Around 5000 years ago children on the Iberian Peninsula may have made depictions of owls from slates for use as toys and for ritual purposes. On the basis of various clues, a research team came to this possible explanation for the numerous art objects discovered, the meaning of which has long been puzzled.
What was with these strange depictions? For a long time, researchers have looked questioningly at thousands of engraved slabs of slate that were discovered at various sites on the Iberian Peninsula. According to the dates, they come from the Copper Age - from a time window 5500 to 4750 years ago. The typically palm-sized panels are engraved with geometric patterns - usually at least a head, two eyes and a body are recognizable. Many also have two holes on the top. Many of these panels were discovered in graves, but also in simple pits, and are now stored in various museums, mainly in Spain and Portugal.
Depictions of stylized owls
Some researchers saw objects that served religious and/or symbolic purposes in the tablets. They could have represented dead people or they could have been anthropomorphic idols of a goddess. Since the objects were made with varying degrees of complexity, different interpretations of what is depicted are possible. Some of them, however, seem to clearly show the characteristics of an owl. This already led to the assumption that at least some of the Iberian tablets were representations of a mother goddess, who was stylized as an owl. The researchers working with Juan Negro from the Estación Biológica de Doñana research institute in Seville have now taken up this interpretation of the owl again and reinterpreted it. For their study, they assessed numerous plaques and rated them according to how many of six typical body features of owls were recognizable in the depictions.
It became clear that many of the plaques are in fact depictions of the charismatic birds in varying degrees of abstraction. Comparisons with the native bird life revealed that they are probably modeled after two species that are common in the region: the little owl (Athene noctua) and the long-eared owl (Asio otus). As for the two small holes that some plates have at the top, the researchers suspect a different function than previously assumed: These holes do not seem to have been intended for a cord to hang the plate, because they do not have the right place expected signs of wear. Instead, scientists speculate that feathers were inserted through the holes to represent the distinctive tufts that perch on the long-eared owl's head.
Homemade toys?
As the scientists report, some of the depictions reminded them of images that come from children. They followed this trail more closely: the authors compared the panels with numerous pictures of owls that had been drawn by today's children aged 4 to 13 years. They found characteristic similarities between the modern and millennia-old representations. It was found that children integrated more details of owls into their pictures as they got older. This gradation could be reflected in the different degrees of abstraction of the owl panels. So maybe children made the panels in a playful way, so the assumption.
The creation of the slates was also simple and required neither high skill nor intensive work, the researchers argue. Because the way the slate that can be found in many places in the region peels off often results in an owl shape. In order to depict other animals in a recognizable way, however, additional carving skills were required. So the motif might also have been purely practical. It is also known that owls have fascinated people for thousands of years with their forward-looking eyes and have inspired them to create art.
"We hypothesize that the owl-like slates were used in both playful activities and ritual ceremonies," the scientists write. The self-made works of art could therefore have been used like dolls. The researchers emphasize that the fact that the objects were often found in graves is not a contradiction in terms: "The boundary between play and ritual can be fluid." It is conceivable, for example, that the toys were dedicated to deceased group members at funeral ceremonies. All of this is of course speculative and the actual meaning and the manufacturer of the panels can still not be clarified. But at least the study makes it clear that "special" explanations are also possible for some traces from the past.