Neanderthals. The oldest art in the world wasn't made by Homo sapiens.

Neanderthals: the oldest art in the world wasn’t made by Homo sapiens

One of the most hotly debated questions in the history of Neanderthal research has been whether they created art. In the past few years, the consensus has become that they did, sometimes. But, like their relations at either end of the hominoid evolutionary tree, chimpanzees and Homo sapiens, Neanderthals’ behaviour varied culturally from group to group and over time.

Their art was perhaps more abstract than the stereotypical figure and animal cave paintings Homo Sapiens made after the Neanderthals disappeared about 30,000 years ago. But archaeologists are beginning to appreciate how creative Neanderthal art was in its own right.

Homo sapiens are thought to have evolved in Africa from at least 315,000 years ago. Neanderthal populations in Europe have been traced back at least 400,000 years.

As early as 250,000 years ago, Neanderthals were mixing minerals such as haematite (ochre) and manganese with fluids to make red and black paints – presumably to decorate the body and clothing.
Research by Palaeolithic archaeologists in the 1990s radically changed the common view of Neanderthals as dullards. We now know that, far from trying to keep up with the Homo sapiens, they had a nuanced behavioural evolution of their own. Their large brains earned their evolutionary keep.

We know from finding remains in underground caves, including footprints and evidence of tool use and pigments in places where neanderthals had no obvious reason to be that they appear to have been inquisitive about their world.

Why were they straying from the world of light into the dangerous depths where there was no food or drinkable water? We can’t say for sure, but as this sometimes involved creating art on cave walls it was probably meaningful in some way rather than just exploration.

https://theconversation.com/neanderthals-the-oldest-art-in-the-world-wasnt-made-by-homo-sapiens-194113

Good morning, Circus Maximus.

I see you've found a way to get around your posting limits by using a different account but could you not have written the piece yourself rather than litter Midsummer further with Copy and Paste articles plaigerised from elsewhere on the net?

At least he is posting something a bit different. Not that I know anything about Neanderthals lol.

Theres so many things you could ask "why" about, funery practices for example.

The problem with these C&P'd articles is they often leave the reader or writer with nowhere else to go in terms of further conversation and are effectviely clutter as its hard to have a thread where theres so little to discuss without many people doing further research.


Articles found in "pockets" have an introduction, a body and a conclusion, because theres so little information in the body and there a conclusion it cuts off any further conversation Or it becomes a conversation between 2 or 3 knowlegable posters with garners a few genuine comments from others before degenerating into a load of stupid comments because some posters are like children and have to interupt the grown ups for attention.

I find this a lot more interesting than anything by modern artists. In fact the newer the artist the less I tend to like the art.

Amazing to think of Neanderthals preparing paints for decorative purposes.

At least he is posting something a bit different. Not that I know anything about Neanderthals lol.

My sentiments too.

Neanderthals seem to have gone in for a fairly abstract, geometric and to some, simplistic form of art than the representational art of Homo Sapiens. Pretty much like I used to doodle when I was bored at school. I think the Neanderthals have been under-rated in the past.

Apparently every human has a percentage of Neanderthal DNA, as the two species interbred, before the latter’s extinction.

I agree about Neandertahls being under rated, in the past, they were just seen as ugly, brutish creatures, archaeology and DNA technology have proved just how wrong this is. If you put a Neanderthal in modern day clothing you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference, as proven by Prof Alice Roberts some of her TV programs.

Not every human, Sam. Native Africans of pure African ancestry have no Neanderthal DNA. I think there are other populations as well as the Neanderthals didn't have the same range as Homo Sapiens and they never met/interbred.

Wasn't there something in the music charts called I'm a neanderthal man?

Denisovans didn't have the same range as Neanderthals but have left genetic material behind in modern populations, particularly in the Himalayas, in Napal, its thought the ability to breathe the thinly oxygenated high mountain air is linked to Denisovan genes. In Sub-Saharan Africa there are relic pieces of DNA found in modern populations that pre-date modern humans. Sub-Saharan Africa also has the widest variety of DNA in the world.

Looks like there's the odd neanderthal in this thread isn't there Samx? ha ha





Andy Mac

Wasn't there something in the music charts called I'm a neanderthal man?

The band was Hotlegs which later became 10cc.

There was a song i remember called "I am an Ape-Man" by the Kinks!





Andy Mac

It's amazing how these songs have remained popular for hundreds of thousands of years.

Good one Greencare, lol.

Wasn't there something in the music charts called I'm a neanderthal man?

It's in my head now.

That sounds even worse than when Shaddup Your Face was in my head lol.

It's funny how the worse the song the longer it stays in the head.

It's funny how the worse the song the longer it stays in the head.

LOL.