This “owl” would have been a toy made by a child 5,000 years ago.

What a funny bird! Since the end of the 19th century, about 4,000 of these cute plates with designs of owls or owls have been discovered in Spain and Portugal. Their age is not in doubt: in 2014, researchers estimated that they were at least 4,750 years old, and some were almost 5,500 years old. On the other hand, their usefulness, as well as the profile of their creators, continues to be debated.

The prevailing hypothesis is that these artifacts had ritual significance and represented deities or the dead. A group of Spanish researchers are now shouting out a different tune: In a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, they claim these items are toys and that they were made by children!

More dolls than charms

According to Juan J. Negro of the Doñana Biological Station, a research institute in Seville, and colleagues, these palm-sized stone objects are not the work of skilled craftsmen, as has been shown. To reach this conclusion, the researchers assessed about 100 plates and rated them for the presence or absence of a number of avian morphological features, such as eyes, tufts of feathers, beak and wings.

The authors of the article compared these drawings with hundreds of modern drawings of nocturnal birds of prey, drawn by children aged 4 to 13, and noticed much in common in the shortcomings of some. This is said to indicate that ancient owl and owl tablets were made by children of varying age abilities.

The scientists also observed the presence of two small holes at the top of many of the plates. They suggest that they are more of a doll than amulets because if the holes were used to pass a cord through, they would show signs of wear. Instead, they suggest that the feathers may have been inserted to resemble the tufts on the heads of some regional raptor species such as the long-eared owl. Specimens have two large frontal eyes that also resemble a small owl.

simple design

The team does not deny that these slate tablets may have had ritual significance. They were also found in graves and pits. But “the line between play and ritual in societies of this period is blurred,” the article explains: “There is no contradiction in playing with animal-like toys and, at some point, using them as offerings in social rituals, associated, for example, with the colossal megalithic tombs so characteristic of the Copper Age. »

“The actual engraving of the plates could have been part of the game,” the study suggests. But why owls and owls? In fact, no other animal has been used as a model for these prehistoric toys. These animals are not known to be shy. At the time when cats were not introduced to the peninsula, they may have appeared to farmers as useful rodent eaters. The team suggests it could also be related to anthropomorphism, where people easily identify with these birds with “large, forward-set eyes on their huge heads.”

Today, as yesterday, we always present these birds from the front, while many species are generally drawn only in profile, the authors also state. The way the shale breaks up makes it easy to make owl-like slabs. Creating silhouettes of other animals “would require additional sculpting skills and special tools,” the article states. Conversely, repeated experiments showed that the design of these plates was simple and did not require additional skills or labor.