Animal skulls found in a Spanish cave may reveal Neanderthal rituals

Juan Luis Arsuaga, the co-director of Spain’s Atapuerca archaeological site, was recently involved in a discovery that, he says, entails using a little imagination and keeping an open mind. After that, people can draw their own conclusions.
The story begins as follows: about 70,000 years ago, in a cave in the Lozoya valley, north of Madrid, Spain, Neanderthals deposited the skulls and horns of huge animals – bison, wild bulls, deer, rhinoceroses. They removed the animals’ brains, ate them carefully to avoid damaging the horns, and then took the remains to the cave, lit a small fire and covered them with stone slabs. Up to 35 skulls were found two meters deep in the ground, which means that this was a ritual that went on for “years, decades, centuries, even millennia.” According to Arsuaga, this site is the only place in the world where something like this has been found.
In Arsuaga’s opinion, this finding represents one of the strongest pieces of evidence yet that Neanderthals had complex minds that could manage symbols and perform “ceremonies” revolving around the skulls of fearsome animals. “We don’t know what happened there,” the paleoanthropologist acknowledges, “but I can imagine the group of Neanderthals bringing heavy skulls from the valley floor to the cave, preparing them, lighting them up, covering them, and leaving. Wow!”
Animal skulls found in a Spanish cave may reveal Neanderthal rituals