RAVEN’S NEANDERTHAL MAKEOVER, Etching 5 inch x 7 inch

RAVEN’S NEANDERTHAL MAKEOVER, Etching 5 inch x 7 inch

Neanderthal thinking ability was like our own. Many of Europe’s famous cave paintings have recently been credited to Neanderthals. Neanderthals harvested feathers from birds and used them as personal ornaments. They had the cognitive ability to think in symbolic terms. Bird feathers from Neanderthal sites showed cut marks made by stone tools. The feathers were almost certainly being used for ornamental purposes. The analysis even suggests they preferred dark feathers, which they selected from birds of prey and corvids - such as ravens, crows, rooks, or birds of prey. Feather ornamentation could go back even further to a common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals.

Raven feathers Decorate Neanderthal.

Ravens are known hoarders, collecting shiny objects, shells, and iridescent feathers. A Neanderthal man found a cache of corvid feathers, he was interested in the feathers yet wasn’t sure what he could use them for. Raven flew high above Neanderthal and dropped a feather so that it tangled in his hair. He held more feathers towards the raven, and the Raven neatly arranged them in his hair. Soon Neanderthal never went anywhere without the Raven’s makeover.

This a self-portrait as a Neanderthal. I recently did a DNA test and discovered I am 3.4 % Neanderthal. My wife thinks this explains a lot.