Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Our knowledge of the Neanderthals is constantly improving, but some aspects of our ancient ancestors’ spiritual beliefs are still a riddle.

Scientists are investigating a mysterious cave in Spain where the Neanderthals collected huge skulls of mammals. For some unknown reason, Neanderthals decorated the cave known as Cueva Des-Cubierta with cranial elements.

Credit: Adobe Stock – Gorodenkoff

In their study published in Nature, the researchers write that “the cave, which runs zigzag for some 80 m and is 2–4 m wide, has lost its ceiling due to the erosive dismantling of its dolomite.”

Inside the cave, scientists discovered 35 large animal skulls, either with horns or antlers.  Neanderthal teeth were also unearthed along with many ancient stone tools. “In total, 1,421 anvils, hammerstones, cores, flakes and shaped tools have been recovered, all belonging to the Neanderthal Mousterian technocomplex, ” the research team explains.

There is no doubt the cave was inhabited by our extinct cousins when the mammal skulls were ᴀssembled.

This is one of the best-preserved Bison priscus crania from Level 3 (11/13/CDC/G′42/1/14). It shows the typical features of the set of the bison crania recovered at this level: the absence of zygomatic bones and maxillae, the preservation of the nasal and frontal bones, and horn cores. The nasal bone shows cut marks. PH๏τo credit: Javier Trueba/MSF.

“Studies involving modern hunter-gatherer groups have shown that the heads of large animals are usually discarded and not taken back to camp, since they are heavy and of lower use as food,” the study informs.

“The researchers therefore conclude that “the introduction of the crania, and not of other parts of the carcᴀsses of greater nutritional interest, into the Cueva Des-Cubierta thus seems to have been deliberate and not related to subsistence.”

“Rather, it seems more related to their symbolic use,” they say.

a) A partial cranium of Bison priscus (6) with horn cores (plus a nasal bone); b) a partial cranium of B. priscus with horn cores (8); c) a partial cranium of B. priscus (25) with horn cores; d) a partial cranium of B. priscus (20) with horn cores; e) a partial cranium of B. priscus (7) with horn cores (including nasal bones); f) a partial cranium of B. priscus (24) with a horn core (24); g) a partial cranium of Bos primigenius (33) with horn cores; h) a partial cranium of Stephanorhinus hemitoechus (27); i) a partial cranium of S. hemitoechus (22); j) an antlered frontlet of C. elaphus (21); k) an antlered frontlet of C. elaphus (32). The numbers in parentheses indicate the order number of the crania in Supplementary PH๏τo credit: Javier Trueba/MSF.

This idea is supported by the fact that very few animal teeth or fragmented bones were found in the cave, indicating that the creatures were butchered elsewhere and that only their severed heads were brought inside. Yet with no such skull stashes found in any other Neanderthal cave, the researchers are unable to explain why this particular group took to this strange practice,” IFL Science reports.

Why the Neanderthals collect the skulls remains a question open to debate. One possibility is the animal skulls were hunting trophies. However, “other interpretations cannot be ruled out, such as a link with ritual and fire […] some expression of the symbolic relationship between Neanderthals and the natural world, or some kind of initiatory rite or propitiatory magic,” the scientists wrote in their study.

Archaeologists have previously encountered sites where the Neanderthals collected artifacts they considered valuable. For example, some years ago, researchers discovered Neanderthals decorated their caves with rocks 130,000 years ago.

At the Croatian site of Krapina, where more than 1,000 lithic items have previously been found, scientists could confirm early humans collected rocks and Neanderthals were curious about nature and appreciated beauty.

Neanderthals were capable, on their own, of incorporating symbolic objects into their culture, and these artifacts payed a vital role in their spiritual beliefs.

“The introduction of the crania, and not of other parts of the carcᴀsses of greater nutritional interest, into the Cueva Des-Cubierta thus seems to have been deliberate and not related to subsistence. Rather, it seems more related to their symbolic use.

Detail of the process of excavation of Level 3 in square J′40, where a Stephanorhinus hemitoechus cranium (16/12/CDC/J′40/101.2/691) was found (face down). The pH๏τographed surface is approximately horizontal. The black arrow points north. The cranium lacks maxillae. Just above the cranium, there is a rounded granite boulder (16/12/CDC/J′40/101.2/600) with a battered area, indicating its use as a hammerstone. Note the bison horn core just above the rhino cranium and the remains of a large bovid cranium to the right. PH๏τo credit: Javier Trueba/MSF.

To date, no site exclusively related to symbolic activity has been identified in the Neanderthal archaeological record. This is a limitation when trying to interpret the type of activity that the Neanderthals involved might have undertaken there: there is simply no comparative framework to help in this regard. Parallels with ethnographic examples might be useful in addressing this question,” the study informs.

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Neanderthal burial sites have also been ᴀssociated with deposits of large animal crania. Some researchers suggested these skulls could have been Neanderthal funerary offerings.  Some scientists remain skeptical of this theory because “it is not until the arrival of anatomically modern humans, that the probable use of crania in ritual or symbolic contexts becomes more evident.  Large mammal crania have also appeared ᴀssociated with modern human graves and have been interpreted as offerings. The accumulation of crania in the Cueva Des-Cubierta reported here provides further evidence of Neanderthal symbolism ᴀssociated with the animals these humans hunted.”

For now, all that can be said is that scientists cannot explain why the Neanderthals brought skulls of large animals to Cueva Des-Cubierta.

Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Staff Writer