German artifact indicates Neanderthal's knowledge of fine art

CAIRO – 8 July 2021: Anthropologists in Germany have discovered an artifact that indicates the Neanderthals knew fine art.

The scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution published a report on the artifact, a sculpture of deer bones, with an intricate geometric inscription.

 

The piece is about 51,000 years old, and is considered the oldest model of Neanderthal fine art, and an evidence of the existence of abstract thinking at times of this primitive man, and his ability to make pieces of art with a symbolic meaning, long before the arrival of Cro-Magnon humans to Central Europe, according to  Russia Today. 

It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned artifact was found in Einhorn Cave in central Germany.

Until recently, historians and anthropologists believed that culture, plastic art, religions, and abstract thinking in general appeared a relatively short period before the civilized man. But in recent years, traces of art dating back to an earlier period have been found, where it turns out that art was present in the oldest species of humans, especially the Neanderthals.

Also, a group of archaeologists have recently conducted studies on the various layers of a cave called Denisov, located in the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia. For the first time, scientists were able to determine the chronology of the inhabitants of this important archaeological site, through the results of DNA analysis conducted on the layers of the cave.

The British journal Nature reports that the oldest DNA discovered in Denisov Cave belongs to Denisovans, while Neanderthals appeared in the cave later.

Denisov Cave is famous for the discovery of Denisovans - an extinct form of ancient humans, believed to have once inhabited East and Central Asia. Scientists also found the remains of a Neanderthal in this cave, and a bone belonging to the child to a father from Denisovans and a mother from Neanderthals. This indicates that they lived in the same period in this area.

In the cave, scientists also found parts of bones and teeth belonging to representatives of Neanderthals and Denisovans, in sediments that are 300,000 years old.

However, this is a short period that does not allow to determine precisely the sequence of the types of people who inhabited the cave.