Science Friday Bearded Vulture Nests Hold Trove Of Centuries-Old Artifacts
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Nov 13, 2025 Ana Belen Marín-Arroyo, an archaeologist and professor at the University of Cantabria, sheds light on fascinating discoveries in bearded vulture nests. These nests, built over centuries, contain intriguing artifacts like 800-year-old shoes and even painted masks. Marín-Arroyo discusses how vultures use human objects to regulate temperature and keep their eggs warm. She also highlights the nests as natural museums, preserving both artifacts and the stories they tell about ancient human life. It's a captivating blend of nature and history!
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Nests As Long-Term Time Capsules
- Bearded vulture nests accumulate materials across centuries, forming deep, reused structures up to 4 meters deep and 1.5–2.4 meters wide.
- These long-lived nests act as time capsules preserving ecological and human-made materials for historical study.
Researchers Surprised By 800-Year Shoe
- Dr. Ana Belén Marín-Arroyo described unexpected finds when studying bearded vulture nests, noting surprise at discovering an 800-year-old shoe.
- She emphasized that neither she nor her team expected such ancient human artifacts in the nests.
Artifacts Reveal Human Practices
- The nests contained diverse materials: sticks, bones, eggshells, grass shoes, baskets, metal-tipped arrow, and a painted leather mask.
- Analyses like proteomics identified the mask leather as sheep, revealing cultural and environmental context.