ZAGREB: The widely-held vision of Neanderthals as brutes may need a stark rethink after research found they crafted the world’s earliest jewellery from eagle talons 130,000 years ago, long before modern humans appeared in Europe.

“While reviewing eight, white-tailed eagle talons and an associated phalanx, on the latter I noticed numerous cut marks and a revelation just struck me — they were made by a human hand,” Davorka Radovcic, a curator at Croatia’s Natural History Museum, said.

The revelation came in late 2013 while reviewing the Krapina Neanderthal collection she had just taken over, items from a site once inhabited by the extinct people in what is modern-day Croatia.

“I knew immediately what might be the implication of that finding,” said the anthropologist, carefully holding one of the talons that are kept in a small box.

An international study began with the research published earlier this month by the PLOS peer-reviewed international online scientific publication.

The Krapina site, some 50 kilometres north of Zagreb, has yielded the world’s richest collection of Neanderthal fossils.

Published in Dawn March 22nd , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play