Prehistoric fingerprint found in Spain offers clue to Neanderthal capacity for making art, study finds
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Researchers in central Spain say they have discovered one of the old symbolic things that carry a human imprint in Europe, dating back to tens of thousands of years. Opening the secret identity of those who made the brand included recruiting forensic experts working in crime scene investigations.
Distinguished gravel in printing, located in the San Lazaro shelter in Sigovia, is alluded to the potential ability of primitives to create a symbolic art, according to a new study. The discovery adds to a growing set of evidence, including Cave signs and Panels It has been discovered in recent years, as based on the case that our prehistoric relatives who became extinct about 40,000 years ago were more like a modern human being than some people believed.
The Spanish researchers team discovered rectangular rock Archaeological and anthropological sciences. San Lázaro is a site that is believed by primitive humans, according to the study.
Researchers discovered stones at the San Lazaro Rock shelter in Sigovia, Spain. -Aálvarez-alonso, D., de Andrés-herrreo, M., Díez-Heerreo, A. Et al./springer Nature
“When we saw (gravel) the first time … we were looking at the stone, and all the team and students, and we were like” uh, it seems to be a face, “said lush lush Maria de Andrero, prehistoric professor at Madrid University. She added that this type of discovery in the unexpected Nandal context.
Hero said that she and her team dates back to the fingerprint, and they are certain that she dates back about 43,000 years. The rock was found near the river course and deliberately brought to the rock shelter, as researchers believe. Unlike other artifacts in the shelter, this gravel was unique: it seems to have no functional use and has a strange red point that arouses the attention of researchers.
“We felt that the red point has something, I don’t know what … and the only way we can know that there is a fingerprint is to contact the main specialist in Spain (for) to find fingerprints.” “That is why we called the police.”
On the left, the excavation image in San Lázo Rock-Hotelter shows where an ancient artifact is found. On the right is a picture of the three -dimensional model obtained to document the excavations. -Aálvarez-alonso, D., de Andrés-herrreo, M., Díez-Heerreo, A. Et al./springer Nature
Detection of the puzzle of Neanderthal
With the help of experts working in crime scene investigations with the Madrid Forensic Police Corps, researchers have been able to confirm the existence of a mark on the point.
But the police were initially skeptical about the discovery. “They used to determine the very modern fingerprints, from two days, one week, one month. But 43,000 years ago – it was very strange and very difficult for them,” Herro said.
Using forensic and multi -spectrum analysis techniques (an advanced way to take pictures), the investigation experts and the study team can distinguish a mark inside the red point. “We could not really believe it,” Herro said. The criminal investigator created a special camera to capture evidence, and this was the first time that these techniques were used to determine the Nandal imprint, according to Hero.
Then the department of photography technology in the forensic team analyzed the brand to confirm that it is compatible with the human fingerprint – and to ensure that it does not belong to any of the researchers. The police unit was able to verify that it is likely to be dedicated to the intelligence of Neanderthals from adult males.
About 43,000 years old, this sign is the oldest known and well -known human fingerprints. -Aálvarez-alonso, D., de Andrés-herrreo, M., Díez-Heerreo, A. Et al./springer Nature
“Checking a fingerprint by forensic experts indicates that this is derived from direct contact with the human fingerprint,” said Paul Betit, a professor of antiquities in the ancient Stone Age at Durham University, UK.
The artifacts piece can be the oldest complete imprint ever, according to Hero. Another print was found, perhaps in Königsaue, Germany, in 1963 – but this is a partial imprint.
The San Lazaro imprint can be the oldest associated with the dye, according to the study. The researchers were able to confirm that Ocher, a clay dye, was applied on the tip of the finger that made its fingerprints on quartz graphics.
Hero said that the statistical modeling used by the researchers showed that the mark on the pebble was “non -random” and instead, it was deliberately placed.
Pitt said he was not surprised by the results.
“It is another example of emerging data that reveals the primitive visual culture,” he said. “This is an impressive and unambiguous example of the primitive use of the red dye, and it is one of the increasing database that reveals that primitive humans were routinely used to leave the signs of their bodies (hands, and limbs) on the walls of the cave and portable things.”
One theory is that the hollow on the rock is similar to parts of the face: eyes, mouth and chin. The position of the red point, which the researchers assumed, can be the place of the nose. If this is the case, the gravel mark will form a visual mark with a symbolic purpose.
A. Experts used the automated biological measurement system to study printing. These images show the distinctive points discovered by the system that coincides with the central part of the finger. for. The distinctive points that were identified here coincide with palm trees. -Aálvarez-alonso, D., de Andrés-herrreo, M., Díez-Heerreo, A. Et al./springer Nature
The authors of the study wrote: “There is a meaning or message, no matter how simple, the object and the work may appear.” They added that there is a reason that the gravel was aimed at being a representation of the face.
The study, called “exceptional”, indicates that it may be a visual symbol that can be considered part of “portable art in some contexts.”
Primitive human beings versus modern humans
If this is the case, then scholars understand when primitive humans could continue to transform. The authors of the study wrote: “The fact that the pebble was chosen because of its appearance, then it was characterized by the maghara that there is a human mind capable of symbolizing his ideas, imagination, idealism, and dropping his ideas about an object.”
Although there is no way to know for sure, Hero believes that she is evidence of how our understanding of the “slave line” that separates primitive human beings from contemporary humans has become thinner. She said, “They were able to get to know the faces in things, as you and I are able to recognize a lion in clouds.”
Pettitt showed a similar look, saying that the results are appropriate for “emerging evidence that the primitive imagination was trying the human form and with recognition and expanding this form inside and on things in their natural world.”
Hero said that the research team is now planning to search for “invisible artifacts” to help explain the past. Forensic police will play a role in finding invisible information for the naked eye.
“We have to cooperate and integrate forensic techniques in archeology, and perhaps archeology in forensic techniques,” saying that cooperation is “opening a new window to verify our past.”
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