February 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 53Luka Mjeda (
left
); David W, Frayer (
right
)
dicted just a couple of decades ago. Bruce
Hardy and his colleagues have found bits
of ancient twisted thread at the site of
Abris du Maras in France that show
Neandertals had fiber technology. Marie
Soressi and her collaborators discovered
specialized bone tools called lissoirs, which are used for leather-
working, at Pech-de-l’Azé rockshelter in France. João Zilhão and
his team have shown that Neandertals were eating mussels, crabs,
sharks and seals, among other marine resources, at Figueira Brava
in Portugal and other coastal sites. Elsewhere in Europe research-
ers have found indications that Neandertals exploited a wide vari-
ety of plant foods and even mushrooms.
It is not just previously unknown Neandertal technology and
dietary strategies that have come to light. Other discoveries dem-
onstrate that Neandertals engaged in symbolic behaviors, such
as decorating their bodies and making art. Marco Peresani and
his group have reported on cut marks on bird wings found in Fu-
mane Cave in Italy that indicate Neandertals were collecting
feathers. A team led by Clive Finlayson uncovered an abstract im-
age resembling a hashtag etched into the floor of Gorham’s Cave
in Gibraltar. Dirk Leder and his colleagues found a toe bone from
a giant deer engraved with a geometric pattern at the site of Ein-
hornhöhle in Germany.
Researchers have unearthed many such examples of Neandertal
creativity. But controversy has often accompanied their claims. Most
evidence of Neandertal symbolism dates to the latter part of the
Neandertals’ reign, by which point anatomically modern humans
were beginning to filter into Europe. Perhaps, critics have suggested,
Neandertals merely copied what moderns were doing or obtained
symbolic items from them through trade or even theft. Alternatively,
at cave sites that were inhabited at different times by both groups,
maybe natural disturbances—such as moving water or denning an-
imals—mixed modern goods in with Neandertal remains. What in-
vestigators needed to find to bolster their case for Neandertal so-
phistication was evidence of advanced Neandertal behavior thatwas substantially older than the earliest-
known modern humans in Europe. This
is where our work at Krapina comes in.SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOR
froM 1899 To 1905 Croatian paleontologist
Dragutin Gorjanovi ́c-Kramberger directed excavations at the
Krapina rockshelter, collecting some 900 Neandertal bones,
nearly 200 isolated Neandertal teeth, and thousands of animal
bones and stone tools. He was a meticulous excavator. Uncom-
monly for his era, he dug in levels—removing one horizontal layer
of sediment, bones and artifacts at a time—and saved much of
what he excavated. In 1906 Gorjanovic-Kramberger published a ́
comprehensive monograph on the bones and tools from the site.
To this day, Krapina remains one of Europe’s richest Neandertal
sites; thousands of publications about its inhabitants have ap-
peared since 1899.
Our recent research provides unexpected new insights into the
Neandertals who lived and died at Krapina some 130,000 years ago.
In 2013 one of us (Radovˇci ́c) did a complete inventory of all the ma-
terial from the site and “rediscovered” some unusual white-tailed
eagle remains—eight talons and a foot bone—whose importance
had previously gone unappreciated. Each bore multiple signs of
having been intentionally modified. Discovered in the uppermost
level at the site, the talons and foot bone were found in the same
sedimentary layer as many cave bear bones, Neandertal tools, a
fragmentary child’s cranium and at least one hearth. No modern
humans or modern tools are found at Krapina, so there is no doubt
these white-tailed eagle bones are associated with Neandertals.
In life, eagle talons are covered with a thick carapace, which
must have been stripped off, given the subsequent modifications
on all the Krapina talons. One talon has cut marks on its upper
surface and a preserved sinew fiber under a natural silicate coat-
ing, along with microscopic bits of red and yellow ochre in the
pores on its surface. Three of the other Krapina talons and the
phalanx show cut marks. The edges of many of these marks areNEANDERTAL CRANIUM from Krapina
( left ) bears a series of parallel cut marks
on the forehead that probably
signify ritual behavior (right).