Prehistoric humans who lived approximately 16,000 years ago have inhabited a lot of caves, decorating them with lion pelts. One of these caves is La Garma situated in Spain. There are proofs in that cave which attest the existence of some rituals. People living in those times used animal-fat candles which guided them through the dark of these caves, traveling among thick stalagmites and reaching the center.
- The discoveries made by paleontologists helped them reveal the uses of lion pelts.
- The cavern was still conserving the remains of the huts of prehistoric humans.
In the center of the caverns, there were displayed some stone huts, each of them being decorated with a horse skull. Even if archeologists did not find a source or a proof of those religious ceremonies happening inside the huts, they assumed that they at least could explain the existence of the lion pelts.
These were mainly used for decorative purposes, or even as a roof or a rug. An archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution named Edgard Camaros has claimed that he together with his team of researchers managed to discover fossilized bones representing claws.
These fossils were about the Eurasian cave lion. This was a tremendous beast, even larger than the African lion. They published their study in the PLOS One magazine. During their years of thorough researches, they managed to unveil approximately 30,000 fossils that were categorized to be of goats and horses.
Dr. Camaros has argued that for him and his colleagues it was very weird to find only the claws of the cave lions. La Garma cavern has the power to transport you back in time to the Upper Paleolithic era because of all the prehistoric humans’ traces that were found there.
This cave was undisturbed for thousands of years. All the lion pelt decorations and the development of the huts remained intact as if time would have stopped. Dr. Camaros has also asserted that probably the lion claws were located there only because prehistoric human brought just the claws home.
Now, another question triggers the curiosity of paleontologists who are wondering why our ancestors would bring to their caverns only the claws of the animals. One valuable assumption asserted that there might also be the lion pelts to which the claws were attached to.
Paleontologists believe that cavemen were skinning the pelts of the Eurasian cave lions, placing them on the floor or using them as a cover or even decoration.
Image source: pixabay
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.