Neanderthals usedthe wings of birds of prey and corvids for ornamental purposes, as suggested by an international study in which the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has participated. This theory that banishes the idea that they did not possess symbolic thought and brings them even closer tohomo sapiens.
The results of the research, which will be published in PLoS ONE, are based on the study of the skeletal remains of two species of raptors and corvids found in three caves in Gibraltar. Analysis indicates that of a total of 124 individuals, at least 18 had Neanderthal tool marks and even teeth on their wings. “These limbs are intended for flight functions, they are very light and have hardly any meat, so we believe that they did not have a nutritional purpose, but used the enormous feathers as ornamentation, as many indigenous peoples continue to do today”, CSIC researcher Juan José Negro, from the Doñana Biological Station, has explained.
According to this study,Neanderthals showed a predilection for soaring birds with large dark feathers, such as the bearded vulture, the griffon vulture, the red kite, and the golden eagle, among other. All of them were dwellers of steep cliffs near the shelters and caves of these hominids. The Gibraltar fossils come from different archaeological strata spanning thousands of years and have been compared with data from another 1,700 Eurasian sites from the Pleistocene. The results confirm that the manipulation of feathers by Neanderthals was a widespread practice that, being the oldest samples prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens in Gibraltar, could not be a pattern learned from them.
“The absence of rock art by Neanderthals does not mean that their cognitive ability was inferior to that of our ancestors. They simply usedother types of materials to express your cognitive thinking, such as pens“, adds the CSIC researcher.
