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Researchers from central Spain say they may have discovered one of the oldest iconic objects recorded in Europe with human fingerprints. He unleashed the exact secret identity of who made the mark and joined in search of the help of forensic experts who worked in crime scene investigations.
New research shows that the pebbles marked with prints found at the San Lazaruro Rock Shelter in Segovia suggest the ability of Neanderthals to create iconic art. The discovery adds to growing evidence, including cave markings and paintings that have been excavated in recent years, building a case in which prehistoric relatives, which were extinct about 40,000 years ago, resemble modern humans more than some people think.
A team of Spanish researchers discovered rectangular rocks less than five feet (1.5 meters) of sediment during an excavation in July 2022, and reported their findings in a paper published in the Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences on May 24th. According to the survey, San Lazarus is a site believed to have been occupied by Neanderthals.
“When we first saw (Pebble)… we were looking at stones, all the teams and students, and we were saying, ‘Um, it looks like a face,'” said Maria de Andre Herero, co-author of Maria de Andre Herero, a prehistoric professor at Conbiltons University in Madrid. This kind of discovery in the Neanderthal context was unexpected, she added.
Herrero says she and her team made fingerprints carbon, and they are sure they date back about 43,000 years. Researchers believe the rock was discovered near the riverbed and was intentionally brought to the rock shelter. Unlike other artifacts found at the shelter, this pebble was unique. There was no functional use and a distinctive red dot that intrigued researchers.
“We felt there was something in the red dot. We don’t know what, and the only way we could know that we had a fingerprint was to find the fingerprints in a major Spanish expert,” said Herero. “That’s why we called the police.”
Solve the mystery of Neanderthal
With the help of experts working in a crime scene investigation with Madrid Forensic Police Force Madrid, researchers were able to confirm that fingerprints were present in the dots.
However, police were initially skeptical of the findings. “They are used to identify very recent fingerprints from two days, a week, a month, but 43,000 years ago. It was very strange and very difficult.”
Using forensic technology and multispectral analysis (advanced methods of capturing images), research experts and research teams were able to identify fingerprints within the red dot. “We couldn’t really believe it,” Herero said. Forensic investigators have created special cameras to capture evidence. According to Herero, it was the first time such a technique was used to identify Neanderthal fingerprints.
The Imaging Technology section of the forensic team analyzed the marks to ensure they were compatible with human fingerprints and were not part of any of the researchers. The police force was able to confirm that it is likely belonging to an adult male Neanderthal.
“The verification of fingerprints by forensic experts shows without question that this was derived from direct contact with human fingerprints,” said Paul Pettit, professor of paleostone archaeology at Durham University in the UK.
According to Herrero, the artifact could be the oldest complete human fingerprint ever discovered. Another, perhaps older print, was discovered in Koenigsaue, Germany in 1963, but it is a partial fingerprint.
Research shows that San Lazarus fingerprints may be the oldest pigment-related fingerprints. Researchers were able to confirm that the ochre, a clay pigment, was applied to the tips of the fingers, marking the quartz-rich granite pebbles.
Statistical modelling used by the researchers showed that the pebbles’ marks were “not random” but rather intentionally placed, Herero said.
Pettit said he was not surprised by the findings.
“This represents yet another example of emerging data revealing the visual culture of Neanderthals,” he explained. “This is a wonderfully clear and clear example of the Neanderthal use of red pigments. This is one of the growing databases that reveal that Neanderthals use pigments to leave body marks (hands, fingertips) on cave walls and portable objects.”
One theory is that the depression on the rock resembles part of the face, namely the eyes, mouth, and chin. The placement of the red dots, the hypothesized researcher, could be the location of the nose. In that case, pebble markings constitute visual signs with symbolic purposes.
“There are meanings and messages, but the objects and actions are simply displayed,” the research author wrote. They added that there is reason to suspect that Pebble is intended to be a facial expression.
This study, which calls the pebble’s properties “exceptional,” suggests that it could be a visual symbol considered “portable art in some contexts.”
Neanderthals vs. modern people
In that case, scientists’ understanding of what Neanderthals can do may continue to shift. “The fact that Pebble was chosen for its appearance and marked with an orcher indicates that an object has a human mind that can symbolize, imagine, idealize and project one’s own ideas,” the research author writes.
There is certainly no way to know, but Herero believes it is to show how our understanding of the “thin lines” that separates Neanderthals from modern humans is fading. “You and I could recognize the lion in the clouds, so they could recognize the face of the object,” she said.
Pettitt offers a similar outlook, and the findings fit “new evidence that Neanderthal imaginations experiment with human forms, experimenting with recognition and expansion of natural objects and their forms.”
Herrero said the researchers plan to search for more “invisible artifacts” to interpret the past. Forensic police are responsible for finding information that is invisible to the naked eye.
“We need to integrate and integrate forensic technology in archaeology, and perhaps archaeology in forensic technology,” she explained, saying the collaboration “opens a new window to check the past.”