeological record by non-anthropogenic inputs. Nevertheless, the use of fast-running (e.g., rabbits and hares) or quick-flying prey (birds) by human groups could not only be linked to dietary purposes [2] but also to the non-edible products they can offer-including feathers, furs, tendons, or bones [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. This fact makes birds attractive to humans as they can provide elements to protect, raw materials to produce tools, or other aesthetic or symbolic components related to human culture.…”

“…Thus, there is growing interest in exploring when and why this complex behaviour appeared. Currently, we know that the evidence of bird use by pre-modern human populations has its highest expression during the Late Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 5-3) [3][4][5][6][8][9][10][74][75][76]. However, the first current data existing on anthropic bird processing goes back to the Early Pleistocene.…”