Abstract
We describe eight, mostly complete white-tailed eagle (Haliaëtus [Haliaeetus] albicilla) talons from the Krapina Neandertal site in present-day Croatia, dating to approximately 130 kyrs ago. Four talons bear multiple, edge-smoothed cut marks; eight show polishing facets and/or abrasion. Three of the largest talons have small notches at roughly the same place along the plantar surface, interrupting the proximal margin of the talon blade. These features suggest they were part of a jewelry assemblage, --- the manipulations a consequence of mounting the talons in a necklace or bracelet. An associated phalanx articulates with one of the talons and has numerous cut marks, some of which are smoothed. These white-tailed eagle bones, discovered more than 100 years ago, all derive from a single level at Krapina and represent more talons than found in the entire European Mousterian period. Presence of eight talons indicates that the Krapina Neandertals acquired and curated eagle talons for some kind of symbolic purpose. Some have argued that Neandertals lacked symbolic ability or copied this behavior from modern humans. These remains clearly show that the Krapina Neandertals made jewelry well before the appearance of modern humans in Europe, extending ornament production and symbolic activity early into the European Mousterian.
Highlights
Ornaments are commonly associated with fossil Homo sapiens and are thought to represent the special cognitive abilities and symbolic capacities of modern humans [1,2,3,4]
Eagle talons are rare at other Neandertal localities and no sites have yielded eight talons from white-tailed eagles or any other raptor
Others have noted [6,7, 27, 41,42,43] that raptor bones found in late Pleistocene sites signal some kind of symbolic activity
Summary
Ornaments are commonly associated with fossil Homo sapiens and are thought to represent the special cognitive abilities and symbolic capacities of modern humans [1,2,3,4]. Studies in recent years have documented Neandertals using or producing art and symbolic items evidenced by unusual lithic objects [5], feathers [6,7], modified shells [8,9], ochre [10,11,12,13], mobiliary and cave art [14,15,16,17] and very sporadically raptor talons, consisting of single elements, presumably used as pendants [18]. PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0119802 March 11, 2015
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