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The journal Science Advances has published an article in which it is documented that the perforated and painted shells found in the Cueva de los Aviones (Cartagena) have an age between 115,000 and 120,000 years.
Led by João Zilhão (ICREA, Barcelona) and Dirk Hoffmann (Max Planck, Germany) and with the collaboration of Josefina Zapata, professor of the Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology at the UMU, this research confirms that Neandertals used sophisticated pigment mixtures.
In the same way, they practiced body ornamentation long before such behaviors could be documented in the first modern humans settled in Africa and the Near East.
The recognition of the first symbolic and artistic capacities of humanity is a subject of current scientific debate.
Traditionally, these capacities have been attributed to the first populations of modern humans emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago and reached Europe 40,000 years ago.
Despite this and in recent years, new discoveries came to propose that the Neanderthals were already decorating their bodies with ocher and beads, anticipating the old beliefs.
"This discovery helps to eradicate that traditional and widespread view that has been had about the Neandertals' incapacity, and demonstrates how anatomically modern humans and Neanderthal humans used symbols to communicate, and also opens the door to the possibility that this behavior has an origin in older archaic groups, "as stressed by the researcher at the University of Murcia.
U-Th, a new technique to overcome barriers
For the analysis, the Uranium-Thorium (U-Th) dating was used, a technique based on the radioactive decay of isotopes of uranium in thorium and used to discover the age of the materials formed by calcium carbonate.
With this new method, the time limitation offered by the radiocarbon technique used in the study published in 2010 in the journal PNAS has been exceeded, in which the UMU teachers Carmen Pérez Sirvent and Mª José Martínez Sánchez participated.
The U-Th has allowed to discover an older age for the use of corporal adornments, 115,000 years, being attributed this behavior to the Neanderthals.
In addition to the use of shells as a body ornament, Neanderthals also used other ornaments such as pendants made from modified teeth or bones of animals and feathers of raptors.
This extinct species came to elaborate tools that denoted a cognitive capacity similar to that of his contemporaries H. sapiens.
"Despite the various indications of the symbolic manifestation of these ancestors, we found that the dates of the findings sometimes overlapped with the arrival of modern humans in Europe and this led some researchers to subtract or cancel the capacity of the human beings. neandertales "expresses Zapata.
The date of 115,000 years is far removed at the time of the arrival of modern man in Europe, so it offers clear proof that there is no acculturation or imitation of the Neanderthal and it clears the doubts raised in the past.
"The impact of this finding is very significant, placing the Region of Murcia, once again, as a geographical reference to help decipher the great puzzle of human evolution, specifically, the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods," says the anthropologist. .
In parallel, Science magazine has just published an article by Hoffmann and Zilhão along with other national and international researchers that according to Josefina Zapata "shows an important discovery that will have a great impact on the scientific community and, I hope, an enriching debate , because it offers the evidence of the oldest parietal art and also attributed to the Neanderthals, these findings will involve a review of the theories raised up to now about the origin of symbolic thought and the first artistic abilities of humans ".
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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