First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals
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Milks, Annemieke
Leder, Dirk
Koddenberg, Tim
Starkovich, Britt M
Duval, M
Zhao, J-X
Darga, Robert
Rosendahl, Wilfried
Terberger, Thomas
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Abstract
During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between hominins and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. Here we present new evidence for Neanderthal-cave lion interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. We report new evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000 old cave lion skeleton found at Siegsdorf (Germany) that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in human history. A comparative analysis of a partial puncture to a rib suggests that the fatal stab was delivered with a wooden thrusting spear. We also present the discovery of distal lion phalanges at least 190,000 old from Einhornhöhle (Germany), representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe. Our study provides novel evidence on a new dimension of Neanderthal behavioral complexity.
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Scientific Reports
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13
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© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Anthropology
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
PROJECTILE IMPACT MARKS
BOLOMOR CAVE VALENCIA
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Russo, G; Milks, A; Leder, D; Koddenberg, T; Starkovich, BM; Duval, M; Zhao, J-X; Darga, R; Rosendahl, W; Terberger, T, First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals, Scientific Reports, 2023, 13, pp. 16405