RT Journal Article
T1 Birds of a Feather: Neanderthal Exploitation of Raptors and Corvids
A1 Finlayson, Clive
A1 Brown, Kimberly
A1 Blasco, Ruth
A1 Rodríguez Vidal, Joaquín
AB The hypothesis that Neanderthals exploited birds for the use of their feathers or claws as personal ornaments in symbolicbehaviour is revolutionary as it assigns unprecedented cognitive abilities to these hominins. This inference, however, isbased on modest faunal samples and thus may not represent a regular or systematic behaviour. Here we address this issueby looking for evidence of such behaviour across a large temporal and geographical framework. Our analyses try to answerfour main questions: 1) does a Neanderthal to raptor-corvid connection exist at a large scale, thus avoiding associations thatmight be regarded as local in space or time?; 2) did Middle (associated with Neanderthals) and Upper Palaeolithic(associated with modern humans) sites contain a greater range of these species than Late Pleistocene paleontological sites?;3) is there a taphonomic association between Neanderthals and corvids-raptors at Middle Palaeolithic sites on Gibraltar,specifically Gorham’s, Vanguard and Ibex Caves? and; 4) was the extraction of wing feathers a local phenomenon exclusiveto the Neanderthals at these sites or was it a geographically wider phenomenon?. We compiled a database of 1699Pleistocene Palearctic sites based on fossil bird sites. We also compiled a taphonomical database from the MiddlePalaeolithic assemblages of Gibraltar. We establish a clear, previously unknown and widespread, association betweenNeanderthals, raptors and corvids. We show that the association involved the direct intervention of Neanderthals on thebones of these birds, which we interpret as evidence of extraction of large flight feathers. The large number of bones, thevariety of species processed and the different temporal periods when the behaviour is observed, indicate that this was asystematic, geographically and temporally broad, activity that the Neanderthals undertook. Our results, providing clearevidence that Neanderthal cognitive capacities were comparable to those of Modern Humans, constitute a major advancein the study of human evolution.
PB Public Library of Science
SN 1932-6203
YR 2012
FD 2012-09
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/18546
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/18546
LA eng
NO Finlayson C, Brown K, Blasco R. ... Rodríguez Vidal, J. (2012) Birds of a Feather: Neanderthal Exploitation of Raptors and Corvids. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45927. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045927
NO The excavations and scientific research associated with Gorham's Cave have been funded by the Government of Gibraltar and, additionally between 2002-04, by the European Community - Program Interreg IIIB: 2002-02-4, 1-U-048 -. R. Blasco and J. Rosell are part of the following projects: 2009 SGR 188 of Generalitat de Catalunya and CGL2009-12703-C03-02 of the Spanish Goverment. A. Sanchez Marco belongs to the CGL2011-28681 project of the Spanish Government. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026