[MR] Archaeology News: Spanish Vultures and an Old Sandal

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today Archaeology News has an interesting story on extinct bearded vultures
and what they left in their nests.

The birds have been gone from southern Spain for more than 100 years, but a
dozen or so of their nests were still clinging to isolated cliff faces. It
seems that the birds reused the same nests generation after generation,
like for hundreds of years, building up huge piles of "stuff".

What a temptation for archaeologists, who couldn't resist roping down to
those nests to see what the birds left behind. Well, they found mostly
animal bones and hooves, not unexpected since bearded vultures are
specialists who live mostly on bones. But they also found all sorts of very
old human debris as well, perhaps grabbed by the birds for nesting
material, or maybe from more sinister sources.

Besides scraps of leather, bits of fabric, a crossbow bolt (which might
have been aimed in their direction), some tools, the most arresting of all
was a child's woven sandal. The sandal was carbon dated to 675 years ago.

The story goes on to say that while the birds have been reintroduced to
some areas of their former range, they remain critically endangered. They
have not been invited back to the nests that were studied.

The story and photos are at
https://archaeologymag.com/2025/10/medieval-artifacts-found-in-vulture-nests-in-spain/
.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.