Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals
University of Bristol · University of Trento · +10 more institutions
Abstract
Two sites of the Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic of Iberia, dated to as early as approximately 50,000 years ago, yielded perforated and pigment-stained marine shells. At Cueva de los Aviones, three umbo-perforated valves of Acanthocardia and Glycymeris were found alongside lumps of yellow and red colorants, and residues preserved inside a Spondylus shell consist of a red lepidocrocite base mixed with ground, dark red-to-black fragments of hematite and pyrite. A perforated Pecten shell, painted on its external, white side with an orange mix of goethite and hematite, was abandoned after breakage at Cueva Antón, 60 km inland. Comparable early modern human-associated material from Africa and the Near East…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 290.36
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 58
Authors
17- JZJoào ZilhãoCorresponding
University of Bristol
- DEDiego E. Angelucci
University of Trento
- EBErnestina Badal
Universitat de València
- FDFrancesco d’Errico
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of the Witwatersrand, De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
- FDFloréal Daniel
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Bordeaux, Institut de Recherche sur les ArchéoMATériaux
Topics & keywords
- Hematite
- Geology
- Polyplacophora
- Paleontology
- Archaeology
- Geography
- Mollusca
- Life below water