Neanderthals May Have Created Eagle Talon Jewelry 130,000 Years Ago

Humans aren't the only species that appreciate jewelry. It turns out that Neanderthals may have also worn these decorations.

In this case, the researchers found eight mostly-complete white-tailed eagle talons from the Krapina Neanderthal site in present-day Croatia. The talons date to about 130,000 years ago. Interestingly, four of the talons bear multiple edge-smoothed cut marks, and eight show polishing facets or abrasion. In addition, three of the largest talons have small notches at roughly the same place along their surface.

So what does this mean? The scientists believe that these markings could be the result of two outcomes. It could be that the Neanderthals made jewelry and that mounting the talons in a necklace or bracelet could have caused the markings. The other option is that the Krapina Neanderthals used the talons for some kind of symbolic purpose other than jewelry.

Whatever the case, it's apparent that Neanderthals did use these talons for some other purpose. This, in turn, reveals that Neanderthals may be a bit more advanced than researchers once believed.

In fact, more and more studies are showing that Neanderthals were a highly intelligent species. Although they did go extinct, there is even genetic proof that Neanderthals interbred with humans.

"It's really a stunning discovery," said David Frayer, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It's one of those things that just appeared out of the blue. It's so unexpected and it's so startling because there's just nothing like it until very recent times to find this kind of jewelry."

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

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