A high-tech analysis of cave art at three Spanish sites,
published on Thursday, dates the paintings to at least 64,800
years ago, or 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in
Europe from Africa.
That makes the cave art much older than previously thought and
provides the strongest evidence yet that Neanderthals had the
cognitive capacity to understand symbolic representation, a
central pillar of human culture.
"What we've got here is a smoking gun that really overturns the
notion that Neanderthals were knuckle-dragging cavemen," said
Alistair Pike, professor of archaeological sciences at the
University of Southampton, who co-led the study.
"Painting is something that has always been seen as a very human
activity, so if Neanderthals are doing it they are being just
like us," he told Reuters.

While some archaeologists already viewed Neanderthals as more
sophisticated than their commonplace caricature, the evidence
until now has been inconclusive. With the data from the three
Spanish cave sites described in the journal Science, Pike and
colleagues believe they finally have rock-solid proof.
The early cave art at La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales
includes lines, dots, discs and hand stencils - and creating
them would have involved specific skills, such as mixing
pigments and selecting appropriate display locations.
The Neanderthals living in the same land that would one day give
birth to Diego Velazquez and Pablo Picasso also needed the
intellectual ability to think symbolically, like modern humans.
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Scientists used a precise dating system based on the radioactive
decay of uranium isotopes into thorium to assess the age of the
paintings. This involved scraping a few milligrams of calcium
carbonate deposit from the paintings for analysis.
A second related study published in Science Advances found that dyed
and decorated marine shells from a different Spanish cave also dated
back to pre-human times.
Taken together, the researchers said their work suggested that
Neanderthals were "cognitively indistinguishable" from early modern
humans.
Joao Zilhao of the University of Barcelona said the new findings
meant the search for the origins of human cognition needed to go
back to the common ancestor of both Neanderthals and modern humans
more than 500,000 years ago.
Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago, soon after direct
ancestors arrived in Europe. It is unclear what killed them off,
although theories include an inability to adapt to climate change
and increased competition from modern humans.
If they were still alive today, Pike believes they could well have
gone on develop complex art and technology.
"If they had been given the time, the resources and the population,
then they might have ended up in some version of the world we live
in today."
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Alison Williams)
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