Pedro Cantalejo, director of the Andalusian cave of Ardales, looks at Neanderthal cave paintings inside the cavern. (JORGE GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images)
A new art discovery in a cave in Spain has revealed the hidden talents of Neanderthals. According to a recent report by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, red ochre pigment was found on stalagmites in the Ardales Caves.
The prehistoric artwork showed Neanderthals were artists years before humans arrived. The paintings were estimated to have been created 65,000 years ago.
“These types of red marks that are in these folds, are those that have been dated at more than 45,000 years and less than 65,000 years,” explained Prehistoric Cave of Ardales Director Pedro Cantalejo. “Those to which pigment analysis has been carried out, which has shown that the type of dye applied is not natural, but a recipe that has come to the cave thanks to human contribution.”
Neanderthals may have developed a form of cave art before the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. In PNAS: https://t.co/DQnhbiYDz5 pic.twitter.com/dDtqqCXYoW
— PNASNews (@PNASNews) August 4, 2021
Researchers mentioned the paintings in the caves could possibly be the oldest art in the world.
Source: One America News Network
