AFP, Washington
Neanderthals, long perceived to have been unsophisticated and brutish, really did paint stalagmites in a Spanish cave more than 60,000 years ago, and according to a study published on Monday.
The issue had roiled the paleo-archaeology community ever since the publication of a 2018 paper attributing red ochre pigment found on the stalagmite dome of Cueva de Ardales to our extinct "cousin" species. The dating suggested the art was at least 64,800 years old, made at a time when modern humans did not inhabit the continent.
But the finding was contentious, and "a scientific article said that perhaps these pigments were a natural thing", a result of iron oxide flow, Francesco d'Errico, co-author of a new paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) told AFP.
A new analysis revealed the composition and placement of the pigments were not consistent with natural processes - instead, the pigments were applied through splattering and blowing. What's more, their texture did not match natural samples taken from the caves, suggesting the pigments came from an external source.
