A series of lines carved in stone in a cave near the southwestern tip of Europe would be the proof that Neanderthal was more intelligent and creative than previously thought.
The recorded cross in Gorham Cave Gibraltar are the first known samples of Neanderthal rock art , according to the team of scientists who studied the site. It is a significant finding because it indicates that modern humans and their extinct cousins had the common ability to speak in the abstract.
The study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences studied the grooves on a rock covered by sediment. Archaeologists have found artifacts themselves Neanderthal culture in an upper layer, indicating that the carvings were earlier said Clive Finlayson, one of the authors.
“It’s the last nail in the coffin of the hypothesis that Neanderthals were cognitively inferior to modern humans,” said Paul Tacon, rock art expert at Griffith University in Australia. Tacon, who was not involved in the study, said the sizes required great effort and its goals were ritual or communication, or perhaps both.
“We will never know what it meant for that size that did or Neanderthals who lived in the cave, but that marked their territory in this way before the arrival of modern humans has profound implications for debates about what means to be human and the origin of art, “Tacon said.
Not everyone is convinced: another recent study about the dating of archaeological sites in Europe raises the possibility that the artifacts were not the work of Neanderthals but modern humans. Neanderthal man disappeared between 30 and 41 thousand 39 thousand 260 years ago, while modern humans arrived in Europe makes 45,000 to 43,000 years, which speaks of several thousand years of overlap.
“Any study that helps to improve the public image of Neanderthals is welcome,” said Clive Gamble, an archaeologist at the University of Southaampton, England. “We know we talked, lived in large groups, cared for the sick, buried the dead and flourished in glacial environments of the northern latitudes. Hence, an engraved stone should be within reach.”
“But the crucial aspect is dating,” Gamble said. “I want to paint Neanderthals, record and carve, but I reserve judgment.”
Finlayson, director of heritage in the Gibraltar Museum, has no doubts.
“All sites Neanderthal fossils of this period, like rock Devils Tower, just one mile (one thousand 600 meters) Gorham’s Cave, are associated with this technology,” he said in an email. “In contrast, no modern human site in Europe has this kind of technology.’s Why we are confident that the tools were made by Neanderthals.”
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