Lion skins as curtains in the Ice Age

As it took shelter from the cold during the last ice age? With lion skins held taut between the rocks, as if to form the curtains: the archaeological confirmation of a practice that until now could only imagine was found in some caves of Cantabria, in northern Spain.

It is here that we find the Cave of La Garma, remained sealed for 16,000 years because of a landslide. Like a time machine, this cave has reported to us excerpts of Paleolithic life, including human remains, cave paintings and tips used for engraving horse bones.

WHAT IS LEFT. Among these rocks, a group of archaeologists from the University of Cantabria has found several bones of the fingers of one leg of a cave lion (Panthera spelaea), a feline similar to modern lions lived in Europe, Asia and North America up to 14 thousand years ago, and she became extinct at the retreat of the ice.

TRACES unequivocal. The bones show signs similar to those produced by a hunter who wanted to do the animal's scalp, keeping the legs attached to the skin. The position of the artifacts, which are located at the foot of the outer walls of the lower gallery of the cave, suggesting that the scalp serve as the shelter roof, stretched between the rocks, and that the bones are then falls to the ground when the skin is degraded .

HUNTER AND PREY. Similar discoveries in the southwest of Germany suggest that the hunt for the cave lion was widespread geographically, although not on the agenda. This factor may have a small part contributed to the extinction of the prehistoric predator. Now it will investigate to see if this type of hunting to be done in a group or for ritual purposes, and whether other animals like bears and hyenas serve as "roof" to the prehistoric caves.