Neanderthals Were Artistic Like Modern Humans, Study Indicates

Eurekalert! ^ | February 22, 2018 | University of Southampton

[SunkenCiv]

A new study led by the University of Southampton and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology shows that paintings in three caves in Spain were created more than 64,000 years ago - 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe.

This means that the Palaeolithic (Ice Age) cave art - including pictures of animals, dots and geometric signs - must have been made by Neanderthals, a 'sister' species to Homo sapiens, and Europe's sole human inhabitants at the time.

It also indicates that they thought symbolically, like modern humans.

Published today in the journal Science, the study reveals how an international team of scientists used a state-of-the-art technique called uranium-thorium dating to fix the age of the paintings as more than 64,000 years.

Until now, cave art has been attributed entirely to modern humans, as claims to a possible Neanderthal origin have been hampered by imprecise dating techniques. However, uranium-thorium dating provides much more reliable results than methods such as radiocarbon dating, which can give false age estimates.

The uranium-thorium method involves dating tiny carbonate deposits that have built up on top of the cave paintings. These contain traces of the radioactive elements uranium and thorium, which indicate when the deposits formed - and therefore give a minimum age for whatever lies beneath.

[Moonman62]

OK, just how does making hand stencils demonstrate abstract art?

My dog makes temporary paw stencils when he walks in the snow.

...

Both are superior to Obama’s recent portrait.

[TXnMA]

FReepMail for you...

[pabianice]

I remember one study noting that when Neanderthals made necklaces, they tied the beads together by the tops, while Homo sapiens drilled holes in the beads to more securely hold them. Neanderthals apparently never learned this.

[Dusty Road]

All my work. I have a ranch covered in the Caramal coloered chert and have some real nice Edwards Gray. No heat treating needed on either.

[SunkenCiv]

Neandertal never ate fish, and that's why they went extinct -- oh, wait, someone finally actually studied the strata and found out that Neandertal did eat fish. But vegetables, N didn't eat, oh wait, N invented vegetable soups. But N couldn't speak because *it* didn't have a hyoid bone, and, oh, now wait, now we've found hyoid bones (which are so fragile they and not found in most remains of great age). The point is, this cave art research is new, and blows away another silly manifestation of bias against Neandertal.

[SunkenCiv]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]