An ancient eagle toe bone discovered in the Foradada Cave in Calafell, Spain shows signs it was worked on by humans and may have been a part of a “last necklace made by the Neanderthals”, archaeologists have said. The team said the claw remnant is around 40,000 years old – much younger than previous examples of jewellery made by Neanderthalers.
The scientists said the find contributes to “the scarce evidence that ancient humans used animal parts for symbolic purposes as opposed to practical ones”. The finding adds to the growing evidence of sophistication within this species, which was once thought to have no symbolic culture at all.
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