First-ever Neanderthal jewelry find

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

People have been wearing jewelry and all manner of accessories for thousands of years, and this has typically been thought by anthropologists of as characteristic of modern humans alone.

But now, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE has revealed a suspected necklace of eagle talons that would have belonged to Neanderthals living 130,000 years ago in present-day Croatia.

According to the study, the collection of white eagle talons has a number of cuts and polishing marks. Also, three of the biggest talons have small notches at about the same place on each one. The study said these marking suggest the talons were used in some sort of jewelry assemblage, most likely a necklace.

[STORY: Neanderthal tools highlight 'cultural' differences]

“The white tailed eagle is a powerful, aggressive bird, so we imagine whoever wore the necklace was attempting to get some of its energy or tap into its power, but we really don’t know,” study author David Frayer, a University of Kansas anthropologist, recently told redOrbit.

The discovery is particularly interesting because Neanderthals were not thought to have the capacity for using symbols of power or prestige.

“Neanderthals were hunter-gatherers so were not living in a stratified society,” Frayer said via email. “Surely they had top men and women in the group, but strong social stratification does not come until much later in time.”

Neanderthals were wearing jewelry before it was cool

If the talons were in fact used to make a necklace, then it would represent the making of jewelry 80,000 years before modern humans did in Europe, according to existing evidence.

“It’s really a stunning discovery,” Frayer said. “It’s one of those things that just appeared out of the blue. It’s so unexpected and it’s so startling because there’s just nothing like it until very recent times to find this kind of jewelry.”

[STORY: Neanderthal multi-tool discovered ]

Another study published back in November revealed that Neanderthals are not a subspecies of modern humans, as some scientists have speculated. The study found that the nasal anatomy of Neanderthals was not inferior to our own and their disappearance from the Earth was probably due to being outcompeted by Homo sapiens.

“The strength of this new research lies in its taking the totality of the Neanderthal nasal complex into account, rather than looking at a single feature,” said study author Jeffrey T. Laitman, from the Icahn School of Medicine. “By looking at the complete morphological pattern, we can conclude that Neanderthals are our close relatives, but they are not us.”

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Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113351355/first-ever-neanderthal-jewelry-find-031215/