Were Neanderthals the earliest cave artists? New research in Spain points to the possibility

by LORRAINE BOISSONEAULT

Archaeologists pushed back the date of cave paintings at three sites to 65,000 years ago—20,000 years before the arrival of humans in Europe

Put yourself in the distant past, 65,000 years ago, and imagine entering a cave in Spain. Keep in mind this was the era of megafauna, animals like saber-toothed cats and cave hyenas and cave bears that were 50 percent larger than modern grizzlies. “[Humans] would’ve used small torches and their field of view would’ve been so small, and the light would’ve been flickering,” says archaeologist Chris Standish, of the University of Southampton. “You have all these fantastic speleothems [formations like stalactites] in the cave and sometimes calcite crystals that sparkle. So it must’ve been quite amazing, but also very daunting.”

Yet humans entered the caves again and again, armed with their flickering torches and red or black pigments, all so they could leave their mark on the walls. For decades, these abstract artistic renderings have been a meager glimpse of life in the Ice Age, and evidence of the cognitive abilities of our ancient ancestors. Or so we thought.

In a paper published today in Science, Standish and others argue the paintings are too old to have been made by Homo sapiens, who only entered Europe sometime around 40,000 years ago. Instead, they think this art might’ve been the product of Neanderthals.

“It’s very exciting that they’re getting these dates for art, especially as we’ve been working towards arguing for the cognitive capacities of Neanderthals for many years,” says paleoanthropologist Clive Finlayson of the Gibraltar Museum, who wasn’t involved with the study but has previously studied Neanderthal rock engravings in Gibraltar. “The only word of caution is that there’s no direct evidence that this is Neanderthals. It’s inferred because of the age.”

Smithsonian Magazine for more