Bradshaw Foundation Archaeology News
Bradshaw Foundation Archaeology News
Bradshaw Foundation Archaeology News
Bradshaw Foundation - Latest News

Chevron carving thought to be by Neanderthals

Tuesday 06 July 2021
Share on Facebook

An article on phys.org - Ancient bone carving could change the way we think about Neanderthals - reports on a chevron pattern etched onto a deer bone more than 50,000 years ago. Researchers suggest that Neanderthals had their own artistic tradition before modern humans.

Ancient bone carving Neanderthals chevron pattern deer Germany Unicorn Cave
A chevron pattern etched onto a deer bone more than 50,000 years ago. Researchers suggest that Neanderthals had their own artistic tradition before modern humans. Image: NLD

The engraved bone, discovered at a German cave - at a well-known archaeological site called Einhornhoehle, or 'Unicorn Cave' - occupied by Neanderthals, has no obvious utility and thus may point to the capacity for creativity. The vast majority of Stone-Age artworks discovered in Europe are attributed to Homo sapiens and experts have long suggested that Neanderthals, among our closest relatives, only began creating symbolic objects after mixing with them.

Article continues below
Article continues

But using radiocarbon dating, archaeologists determined the recently-unearthed artifact to be at least 51,000 years old, pre-dating the arrival of Homo sapiens in central Europe by some 10,000 years, according to the research published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution - 'The cultural influence of H. sapiens as the single explanatory factor for abstract cultural expressions in Neanderthals can no longer be sustained.'

Dirk Leder, one of the authors and a researcher at the Lower Saxony Office for Heritage Department of Archaeology, explains that the bone clearly represents a means of expression. "We are very convinced that communicates an idea, a story, something meaningful to a group." It was in the 1980s that scientists first found evidence of an Ice Age Neanderthal settlement at Einhornhoehle and the new bone is from a dig under a collapsed entrance to the cave where artifacts were discovered in 2017. Six diagonal intersecting lines intentionally carved into it form a kind of chevron design that covers much of one surface.

The study reports that a series of experiments attempting to re-create the object using cow bones shows that it was probably boiled once or twice before it was sculpted with flint. The study reports that 'The complex production process leading to the creation of the incisions, their systematic arrangement and the scarcity of giant deer north of the Alps, support the notion of an intentional act and of symbolic meaning.'

The researchers said that a few discoveries from the same period attributed to Neanderthals include flint pieces, bedrock and teeth intentionally marked with cross-hatch or zig-zag marks. The deer bone, however, stands out as 'one of the most complex cultural expressions in Neanderthals known so far.'

COMMENTS

 
Archaeology
Friday 30 June 2023
Thursday 06 April 2023
Thursday 24 November 2022
Tuesday 27 September 2022
Tuesday 19 July 2022
Monday 16 August 2021
Thursday 06 May 2021
Tuesday 16 March 2021
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation
on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation
on social media for news & updates
If you have enjoyed visiting this website
please consider adding a link © Bradshaw Foundation
 
 
 
 
Bradshaw Foundation Facebook
 
Bradshaw Foundation YouTube
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store