The châtelperronian Neandertals of Cova Foradada (Calafell, Spain) used Iberian imperial eagle phalanges for symbolic purposes

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1 Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology Department, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Madrid, España
2 Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Madrid, España
3 SERP, Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
4 Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira I Virgili Tarragona, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain
5 Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Tarragona, Tarragona, España
6 IDEA, Instituto de Evolución en África, Madrid, Madrid, España
7 Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
8 Departamento de Paleobiología, Unit Associated to CSIC, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Madrid, España
9 8GQP-CG, Grupo Quaternário e Pré- História do Centro de Geociências (uIandD 73 e FCT), Mação, Portugal
10 Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
11 UMR 7041, ArScAn équipe Ethnologie préhistorique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de France (CNRS), Nanterre, France
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27133v2
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Anthropology, Evolutionary Studies, Paleontology, Zoology
Keywords
Personal Ornaments, Pleistocene, Quaternary, Talon, Taphonomy, Prehistory, Raptor, Paleoanthropology, Cut Marks
Copyright
© 2019 Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Rodríguez-Hidalgo A, Morales JI, Cebriá A, Courtenay LA, Fernández-Marchena JL, García-Argudo GG, Marín J, Saladié P, Soto M, Tejero J, Fullola J. 2019. The châtelperronian Neandertals of Cova Foradada (Calafell, Spain) used Iberian imperial eagle phalanges for symbolic purposes. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27133v2

Abstract

Evidence for the symbolic behavior of Neandertals in the use of personal ornaments is relatively scarce. Eagle talons, which were presumably used as pendants, stand out due to their abundance. This phenomenon seems to appear concentrated in a specific area of Southwestern Europe during a span of ca. 80 Ka. 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 aspect of Neandertal symbolic behavior, by providing the first documentation of its use among Neandertals in Iberia, as well as of its oldest use in the peninsula. The recurrent appearance of large raptor talons throughout the Neandertal timeframe, including their presence among the last Neandertal populations, raises the question of the survival of some cultural elements of the Middle Paleolithic into the transitional Middle to Upper Paleolithic assemblages.

Author Comment

Some changes, corrections and modifications have been included after discussion of our colleagues and reviewers, but the text, methods and conclusions are basically the same presented in the first version.