IDEA (Instituto de Evolución en África), Madrid, Spain.
SERP, Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Sci Adv. 2019 Nov 1;5(11):eaax1984. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax1984. eCollection 2019 Nov.
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.
尼安德特人在使用个人饰品方面具有象征性行为的证据相对较少。在有记录的少数饰品中，鹰爪被认为是用作吊坠的，是最常被记录的饰品。这种现象似乎集中在欧洲南部的一个特定地区，时间跨度为 8 万年。在这里，我们分析了从西班牙福拉达洞穴的夏特佩罗恩层中发现的一个鹰爪跖骨。我们的研究扩大了这种象征性行为的已知地理和时间范围，首次记录了它在伊比利亚人群中的使用，以及它在半岛上的最早使用。大型猛禽的爪子在整个中石器时代反复出现，包括它们在最后一批尼安德特人中的存在，这引发了一个问题，即中石器时代的一些文化元素是否一直延续到过渡时期的中石器时代到旧石器时代晚期的组合中，甚至更久。
