Neanderthal culture: Old masters

Nature ^ | 15 May 2013 | Tim Appenzeller

[SunkenCiv]

The results of an earlier round of sampling in El Castillo cave, published last June1, showed that the oldest of the paintings, a simple red spot, dates to at least 40,800 years ago, roughly when the first modern humans reached western Europe. Pike and his colleagues think that when they analyse the latest samples, the paintings may turn out to be older still, perhaps by thousands of years -- too old to have been made by modern humans. If so, the artists must have been Neanderthals, the brawny, archaic people who were already living in Europe...

An early date for the paintings would also be a vindication for the slight, dark-haired man watching as Pike works: Joao Zilhao, who has emerged as the leading advocate for Neanderthals, relentlessly pressing the case that these ice-age Europeans were our cognitive equals. Zilhão, an archaeologist at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies at the University of Barcelona in Spain, believes that other signs of sophisticated Neanderthal culture have already proved his point. But he is willing to debate on his opponents' terms. “To my mind, we don't need that evidence,” he says of the paintings. “But I guess for many of my colleagues this would be the smoking gun.”

[SunkenCiv]

Spots and stencils in El Castillo cave, Spain -- one at least 40,800 years old -- might be the handiwork of Neanderthals. [PEDRO SAURA]

[SunkenCiv]

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[chesty_puller]

There is a Neanderthal museum in Gibraltar that is amazing. They have digs in that small country that are doing some good work.

[a fool in paradise]

The results of an earlier round of sampling in El Castillo cave, published last June1, showed that the oldest of the paintings, a simple red spot, dates to at least 40,800 years ago

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks cp.

[a fool in paradise]

[bert]

From about 23,000 BCE to about 1782, the red spot was used by pirates to designate a traitor. Around 1782, the color was changed to black. Billy Bones was one of the receivers of the Black Spot

Some believe Ben Gunn also received the Black Spor shortly before he was marooned by Captain Flint

[afraidfortherepublic]

Is that where fraternities picked up the custom to “blackball” someone they didn’t want in their group?

[wildbill]

Maybe the artist was a Japanese Neanderthal?

[Rokurota]

Why is there a Neanderthal painting on this sweater?

[Daffynition]

I know what pure evil and real art looks like.

[a fool in paradise]

[Daffynition]

[a fool in paradise]

[Chuckmorse]

The Monkey Trial - Evolutionary Politics in the post-Traditional Age by Chuck Morse
http://amzn.com/B00B0O6AJU

[SunkenCiv]

KEYWORDS: neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals

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]

[Covenantor]

Images like that are so frustrating, wish they had placed a modern hand along side for size comparison, variations within sets not with standing. So simple an idea, a child could do it and usually does.