Uso simbólico de conchas marinhas e de pigmentos minerais por Neandertais ibéricos

quarta-feira, janeiro 20, 2010


Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals

  1. João Zilhãoa,1
  2. Diego E. Angelucci b
  3. Ernestina Badal-García c,
  4. Francesco d’Errico d,e
  5. Floréal Daniel f
  6. Laure Dayetf
  7. Katerina Doukag,
  8. Thomas F. G. Highamg
  9. María José Martínez-Sánchezh,
  10. Ricardo Montes-Bernárdezi
  11. Sonia Murcia-Mascarósj,
  12. Carmen Pérez-Sirventh
  13. Clodoaldo Roldán-Garcíaj
  14. Marian Vanhaerenk,
  15. Valentín Villaverdec
  16. Rachel Woodg, and 
  17. Josefina Zapatal
    Author Affiliations

    1. aUniversity of Bristol, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bristol BS8 1UU, United Kingdom;

      bUniversità degli Studi di Trento, Laboratorio di Preistoria B. Bagolini, Dipartimento di Filosofia, Storia e Beni Culturali, 38122 Trento, Italy;


    2. cUniversidad de Valencia, Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, 46010 Valencia, Spain;


    3. dCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199, De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, 33405 Talence, France;

    4. eUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Institute for Human Evolution, Johannesburg, 2050 Wits, South Africa;


    5. fUniversité de Bordeaux 3, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5060, Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux, Centre de recherche en physique appliquée à l’archéologie, 33607 Pessac, France;


    6. gUniversity of Oxford, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom;


    7. hUniversidad de Murcia, Departamento de Química Agrícola, Geología y Edafología, Facultad de Química, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain;


    8. iFundación de Estudios Murcianos Marqués de Corvera, 30566 Las Torres de Cotillas (Murcia), Spain;

    9. jUniversidad de Valencia, Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales, 46071 Valencia, Spain;

    10. kCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7041, Archéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité, 92023 Nanterre, France; and

    11. lUniversidad de Murcia, Área de Antropología Física, Facultad de Biología, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain

    12. Communicated by Erik Trinkaus, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, December 5, 2009 (received for review October 16, 2009)

    1. 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 ofAcanthocardia 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 is widely accepted as evidence for body ornamentation, implying behavioral modernity. The Iberian finds show that European Neandertals were no different from coeval Africans in this regard, countering genetic/cognitive explanations for the emergence of symbolism and strengthening demographic/social ones.



      • behavioral modernity
      •  
      • Iberia
      •  
      • Middle Paleolithic 
      • shell ornaments
      • symbolism
        • Footnotes
        • 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:Joao.Zilhao@bristol.ac.uk.
        • Author contributions: J. Zilhão and J. Zapata designed research; J. Zilhão, D.E.A., E.B.-G., F.d., F.D., L.D., K.D., T.F.G.H., M.J.M.-S., R.M.-B., S.M.-M., C.P.-S., C.R.-G., M.V., V.V., R.W., and J. Zapata performed research; J. Zilhão, D.E.A., E.B.-G., F.d., F.D., L.D., K.D., T.F.G.H., M.J.M.-S., S.M.-M., C.P.-S., C.R.-G., M.V., V.V., R.W., and J. Zapata analyzed data; and J. Zilhão, D.E.A., E.B.-G., F.d., F.D., L.D., K.D., T.F.G.H., M.J.M.-S., S.M.-M., C.P.-S., C.R.-G., M.V., V.V., R.W., and J. Zapata wrote the paper.
          The authors declare no conflict of interest.

        • This article contains supporting information online atwww.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0914088107/DCSupplemental.

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