Anthropology

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts) Thu Mar 12, 2015, 06:18 AM Mar 2015

Neandertals modified white-tailed eagle claws 130,000 years ago

Neandertals may have manipulated white-tailed eagle talons to make jewelry 130,000 years ago, before the appearance of modern human in Europe, according to a study published March 11, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by David Frayer from University of Kansas and colleagues from Croatia.

Researchers describe eight mostly complete white-tailed eagle talons from the Krapina Neandertal site in present-day Croatia, dating to approximately 130,000 years ago.
These white-tailed eagle bones, discovered more than 100 years ago, all derive from a single time period at Krapina. Four talons bear multiple edge-smoothed cut marks, and eight show polishing facets or abrasion. Three of the largest talons have small notches at roughly the same place along the plantar surface.

The authors suggest these features may be part of a jewelry assemblage, like mounting the talons in a necklace or bracelet. Some have argued that Neandertals lacked symbolic ability or copied this behavior from modern humans, but the presence of the talons indicates that the Krapina Neandertals may have acquired eagle talons for some kind of symbolic purpose. They also demonstrate that the Krapina Neandertals may have made jewelry 80,000 years before the appearance of modern humans in Europe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150311160442.htm

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Neandertals modified white-tailed eagle claws 130,000 years ago (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Mar 2015 OP

Discovery indicates that Neanderthals were skilled hunters, and artistic also Judi Lynn Mar 2015 #1

Judi Lynn

(160,554 posts)

1. Discovery indicates that Neanderthals were skilled hunters, and artistic also

Reply to Ichingcarpenter (Original post)

Fri Mar 13, 2015, 04:41 AM

Mar 2015

Discovery indicates that Neanderthals were skilled hunters, and artistic also

Eagle talons, discovered with some Neanderthal remains in what is now Croatia, indicate that the big birds' talons were possibly used to make jewelry.

By: Rachel Feltman The The Washington Post, Published on Thu Mar 12 2015

Yet another discovery suggests that Neanderthals were much more advanced than we give them credit for. According to research published Wednesday in PLOS ONE (an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science), these hominids — precursors of modern humans who were mostly lost, save for some interbreeding with our own ancestors — may have created jewelry without the help or influence of the modern humans who take credit for the art. In fact, they may have had the skill and sophistication necessary to catch eagles, the most aggressive aerial predators of the day, and fashion their talons into necklaces.

The evidence comes from the bowels of a museum collection. At the turn of the 20th century, Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger excavated a site full of human and animal remains in what is now Croatia. The site held nearly 1,000 human bones and several thousand animal bones, along with at least 1,000 tools, all from 120,000 to 130,000 years ago.

Gorjanovic-Kramberger used very modern techniques to keep track of where he found each specimen, but the researcher missed something that now seems obvious.

“He found these eagle talons and sent them to a bird specialist in Budapest,” said David Frayer of the University of Kansas, one of the authors of the new study. “But ironically, even though he was the first person to identify cut marks on human bones, he missed these really obvious signs of cut marks and manipulation on the eagle talons.”

More:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/03/12/discovery-indicates-that-neanderthals-were-skilled-hunters-and-artistic-also.html

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