Were Europe ’s first creative person Neandertals ? An international squad of archaeologists allege it ’s a strong possibility . Improved dating proficiency have revealed that the practice session of cave painting start at least 40,800 long time ago , around the same time that modern homo go far in Europe .
But the paintings — which , at 40,800 years old , are easily the most ancient reliably date cave art on Earth — could also be much , much older . If that ’s the character , say the researchers , it ’s likely that Neanderthal , not Homo sapiens , are responsible for for this prehistoric fine art work .
undermine artwork is one of the most important reference point archaeologists have in their efforts to reconstruct the emergence and evolution of culture throughout human history . But for as often as cave art appears in the archaeological record , it is notoriously unmanageable to date directly . Radiocarbon date , for example — one of the most commonly used technique in an archeologist ’s putz congeal — is often unreliable when it comes to estimate the age cave art . accordingly , it ’s try out unmanageable to establish a reliable timeline of its story .
“ We live very little about the chronology of European cave art , ” explain palaeolithic archeologist Joao Zilhao , joint author of the study describing the cave paintings , appearing inthis week ’s issue of Science . “ We do n’t know if it go far with the first modern humans … if it predated the arrival of advanced humans , or [ if it ] arose 5,000 or 10,000 years after modern humans had already arrived in Europe . ”
In an elbow grease to well establish what that chronology might look like , Zilhao connect forces with University of Bristol archaeologist Alastair Pike ( pictured here ) , an expert in a technique call atomic number 92 - thorium ( U - Th ) dating . By redact a originative spin on this dating method acting , Pike was able to define the minimum age of tons of body of work of artistic production in 11 Spanish caves — not by date the works themselves , but by dating mineral deposits known as speleothems locate like a shot adjacent to the house painting .
You ’ve believably seen or heard of speleothems before , if not by that name . Some of the most wide recognise object lesson of these mineral formation are stalagmites and stalactite — solid mineral - spires , take shape over the form of grand of years , that project tooth - ilk from the floors and ceilings of moist cave systems .
But speleothems can take a form of other phase as well , including lean , sail - like formation know as “ flowstone . ” Occasionally , flowstone will form over walls plow in palaeolithic cave paintings . When it does , it becomes a time capsule . Logic dictate that anything incase in flowstone is for certain old than the flowstone itself , so by equate the ratio of uranium and Th mote in the mineral bank nearest the cave bulwark , archaeologists can acquire a reliable abject limit on the historic period of the artistic creation that lie just beneath .
Pike and Zilhao dated 50 works of cave art using this U - Th method , but three finding in particular really stood out . The research worker describe their finding in the in vogue take of Science :
The outcome demonstrate that the tradition of decorating cave extends back at least to the other Aurignacian period , with minimum ages of 40.8 thousand old age for a red disc , 37.3 thousand years for a hand stencil [ picture up top ] , and 35.6 thousand years for a claviform - like symbolization [ show here ] .
If the early cave painting appear in the region shortly before 40.8 ka [ 40.8 thousand twelvemonth ago ] , this would … digest the notion that cave art coincided with [ the arrival of modern mankind ] in westerly Europe ~41.5 ka , and that the exploration and decorating of caves was part of their cultural packet . However , because the 40.8 - ky date for the disk is a lower limit long time , it can not be ruled out that the earliest paintings were symbolic expressions of the Neandertals , which were present [ that area of ] Spain until at least 42 ka .
When asked how surefooted they were that the cave artwork was , in fact , the work of Neandertals , the researcher stick to the presented facts , saying that it is impossible to say at this point . That ’s not to say they do n’t have strong opinions :
“ In probabilistic terms , I would say there is a substantial prospect that these results imply Neanderthal authorship . But I will not say we have prove it because we have n’t and it can not be try at this time . It ’s just , you know , my gut opinion if you need .
“ What we have to do now is go back , sample more and find out whether we can indeed get engagement older than 42 , 43 , 44,000 [ years ] . ”
Pike echoed his workfellow ’s sentiments :
“ Simply go back and day of the month more of these samples , ” he explained , noting that investigation like to this one are in the pipeline , “ and find something that predates innovative humans in Europe . ”
The researcher ’ finding are described inthis week ’s issue of Science .
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