Discover an abstract print made by Neanderthals – Terra Spain

The ability of symbolic thought is not unique to modern man or at least, that seems to indicate a Neanderthal found engraved on a rock Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar.

Photography provided by the Gibraltar Museum today, Tuesday September 2, 2014 showing notches found in Gibraltar.

Photo: EFE

So far, producing cave paintings and prints on the walls of the caves was considered the result of human evolution and a unique ability of modern humans, who arrived in Western Europe around 40,000 years ago.

However, an international study published today in the scientific journal PNAS, the Spanish researchers who have participated, introduced the first demonstrable case of an abstract design made by Neanderthals.

Engraving, the size of the palm of a hand and carried on a rock, is a plot of lines crossed at right angles.

To determine how and why these lines were recorded in the rock, the researchers conducted a microscopic and morphometric study of the incisions through photomicrographs.

We also experimented with authentic stone tools made by Neanderthals of Gibraltar to see the kind of lines left on the stone.

With tests like these, the researchers concluded that the print is not accidental, but a deliberate work of Neanderthals.

“qualitative jump”

“Despite its apparent simplicity, the Neanderthals engraving represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of the cognitive ability of those other humans and extinct: this kind of abstract representations, with no apparent functionality is unique to minds capable of abstraction, “says researcher John Joseph Black CSIC, Biological Station of Doñana.

According to this researcher, analyzed the engraving is “a cultural element” and “a unique phenomenon comparable to a work of art.”

The geochemical analysis of mineral coating etching grooves creation date to a stage in which the Neanderthals were present.

According to scientists, this finding adds to other evidence found in other Neanderthal sites, like use of pigments or evidence of burials intentioned, signs that cognitive abilities of Neanderthals is greater than the one they had been allocated so far.

The discovery “will mean a jolt in the form of work on the Neanderthal sites, and now the students are going to be much more attentive to signs that have previously been overlooked and that may underpin further more the idea that these men were very similar to us, “concludes the researcher