Neanderthals Created Abstract Rock Carvings Like Modern Humans

Archaeologists have made a startling discovery in a cave in Gibraltar. They've uncovered the first example of a rock graving created by Neanderthals in Gorham's Cave, revealing a bit more about this ancient people.

The rock engraving is dated at over 39,000 years old. It consists of a deeply impressed cross-hatching carved into rock, and actually suggests that Neanderthals were capable of using symbols and could understand abstract depictions. Before now, scientists believed that abstract depictions were a cultural innovation introduced by modern humans.

In fact, researchers believed that this cultural innovation suggested there was marked differences between Neanderthals and modern humans. Yet the fact that Neanderthals created the same depictions suggests otherwise.

But how did the researchers know that this engraving was actually created by Neanderthals? They found the presence of Mousterian tools that are characteristic of Neanderthals in the sediments covering the engraving. In addition, Neanderthals still populated the south of the Iberian Peninsula at the time that the engraving was created, which points to the fact that these ancient people did the work.

A lot of care went into the engraving, as well. After conductive microscopic analysis, the researchers found that the lines were skillfully carved and that it likely took between 188 and 317 strokes to achieve the result.

The findings reveal that graphic expression was not exclusive to modern humans. Instead, some Neanderthal cultures also produced abstract engravings. This, in turn, reveals that Neanderthals and humans may have had more in common than we once thought. Not only that, but the findings shed a bit more light on the culture of Neanderthals at the time.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.