A cautionary note about estimated ages of artifacts. It is very common for “initial estimates” of the ages of artifacts to be grossly overstated, based on a single factor, then later the age is adjusted based on other age markers. But that is never mentioned, as there is no popular follow up.
That is true. The article mentioned that all the similar things in Spain have been “found in caves,” but that wouldn’t be particularly surprising since there are many areas in Spain where people lived in caves until fairly recently (as late as the 1950s-60s) and actually many 16th-17th-18th century houses are built over the mouths of formerly inhabited caves. I was in one of these once in Extremadura and the modern inhabitants, members of a family that had lived there for several centuries, told me that some younger members had gone at least 5 km into the cave and then decided to return because they were afraid they’d get lost...but they’d seen paintings and carvings all along the route.
I’ve never quite understood why people think that anything with a hole in it has to be decorative, however. Possibly this was actually a tool of some sort that was used regularly (so its owner wanted to keep it attached) or possibly it was even some kind of cooking implement.
The earlier finds were about 15000 years old, this one’s from deeper down.