Cueva de los Aviones
Coordinates: 37 ° 35 ′ 7.3 ″ N , 0 ° 59 ′ 8.7 ″ W.
The Cueva de los Aviones cave is a paleoanthropological and archaeological site in the Murcia region of southeastern Spain . It is located at sea level at the foot of the foothills sloping into the water , which serve as natural protection for the southwest entrance to the port of Cartagena . The cave became internationally known in 2010 after mussel shells were discovered there, which had been decorated by Neanderthals with orange, red and black pigments . It had previously been known that the cave had served as a residence for Neanderthals.
cave
The rock of the cave consists of limestone , the origin of which was dated to the Middle to Upper Triassic (around 230 million years ago); also the side walls made of light gray and gray limestone and dark gray dolomite . From the condition of the rock outside the cave area that exists today, it can be deduced that the Cueva de los Aviones was probably much larger 50,000 years ago than it is today. At the time of its use by the Neanderthals, the cave was at least two to seven kilometers from the sea, as the sea level 50,000 years ago was 50 to 90 meters lower than it is today; because the area of Cartagena is a subsidence zone in which the earth's crust subsides over a large area, the distance to the coast could also have been significantly greater. Only after the end of the ice ages , after the sea level rose again, the cave got into the range of the tidal range and was largely cleared by the sea water. Only four square meters of floor space on the northwestern wall of the cave, where excavations first took place in 1985, were spared from this destruction. This area consisted of rock rubble ( breccia ) of cement-like hardness, from which stone tools and animal bones were first exposed with a hammer and chisel. Particular care had to be taken when recovering the discovered snail and mussel shells.
Finds
The remains of several hundred snails and mussels were found in the Cueva de los Aviones . Edible snails of the species Monodonta turbinata (427 specimens), the likewise edible limpets of the genus Patella (236 specimens; mostly Patella ferruginea , but also Patella aspera and Patella lusitania ) as well as mussels ( Mytilus edulis , 108 specimens) and cockles ( 14 copies). In addition, 18 specimens of the Glycymeris insubrica mussel and a dozen shells of other species that are now considered inedible were discovered.
According to the studies, 95 percent of the mollusc shells found come from edible snails and mussels that live in the area of the intertidal zone . Since the surface of the bowls showed no abrasion from sand or gravel, it can be assumed that the animals were collected alive - presumably as food.
Two completely preserved specimens of Glycymeris insubrica with holes in the area of the vertebra turned out to be particularly important finds . When this area in the Museum of Cartagena was cleared of the adhering limestone, remnants of red pigments came to light, which were later identified as hematite (probably red chalk ). The researchers therefore suspect that both shells are to be interpreted as "personal ornaments".
On the inside of a specimen of Spondylus gaederopus , remains of a colored mass were uncovered, which consisted of a mixture of reddish lepidocrocite with charcoal , dolomite, hematite and pyrite . This mussel shell was probably used to store dyes; several other shell finds apparently served the same purpose.
Various clumps of red and yellow pigments were found in the cave, even without reference to mussel shells, and orange pigments also adhered to the metatarsal bone of a horse. This bone, tapering at one end in horses, may have been used to mix the pigments or to make holes in already painted bowls.
The reddish pigments are believed to come from the La Unión mining area in the northwest, three to five kilometers away, for which gold and silver has been mined since ancient times. The nearest occurrence of natrojarosite , a component of the yellow pigment, is about seven kilometers east of the cave.
Dating
The pigments were dated in 2010 with the help of the radiocarbon method to an age of almost 50,000 years and were regarded as evidence that the mussel shells had been used by the Neanderthals "in an aesthetic and probably symbolic" way. Together with finds from the Cueva Antón cave, which is 60 kilometers away inland, which were published at the same time, these are the first such pieces of jewelery to be discovered in Europe by Neanderthals. The colonization of Europe by modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) only took place around 40,000 years ago. According to a study published in 2018, the finds from the Cueva de los Aviones are even 115,000 to 120,000 years old, according to uranium-thorium dating .
swell
- João Zilhão et al .: Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals. In: PNAS . Volume 107, No. 3, 2010, pp. 1023-1028, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0914088107
- João Zilhão et al .: Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals. Supporting information. Available online at pnas.org (PDF) since January 11, 2010
Individual evidence
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↑ João Zilhão et al .: Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals. In: PNAS . Volume 107, No. 3, 2010, pp. 1023-1028, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0914088107
Big brain and more intelligent than expected. On: heise.de from January 11, 2010 (with two images from PNAS) - ↑ Michael Balter: Neandertal Jewelry Shows Their Symbolic Smarts. In: Science . Volume 327, 2010, pp. 255 f., Doi : 10.1126 / science.327.5963.255
- ↑ Dirk L. Hoffmann et al .: Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals 115,000 years ago. In: Science Advances. Volume 4, No. 2, 2018, eaar5255, doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.aar5255