2023-06-22 00:36:56
In France, archaeologists say they have discovered galleries in a cave with ancient markings made over 75,000 years ago, and that the records are the work of Neanderthals. According to the researchers, this is a discovery of fundamental importance for archeology, because this is the first unambiguous example of cave engravings made by Neanderthals ever discovered. The find took place in the French cave of La Roche-Cotard.
Jean-Claude Marquet, an archaeologist at the University of Tours in Francehe stated in an article published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE that the artwork must have been isolated from the outside world between 51 and 57 thousand years ago. The researcher came to the conclusion after dating the sediments at the entrance to the cave, which had been discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. “The findings suggest that the A wise man could not have entered the cave and recorded the engravings after they arrived in Western Europe, around 45,000 years ago.”
advertising Fingerpoints found on cave wall. (Marquet et al., PLOS ONE, 2023)
ancient art
In the article, the archaeologists also say that “fifteen years after the resumption of excavations at the La Roche-Cotard site, the engravings were dated to more than 57,000 years ago and, thanks to stratigraphy, probably to around 75,000 years ago, making this the oldest decorated cave in France, if not Europe!”
Artifacts found in and around the La Roche-Cotard cave suggest to researchers that Neanderthals (the “cave men”) lived on the banks of the Loire River between 100 and 65 thousand years ago. The finger drawings recorded on the walls of the ancient cave, however, do not depict obvious figures such as plants or animals. The oldest known figures painted by the A wise man date back 45,000 years, and were found on an island in Indonesia.
Alongside “random scratches” that appear to have been made by animals, archaeologists working in the cave cataloged dozens of “elongated or dotted marks, especially organized”, probably made by hominids.
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