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What evidence suggests that Neanderthals created simple art or designs?
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Neanderthal
Artist's rendering of Homo neanderthalensis, who ranged from western Europe to Central Asia for some 100,000 years before dying out approximately 30,000 years ago.
Archaeological evidence indicates that Neanderthals possessed cognitive capabilities beyond basic survival, as demonstrated by the recovery of nonutilitarian artifacts at various sites. Evidence suggesting they created simple art or designs includes:1
- Personal Ornaments: Neanderthals used items such as feathers, claws, and shells that were purposefully modified and likely worn as jewelry. There is evidence that they used jewelry and other personal ornaments as early as 44,000 years ago.12
- Decorated Objects: Researchers have recovered bone tools decorated with designs, as well as regular incisions and simple designs on bone and stone fragments.1
- Use of Pigments: Neanderthals utilized naturally occurring pigments, including red ochre and manganese oxides. They smeared shells with ochre and transported these materials from their original locations. At the Pech de l’Azé site, over 500 black pigment fragments were found, many showing signs of use-wear.1
- Manuports: They collected and transported manuports—natural, unmodified objects like fossils and geological curiosities—away from their original contexts, sometimes altering them with stone tools.1
These findings suggest that Neanderthals engaged in symbolic behavior and possessed the capacity for abstract thought.12