Did Neanderthals have spotted faces on rocks 43,000 years ago and left fingerprints?

Archaeologists discovered an unusual rock while digging in a cave in the Spanish city of Segovia. The hand-sized stone naturally resembles an elongated face and has a pile of red pigment made of ocher on the tip of what might be considered a nose.

“We’re all thinking about the same thing and looking at each other because of its shape: We’re all thinking, ‘This looks like a face,’” David Alvarez Alonso, an archaeologist at Cromputense University in Madrid, was part of the excavation, Tell guardian.

Álvarez Alonso and his colleagues studied this strange rock over the next three years. Researchers believe that 43,000 years ago, Neanderthals immersed their fingers into the ocher and pressed them on the central ridge of the stone, placing it behind what is now considered the world's oldest complete human fingerprint. This is an interesting finding that may have a significant impact, but some experts would like to see more evidence to support this hypothesis.

The group published a discovery in the Journal Archaeology and Anthropology Science Saturday, May 24. In the paper, archaeologists point out that the point's “strategic position” shows that it is evidence of Neanderthal's “symbolic behavior.” In other words, this is a work of art that “can represent one of the earliest symbols of human faces before history.”

“The fact is [rock] Being chosen because of its appearance, and then marked with an ocher, suggesting that the human mind is able to symbolize, imagine, idealize and project his or her thoughts about objects. ” the researchers wrote.

Whether Neanderthals can make art is the subject of ongoing debate Tell BBC. But over the past decade, More and more evidence Many experts believe Artistic expression emerged earlier in human evolution than previously thought.

The authors of the new study believe their stones add to this evidence. To draw this conclusion, they first needed more data to support the ancient artist actually experienced Pareidolia's idea: to see a face in an inanimate object. To do this, they generated a 3D model of the surface of the stone and measured the distance between its features, finding that red dots (or noses) were placed on top to make it similar to the actual nose on a human face.

The researchers then invited the help of geologists to characterize the red dot, confirming that it was made with ocher. Forensic police experts then used multispectral analysis, a technique that could reveal details that are invisible to the naked eye, to confirm that the red dot has been applied with fingertips. Their analysis found fingerprints of adult male Neanderthals who might belong to the DOT.

“Once we have all the other parts, context and information, we come up with the theory that this could be Pareidolia and then human intervention was conducted in the form of a red dot,” Álvarez Alonso told the Guardian. “Without that red dot, you wouldn't be able to make any claim to the object.”

But Gilliane Monnier, an anthropology professor who studies Neanderthal behavior, does not fully believe the researchers' findings.

“There are these natural depressions – the fact that we can measure the distance between them and think it's a face, it's all good,” Monnier, who was not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “But that doesn’t give us any indication of the Neanderthals [occupied this cave] See that face [rock]. ”

More importantly, she is skeptical of the researchers' claims that the red dots are actually made from human fingertips. She said it is possible to naturally form coloring and fingerprint ridges.

“I'm interested in seeing explanations from geologists – someone is trained in geology, which shows that there is little chance that natural, geological or earth biological processes will form,” Monnier said.

The researchers also acknowledged that “all questions surrounding this hypothesis cannot be completely eliminated”, noting that the Pareidolia hypothesis should not be considered as a deterministic claim, but rather a possible explanation of the object based on evidence.

Therefore, it is hard to say whether this study will elucidate or complicate our understanding of how human mind develops the ability to create art. Face-shaped rock is an interesting part of the puzzle, but more research is needed to figure out where it is.