The birdmen of the Pleistocene: On the relationship between Neanderthals and scavenging birds. (9th November 2016)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- The birdmen of the Pleistocene: On the relationship between Neanderthals and scavenging birds. (9th November 2016)
- Main Title:
- The birdmen of the Pleistocene: On the relationship between Neanderthals and scavenging birds
- Authors:
- Finlayson, Stewart
Finlayson, Clive - Abstract:
- Abstract: We have examined 192 Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Palaearctic which have raptor and corvid bones associated in human occupation contexts. We have also examined 395 sites with Upper Palaeolithic contexts for comparison. We show that Neanderthals were regularly associated with a suite of birds of prey and corvids. We identify that the main species were regular or seasonal scavengers which co-occurred across large areas of the Neanderthal geographical range. This suggests a long-standing inter-relationship between Neanderthals, raptors and corvids. We propose that the degree of difficulty of capturing these species was not an insurmountable problem for the Neanderthals and provide present-day examples of close interaction between scavenging birds and people. We also show that modern humans had a similar relationship with the same suite of birds as the Neanderthals. We suggest that one possibility is that Neanderthals transmitted the behaviour to modern humans.
- Is Part Of:
- Quaternary international. Volume 421(2016)
- Journal:
- Quaternary international
- Issue:
- Volume 421(2016)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 421, Issue 2016 (2016)
- Year:
- 2016
- Volume:
- 421
- Issue:
- 2016
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2016-0421-2016-0000
- Page Start:
- 78
- Page End:
- 84
- Publication Date:
- 2016-11-09
- Subjects:
- Neanderthals -- Modern humans -- Raptors -- Corvids -- Scavengers -- Mid-latitude belt
Geology, Stratigraphic -- Quaternary -- Periodicals
Stratigraphie -- Quaternaire -- Périodiques
551.79 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10406182 ↗
http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/quaternary-international/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.057 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1040-6182
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 7210.043000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 7337.xml