Neanderthals had the power to attribute ideas to symbols, in line with a examine


The analysis focuses on the Neanderthal web site that was found in 2009Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) lived within the area 40,000 years in the pastThis species of hominin already had symbolic capability, in line with the examine

The evaluation of the skulls of huge herbivores discovered within the Cueva de la Des-Cubierta web site, positioned in Pinilla del Valle (Madrid), reveals that the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), who lived within the area 40,000 years in the past, used them as searching trophies, confirming that this species of hominin already had symbolic capability.

This is said within the article revealed within the journal Nature Human Behavior through which CSIC researchers have participated within the Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid (MNCN), the University of Valladolid, the Complutense University of Madrid and the Archaeological and Paleontological Museum of the Community of Madrid, amongst different establishments.

The investigation, which started fourteen years in the past, focuses on the Neanderthal web site that was found in 2009. “La Cueva Des-Cubierta is a protracted gallery of caves with fallen ceilings, that’s, it doesn’t retain its authentic cowl, within the that an distinctive set of skulls of huge herbivores has been recovered, a few of them related to small fires”, has clarified the geologist from the Complutense University Alfredo Pérez González.

All the skulls on this searching sanctuary, together with these of bison (Bison priscus), aurochs (Bos primigenius), deer (Cervus elaphus) and two rhinos of the species Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, have been ready by Neanderthals following a similar sample: they eliminated the mandible and higher jaw, consuming the brains and leaving the a part of the cranium with the horns or antlers as a searching trophy, in line with the investigation, through which the CSIC researcher on the MNCN has participated David Martin-Perea.

“An necessary truth is that we have now been in a position to confirm that the exercise was maintained over no less than a number of generations, which introduces the idea of cultural custom that might have handed from technology to technology,” defined the paleontologist from the Complutense University. Juan Luis Arsuaga.

Along with these skulls, Mousterian stone instruments, typical of Neanderthals, appeared, in addition to anvils and the hammers used to fracture them. For the researcher from the University of Valladolid Enrique Baquedano: “This habits of the Neanderthals from a bit of over 40,000 years in the past isn’t associated to subsistence actions however moderately to others that present info on elements which are fairly unknown to this species of hominin.”

“Until now, our species had been thought of the one one with the power to attribute ideas to symbols, a concept that, primarily based on these findings, forces us to share this mental attribute with Neanderthals,” Baquedano identified.

Until now there is no such thing as a different archaeological web site in your entire territory by which the species Homo neanderthalensis was distributed just like that of Pinilla del Valle. The findings of the Cueva Des-Cubierta make it an distinctive place that’s permitting us to unravel the keys to the habits of this species that lived with Homo sapiens.

“This examine opens doorways to a brand new idea about this species of hominin and questions our function as the one sapiens within the evolution of life on the planet,” the professional careworn.

Since the investigation started in 2002 by the present investigation crew within the Calvero de la Higuera in Pinilla del Valle, an archaeological zone protected as a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC), each summer season, for no less than one month, perform the excavations which have made it doable to account for this discovering.