Cave_of_Los_Aviones

Cave of Los Aviones

Cave of Los Aviones

Cave and archaeological site in Spain

The Cave of Los Aviones, located at sea level near Cartagena in southeastern Spain, is a paleontology site dating back to the Middle Paleolithic era. It is famous for having yielded in 2010 several perforated and painted seashell beads thought to have been crafted as jewelry by Neanderthals.[1][2]

Quick Facts Location, Coordinates ...

The cave is a cemented marine conglomerate. The site has yielded ochred and perforated marine shells, red and yellow colorants, and shell containers that feature residues of complex pigment mixtures.[2] The pigments on the sea shells were dated to 115,000 years old, making these "the oldest personal ornamentation known anywhere in the world," predating Homo sapiens.[1][2][3] Art is an archaeological proxy for symbolic behavior.[2]

References

  1. [1]
    World's Oldest Cave Art Found—And Neanderthals Made It. Michael Greshko, National Geographic. 22 February 2018.
  2. [2]
    "Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals 115,000 years ago." Dirk L. Hoffmann, Diego E. Angelucci, Valentín Villaverde, Josefina Zapata, and João Zilhão. Science Advances 22 Feb 2018: Vol. 4, no. 2, eaar5255. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar5255
  3. [3]
    Archaeologists Have Discovered the World's Oldest Cave Paintings—And They’re by Neanderthals. Sarah Cascone, Art Net. February 23, 2018.


Stub icon

This paleontological site article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Cave_of_Los_Aviones, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.