Cave art dated to Neanderthal era

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Cave art dated to Neanderthal era

Article by: JOHN NOBLE WILFORD , New York Times
Updated: June 14, 2012 - 8:54 PM

Paintings were revealed to be older than thought, raising questions about identity of early artist.

Hand stencils and disks made on the wall in Spain’s El Castillo cave were found to date back at least 40,800 years, scientis

Photo: Pedro Saura, American Association for the Advancement of Science via New York Times

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Stone Age artists were painting red disks, handprints, clublike symbols and geometric patterns on European cave walls long before previously thought, in some cases more than 40,000 years ago, scientists reported Thursday, after completing more reliable dating tests that raised a possibility that Neanderthals were the artists.

A more likely situation, the researchers said, is that the art -- 50 samples from 11 caves in northwestern Spain-- was created by anatomically modern humans fairly soon after their arrival in Europe.

The findings seem to put an exclamation point to a run of recent discoveries: direct evidence from fossils that Homo sapiens populations were living in England 41,500 to 44,200 years ago and in Italy 43,000 to 45,000 years ago, and that they were making flutes in German caves about 42,000 years ago. Then there is the new genetic evidence of modern human-Neanderthal interbreeding, suggesting a closer relationship than had been generally thought.

The successful application of a newly refined uranium-thorium dating technique is also expected to send other scientists to other caves to see if they can reclaim prehistoric bragging rights.

'Oldest art known in Europe'

In the new research, an international team led by Alistair W.G. Pike of the University of Bristol in England determined that the red disk in the cave known as El Castillo was part of the earliest known wall decorations, at a minimum of 40,800 years old. That makes it the earliest cave art found so far in Europe, perhaps 4,000 years older than the paintings at Grotte Chauvet in France.

The handprints common at several of the Spanish caves were stencils, probably made by blowing pigment on a hand placed against the cave wall. The oldest example, at El Castillo, proved to be at least 37,300 years old, which the scientists said "considerably increases the antiquity of this motif and implies that depictions of the human hand were among the oldest art known in Europe."

Expressions of dots and disks

At many-chambered Altamira, its splendor discovered in the 19th century, the researchers obtained a date of at least 35,600 years for a red club-shaped symbol. Archaeologists said this indicated that Altamira's artistic tradition started about 10,000 years earlier than once estimated, and the cave appeared to have been revisited and painted many times over a span of 20,000 years.

In a report published online in the journal Science, Pike and his colleagues noted that the oldest dated art is "nonfigurative and monochrome (red), supporting the notion that the earliest expression of art in Western Europe was less concerned with animal depiction and characterized by red dots, disks, line and hand stencils." The more stunning murals of bison and horses came later.

Pike said the older dates suggested three possible interpretations. One, Homo sapiens entered Europe with the tradition of cave art already part of the culture. There is increasing evidence that the African ancestors of Homo sapiens had for thousands of years developed expressions of symbolic thinking in the form of perforated beads, engraved eggshells and decorative pigments.

Another possibility is that this artistic culture arose shortly after modern humans reached Europe. "It might have been the result of competition for resources with Neanderthals," Pike said. "The rate of cultural innovation was accelerating, and this was a byproduct."

The third possibility, which the scientists said they had not anticipated, is that some of these earliest works of cave art might be attributed to Neanderthals. Until recently, archaeologists usually considered Neanderthals -- who became extinct about 30,000 years ago -- incapable of creating artistic works much beyond simple abstract markings and personal ornamentation.

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John Hellstrom of the University of Melbourne in Australia said the research: “The scope of their study has allowed them to unambiguously identify a number of examples that challenge and overturn the previous understanding of that art’s origin.”

Pedro Saura, American Association for the Advancement of Science via New York Times