Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Avda. Americo Vespucio 26, 41092, Sevilla, Spain.
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 1;12(1):19227. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23530-0.
In the Copper Age, slate engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researchers have speculated about the function of these palm-sized stone objects for more than a century, although most have favored the idea that they represented goddesses, and served ritual purposes. The plaques are engraved with different designs of varying complexity. In some of them, the ones sporting two large frontal eyes, we clearly see owls modelled after two species present in the area: the little owl (Athene noctua), and the long-eared owl (Asio otus). These two species, living in semi-open habitats, were possibly the most abundant owls around the human settlements and surrounding cultivated fields of the Chalcolithic period. People must have been aware of the owl presence and possibly interacted with them. Why owls but no other animals have been the models may relate to the fact they are the most anthropomorphic of all animals, with large frontally-placed eyes in their enormous heads. In the iconography, owls are systematically represented, even today, with their two eyes staring at the observer, as opposed to the lateral view used for any other animal. Additionally, slate is one of the commonest surface rocks in southwestern Iberia, and it provides a blank canvas for engraving lines using pointed tools made of flint, quartz or copper. The way slates exfoliate makes easy to craft owl-looking plaques. To silhouette animals other than owls in a recognizable way would request extra carving abilities and specific tools. Plaque manufacture and design were simple and did not demand high skills nor intensive labor as demonstrated in replication experiments. Owl engravings could have been executed by youngsters, as they resemble owls painted today by elementary school students. This also suggests that schematic drawings are universal and timeless. We propose that the owl-like slate plaques are the remains of a set of objects used in both playful activities and in ritual ceremonies. The actual engraving of the plaques may have been part of the game. Owlish slate plaques were often perforated twice at the top. We interpret this as insertion points for actual bird feathers added to the plaques, right at the place where tufts emerge in live owls. The frontier among play and ritual is diffuse in liminal societies and there is no contradiction in playing with animal-like toys and, at some point, using them as offerings as part of community rituals related, for instance, to the colossal megalithic tombs so characteristic of the Copper Age.
在铜器时代，伊比利亚半岛西南角大量生产了石板雕刻板。尽管大多数人认为这些手掌大小的石器代表女神，并具有仪式用途，但研究人员对这些物体的功能已经推测了一个多世纪。这些牌匾上刻有不同复杂程度的不同设计。在其中一些上面，有两个大的正面眼睛的，我们可以清楚地看到模仿该地区两种物种的猫头鹰：小猫头鹰（ Athene noctua ）和长耳猫头鹰（ Asio otus ）。这两个物种生活在半开放的栖息地，可能是铜器时代人类住区和周围耕地周围最丰富的猫头鹰。人们一定已经意识到猫头鹰的存在，并且可能与它们进行了互动。为什么选择猫头鹰而不是其他动物作为模型可能与这样一个事实有关，即它们是所有动物中最像人类的，因为它们巨大的头部中有两个正面放置的眼睛。在当今的图标中，猫头鹰总是被系统地表示出来，即使是现在，它们的两只眼睛也盯着观察者，而不是用于任何其他动物的侧视图。此外，石板是伊比利亚半岛西南部最常见的表面岩石之一，它为使用燧石、石英或铜制成的尖头工具在其表面雕刻线条提供了一个空白的画布。石板剥落的方式使得很容易制作出看起来像猫头鹰的牌匾。以可识别的方式在牌匾上雕刻出除猫头鹰以外的其他动物，则需要额外的雕刻能力和特定的工具。正如复制实验所证明的那样，牌匾的制造和设计简单，不需要高技能或密集的劳动力。猫头鹰雕刻可能是由年轻人完成的，因为它们类似于当今小学生画的猫头鹰。这也表明，示意图是普遍的和永恒的。我们提出，这些类似猫头鹰的石板是一套用于游戏和仪式的物体的残留物。牌匾的实际雕刻可能是游戏的一部分。猫头鹰石板经常在顶部两次穿孔。我们将其解释为添加到牌匾上的实际鸟羽的插入点，就在活猫头鹰中羽毛簇出现的地方。在游戏和仪式之间的边界是模糊的，在边缘社会中，没有矛盾的是，玩动物玩具，并且在某个时候，将它们作为社区仪式的一部分作为祭品，例如，与巨型巨石坟墓有关，这些坟墓是铜器时代的典型特征。
