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Economic Times
30-05-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
Neanderthals may have created the first known symbolic art as scientists discover world's oldest human fingerprint
Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed a 43,000-year-old pebble bearing a Neanderthal fingerprint, potentially the oldest known. The red ocher mark, deliberately placed on the stone, suggests artistic expression and symbolic thought. This discovery challenges previous assumptions about Neanderthal intelligence and their capacity for abstract thinking, adding to growing evidence of their symbolic behavior. A 43,000-year-old ocher fingerprint, pressed onto a potato-shaped stone by a Neanderthal, may be the earliest evidence of symbolic art, and the oldest known human fingerprint ever discovered. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The world's oldest fingerprints What does the fingerprint resemble? Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Previous discoveries Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the world's oldest known human fingerprint, left by a Neanderthal approximately 43,000 years ago on a pebble in central Spain. The remarkable discovery can reshape our understanding of Neanderthal discovery was made at the San Lázaro rock shelter near Segovia, where researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid unearthed a quartz-rich granite pebble bearing a deliberate red ocher mark. The pigment, identified as iron oxide, not native to the cave, was applied with a human fingertip, leaving behind a clear whore pattern characteristic of a fingerprint. Also Read: Advanced weapons built 80,000 years ago, unearthed in Russia, have no human connection The pebble itself features three natural indentations resembling eyes and a mouth. The red ocher mark aligns precisely where a nose would be, suggesting the Neanderthal artist may have perceived a face in the stone and enhanced it with pigment, a phenomenon known as pareidolia. Forensic analyses, including multispectral imaging and scanning electron microscopy, confirmed the intentional placement of the pigment and the presence of a human fingerprint. Statistical modeling indicated a mere 0.31 percent chance that the red dot's alignment with the indentations occurred by coincidence, reinforcing the idea of deliberate artistic finding adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting Neanderthals engaged in symbolic discoveries include engraved bones, modified talons, and cave paintings attributed to Neanderthals, challenging the notion that symbolic thought was exclusive to Homo sapiens. However, interpretations of the pebble's significance vary among experts. Anthropologist Bruce Hardy noted that while the ocher application was intentional, "symbolism is in the eye of the beholder." Archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes suggested the mark could represent a navel rather than a nose, cautioning against definitive conclusions about its differing opinions, the discovery underscores the complexity of Neanderthal cognition and their capacity for abstract thought. The pebble, likely transported from the nearby Eresma River, shows no signs of utilitarian use, indicating it may have served a symbolic or decorative purpose.
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Neanderthals may have created the first known symbolic art as scientists discover world's oldest human fingerprint
Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed a 43,000-year-old pebble bearing a Neanderthal fingerprint, potentially the oldest known. The red ocher mark, deliberately placed on the stone, suggests artistic expression and symbolic thought. This discovery challenges previous assumptions about Neanderthal intelligence and their capacity for abstract thinking, adding to growing evidence of their symbolic behavior. A 43,000-year-old ocher fingerprint, pressed onto a potato-shaped stone by a Neanderthal, may be the earliest evidence of symbolic art, and the oldest known human fingerprint ever discovered. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The world's oldest fingerprints What does the fingerprint resemble? Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Previous discoveries Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the world's oldest known human fingerprint, left by a Neanderthal approximately 43,000 years ago on a pebble in central Spain. The remarkable discovery can reshape our understanding of Neanderthal discovery was made at the San Lázaro rock shelter near Segovia, where researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid unearthed a quartz-rich granite pebble bearing a deliberate red ocher mark. The pigment, identified as iron oxide, not native to the cave, was applied with a human fingertip, leaving behind a clear whore pattern characteristic of a fingerprint. Also Read: Advanced weapons built 80,000 years ago, unearthed in Russia, have no human connection The pebble itself features three natural indentations resembling eyes and a mouth. The red ocher mark aligns precisely where a nose would be, suggesting the Neanderthal artist may have perceived a face in the stone and enhanced it with pigment, a phenomenon known as pareidolia. Forensic analyses, including multispectral imaging and scanning electron microscopy, confirmed the intentional placement of the pigment and the presence of a human fingerprint. Statistical modeling indicated a mere 0.31 percent chance that the red dot's alignment with the indentations occurred by coincidence, reinforcing the idea of deliberate artistic finding adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting Neanderthals engaged in symbolic discoveries include engraved bones, modified talons, and cave paintings attributed to Neanderthals, challenging the notion that symbolic thought was exclusive to Homo sapiens. However, interpretations of the pebble's significance vary among experts. Anthropologist Bruce Hardy noted that while the ocher application was intentional, "symbolism is in the eye of the beholder." Archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes suggested the mark could represent a navel rather than a nose, cautioning against definitive conclusions about its differing opinions, the discovery underscores the complexity of Neanderthal cognition and their capacity for abstract thought. The pebble, likely transported from the nearby Eresma River, shows no signs of utilitarian use, indicating it may have served a symbolic or decorative purpose.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
43,000-year-old human fingerprint is world's oldest — and made by a Neanderthal
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A red dot on a face-shaped rock in Spain may be setting records in more ways than one. At roughly 43,000 years old, the dot may be the oldest human fingerprint on record and also one of the earliest symbolic objects ever found in Europe. The fingerprint, made with the red mineral ocher, was left by a Neanderthal — the closest extinct relative of modern humans. Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago but occupied Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before early modern humans arrived on the continent. The researchers behind a new study argue that the red dot represents a nose on a rock with face-like features. The discovery is a further challenge to the idea that Neanderthals were generally not capable of symbolic art. But some experts told Live Science they are not convinced that the dot is symbolic. Anthropologist and archaeologist Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College in Ohio, who was not involved in the discovery, said the red dot was definitely deliberate but little more could be certain beyond that. "Clearly, the ocher has been intentionally applied with the fingerprint," Hardy told Live Science. "But I did not see a face — symbolism is in the eye of the beholder." Related: 130,000-year-old Neanderthal-carved bear bone is symbolic art, study argues The study, published May 5 in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, describes the 2022 discovery at the San Lázaro rock shelter on the outskirts of Segovia in central Spain. Scientists have evidence that the region was heavily populated by Neanderthals between 44,000 and 41,000 years ago, but there is no evidence that early modern humans ever lived there. Image 1 of 2 A: the rock before it was fully excavated. B: the face-shaped rock and the red dot "nose." Image 2 of 2 The researchers say the red dot was deliberately placed as a "nose" to highlight the rock's resemblance to a human face. The yellow dots are where scientific samples were taken. The rock, which resembles a large potato, is about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long and has vaguely eyebrow-shaped indentations near one end. But the deliberate addition of a red dot for a "nose" beneath the "eyebrows" of the rocky Mr. Potato Head transforms the large pebble into a primitive portrayal of a human face, the authors argue. "This find represents the most complete and oldest evidence of a human fingerprint in the world, unequivocally attributed to Neanderthals, highlighting the deliberate use of the pigment for symbolic purposes," Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) said in a translated statement. The red dot looks evenly spread, but forensic examinations and analysis of how it reflected different wavelengths of light revealed it was created by a fingerprint with a distinctive whorl pattern, probably from an adult male Neanderthal. The granite pebble seems to have been deliberately brought to the rock shelter, probably from a nearby river where it formed. "The fact that the pebble was selected because of its appearance and then marked with ocher shows that there was a human mind capable of symbolizing, imagining, idealizing and projecting his or her thoughts on an object," the team of researchers wrote in the study. Debate about whether Neanderthals made abstract art has raged among archaeologists for decades. Finds include engravings on cave walls in France that may be up to 75,000 years old, but even the finest works of Neanderthal art pale next to the cave paintings made by early modern humans at sites like the Chauvet Cave in France and on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Rebecca Wragg Sykes, a paleolithic archaeologist at the universities of Cambridge and Liverpool in the U.K. and the author of "Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art" (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020), thinks that, even if red dot is symbolic, it is possible that the study's authors may have misunderstood its meaning. "What the team infer to be a representation of a nose on a face might, if turned the other way up, be seen as a navel on a human figure," she told Live Science in an email. "We can't really say what it is meant to 'be.'" RELATED STORIES —Cave thought to hold unicorn bones actually home to Neanderthal artwork —65,000-year-old hearth in Gibraltar may have been a Neanderthal 'glue factory,' study finds —Secret cave chamber may be one of the last Neanderthal hideouts Durham University archaeologist Paul Pettitt, who also was not involved in the discovery, said the rock was an "unequivocal example of the Neanderthal use of red pigment" that showed how Neanderthals were routinely leaving marks on cave walls and portable objects. But whether the red dot was truly symbolic of something or not was still unclear, he said. And the archaeologist and psychologist Derek Hodgson, an expert in prehistoric cave art who also was not involved in the study, told Live Science that the rock seemed to have had no other purpose. Additionally, the rock only looked like a face when the "nose" mark was added, he said in an email. "This find adds to the growing corpus of objects made by the Neanderthals that are non-functional in nature."
