Hn biology is clear comparatively: very heavy & thick occiput + big nose surrounded
by large air sinuses = frequent back-floating: opening crabs, shellfish...?
Kudu runner:
Diving for bison, rhino, and deer?
???
Do you really believe that, my little boy???
Grow up: from "endurance-running" nonsense to "power+sprint" nonsense is already serious enough... :-DDD
Imbecilic kudu runners underestimate Hn culture (brain CC Hn>Hs):
the article in no way contradicts that Hn diet was rich in aquatic foods:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01503-7
A symbolic Neanderthal accumulation of large herbivore crania
Enrique Baquedano cs 2023 Nature Human Behaviour
We examine the possible behaviour of Hn groups at the Cueva Des-Cubierta (C-Spain) via the analysis of the latter’s archaeological assemblage.
Alongside evidence of Mousterian lithic industry, Level-3 of the cave infill was found to contain an assemblage of mammalian bone remains dominated by the crania of large ungulates, some ass.x small hearths.
The scarcity of post-cranial elements, teeth, mandibles & maxillae + evidence of anthropogenic modification of the crania (cut+percussion marks) indicates:
- the carcasses of the corresponding animals were initially processed outside the cave,
- the crania were later brought inside: a 2nd round of processing then took place, possibly related to the removal of the brain?
The continued presence of crania throughout Level-3 indicates:
this behaviour was recurrent during this level’s formation.
This behaviour seems to have no subsistence-related purpose, but to be more symbolic in its intent.
...
Discussion
The anatomical, taxonomic & taphonomic features of this association do not match what would be expected for a water- or gravity-driven accumulation, a natural trap, or a carnivore den.
Nor are they cons.x Hn subsistence activities: hunting, or processing & consumption of prey.
The high relative frequency of minimal animal units (%MAU) of crania might suggest the existence of a carnivore den,
but the anatomical & taxonomical features of the bone assemblage are not similar to those produced by carnivores, certainly not by hyaenas.
Given the nr of crania: Level-3 was a kill-site?
This can be ruled out, cf absence of low-nutritional elements typically found at kill/butchering sites, e.g. flat bones.
Neither are there any parallels with the contexts interpreted for other, nearby sites in Pinilla del Valle.
For Level-F of the Navalmaíllo Rock-shelter (Hn hunting camp), the skeletal profile matches those identified for other mid-Paleolithic faunal accumulations.
Other sites at Pinilla del Valle have been identified as hyaena dens (e.g. Camino cave & Buena Pinta cave), for which the skeletal profiles are typical.
But the faunal assemblage of the Cueva Des-Cubierta is quite different, not found elsewhere in the local archaeological record.
Studies involving modern HGs have shown: large animal heads are usu.discarded, not taken back to camp (heavy, and of lower use as food):
the introduction of the crania (not of other parts of the carcasses of greater nutritional interest) into the Cueva Des-Cubierta was deliberate? not related to subsistence? more related to their symbolic use?
To date, no site exclusively related to symbolic activity has been identified in Hn archaeology
... parallels with ethnographic examples might be useful.
Today, the accumulation & display of large mammal skulls (hunting trophies) is linked to sport hunting,
but similar practices for varying purposes have also been documented for the most recent HG societies:
cultures worldwide have invested animal skulls with a strong symbolic content, and have protected or displayed them with due attention.
The skulls of hunted animals were stored as souvenirs or hunting trophies among the Achuar (S.America) & the Wola (New Guinea),
in other cultures, skulls (or other bones with symbolic meaning) were grouped together to form caches ass.x hunting rituals.
Different authors have understood these caches to be hunting shrines.
The display or accumulation of trophy skulls has also been linked to the construction of masculine identity (New Guinea lowland groups) or the performance of specific ceremonies (Ainu, N-Japan).
Other skull accumulations have been related to burial rituals (Uilta, Shakalin).
In the present case, the crania all belong to spp with cranial appendages (unshed antlers in the case of the deer): trophies? cf concentration in a small space = hunting shrine?
Other interpretations: a link with ritual & fire (cf proximity of fire use)? expression of the symbolic relationship between Hn & the natural world? initiatory rite? propitiatory magic?
The characteristics of the Cueva Des-Cubierta archaeological assemblage remain the same over the ~2 m thickness of Level-3.
The finding of crania, thermo-altered materials & lithic elements throughout + continued presence of the tools necessary for that exploitation over the entire Level-3 (sometimes separated from one another by packages of sediment) indicates:
the site’s Hn occupants repeated the same type of behaviour over years, decades, centuries, even millennia.
The intentional deposition of large mammal crania over the time that Level-3 formed suggests the transmission of this behaviour between generations (cons.x its interpretation as a cultural phenomenon).
Very few other accumulations of crania in Mousterian contexts are known.
De Villeneuve described a Hn accumulation of crania belonging to Capra ibex, Bos primigenius & Cervus elaphus in Level Foyer-B (Grotte du Prince), interpreted as a collection of hunting-trophies,
but the absence of modern taphonomic studies on this assemblage requires caution.
Hn burial sites have also been ass.x with deposits of large animal crania. Bonifay & Vandermeersch refer to a cranium & other bones of a cave-bear in Le Regourdou Cave (France): a Hn funerary offering, although this has been questioned by some authors?
Other possible offerings of crania at Hn burial sites have also been reported (Teshik-Tash, Uzbekistan).
But it is not until Hss arrival that the probable use of crania in ritual or symbolic contexts becomes more evident, e.g. Hss have been ass.x
- the steppe-bison cranium (hunting-trophy with symbolic meaning?) at Régismont-le-Haut,
- the cave-bear cranium placed on a rock, Grotte de Chauvet,
- the ochred steppe-bison crania & jaws found at Anesovka.
Large mammal crania have also appeared ass.x Hss graves, interpreted as offerings, e.g. the rhino cranium at Brno-2 (Czech) or the mammoth cranium ass.x the ‘Red Lady’ grave in Paviland (Wales), both in a Gravettian context.
The accumulation of crania in the Cueva Des-Cubierta reported here provides further evidence of Hn symbolism ass.x the animals these humans hunted.
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