Spanish researchers reinterpret Spanish Copper Age plaques.
We know owls as companions of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and as messengers from Hogwarts School of Magic. Due to their ominous calls, some also consider them birds of bad luck. These nocturnal birds of prey fascinated people 5,000 years ago. The 4,000 slates with engraved patterns, which resemble owls for their shape and, above all, for their large eyes, date from this period. They are among the typical relics of the Copper Age in the Iberian Peninsula.
Archaeologists have puzzled over its significance for over a hundred years; the great Lithuanian prehistoric Marija Gimbutas, who believed that matriarchal structures were prevalent in ancient Europe, saw them as symbols of a mother goddess. Others interpreted them as representations of a goddess of the dead or even the dead themselves. Now, a group led by Juan Negro (Seville) proposes a more secular interpretation in “Scientific Reports”: children and young people would have engraved the plates and played with them. They conclude this from systematic comparison with owls in drawings made by children today. The patterns that show the plumage of owls are simply timeless and universal.
The researchers also interpret the two small holes that many of the plates have on top. These are too small to pull strings to hang the sign. Instead, children place feathers in the holes, imitating the tufts that long-eared owls wear on their heads. This explanation does not contradict any ritual usage: “In emerging societies, the boundary between play and ritual is blurred.”