Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals.
Two sites of the Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic of Iberia, dated to as early as approximately 50,000 years ago, yielded perforated and pigment-stained marine shells. At Cueva de los Aviones, three umbo-perforated valves of Acanthocardia and Glycymeris were found alongside lumps of yellow and red colorants, and residues preserved inside a Spondylus shell consist of a red lepidocrocite base mixed with ground, dark red-to-black fragments of hematite and pyrite. A perforated Pecten shell, painted on its external, white side with an orange mix of goethite and hematite, was abandoned after breakage at Cueva Antón, 60 km inland. Comparable early modern human-associated material from Africa and the Near East is widely accepted as evidence for body ornamentation, implying behavioral modernity. The Iberian finds show that European Neandertals were no different from coeval Africans in this regard, countering genetic/cognitive explanations for the emergence of symbolism and strengthening demographic/social ones.
Zilhão
João
J
University of Bristol, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bristol BS8 1UU, United Kingdom. Joao.Zilhao@bristol.ac.uk
Angelucci
Diego E
DE
Badal-García
Ernestina
E
d'Errico
Francesco
F
Daniel
Floréal
F
Dayet
Laure
L
Douka
Katerina
K
Higham
Thomas F G
TF
Martínez-Sánchez
María José
MJ
Montes-Bernárdez
Ricardo
R
Murcia-Mascarós
Sonia
S
Pérez-Sirvent
Carmen
C
Roldán-García
Clodoaldo
C
Vanhaeren
Marian
M
Villaverde
Valentín
V
Wood
Rachel
R
Zapata
Josefina
J
D000818:Animals; D000883:Anthropology; D004396:Coloring Agents; D008903:Minerals; D008974:Mollusca; D013030:Spain
D004396:Coloring Agents; D008903:Minerals