Hot Croatian fashion from 130,000 years ago

Neanderthals are at it again, impressing us in ways we didn’t want to give them credit for. Although at this point, our extinct cousin species has racked up so many achievements, that archaeologists seem to be less excited that this latest discovery was done by Neanderthals and more impressed by when they did it.

The discovery in question is a piece of jewelry made of White-tailed Eagle claws, found in Croatia. They date back to 130,000 years ago, and appear out of nowhere in the archaeological record, according to David Frayer, the lead author on the study. But even without other objects indicating incremental developments in the world of adornment or jewelry, these claws show some amount of sophistication.

Each claw clearly has a hole drilled through it, indicating that they were strung up together by the root. And each claw appears to have been smoothed by tools, showing that these objects were carefully prepared for this display. At this point the social importance of displaying the claws is still unknown.

Source: Neanderthal eagle-claw jewellery discovered by Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News