麻豆传媒

Idle doodle, a game of Stone Age tic-tac-toe, or the first evidence of Neanderthal art? No one can say. But two things seem reasonably clear: these scratches in the hard stone floor of a cave in Gibraltar are the work of a Neanderthal, and they were made quite purposefully more than 40,000 years ago.

Some say they are abstract symbols of some description, bolstering the notion that Neanderthals were capable of subtle symbolic thought. Others remain to be convinced.

The etchings were discovered by of the Gibraltar Museum and colleagues on the floor of Gorham鈥檚 cave on Gibraltar鈥檚 eastern shore. The cave was occupied by Neanderthals for thousands of years. The age of the thick layer of clay that lies immediately on top of the rock 鈥� itself littered with Neanderthal tools and remnants of the fires they burned 鈥� tells us that the etching was made at least 39,000 years ago.

Most experts contacted by 麻豆传媒 agreed with the timing and that the scratches were made by a Neanderthal. of the University of Oxford, who recently reassessed the dates of dozens of Neanderthal sites, says the grooves must have been made before 39,000 years ago, 鈥減erhaps many millennia before鈥�.

What divides opinion is what it all means. The stereotype of Neanderthals as simple, brutish early humans is now pretty much discredited. We know they hunted with knapped stone tools 鈥� and not just big game but also fish, birds and rabbits, which are thought to be trickier to catch and kill. But whether Neanderthals were capable of subtle symbolic thinking 鈥� even art 鈥� and whether they acquired this ability on their own or were inspired by the arrival of more sophisticated modern humans into Europe, has been the subject of intense debate.

Neanderthal etch a sketch (Image: Stuart Finlayson)

What does seem clear is that the etching was done with a purpose. Finlayson鈥檚 colleague of the University of Bordeaux in France carried out experiments to determine if the scratches could have been made by accident. Using two kinds of Neanderthal rock points as his stylus, and a slab of rock identical to the floor of the cave as his canvas, he needed to make in excess of 100 strokes to reproduce the pattern exactly.

Idly scratching the rock in a to-and-fro motion only scratched the surface. To get the deep, linear grooves d鈥橢rrico had to focus on the line and put his weight into the stylus. He also had to shift his body position to make the perpendicular lines. 鈥淭his was not doodling,鈥� says d鈥橢rrico. 鈥淚t required a lot of effort.鈥�

d鈥橢rrico also tried cutting a piece of meat on the rock to see if the lines could be the by-product of butchering, but that was quickly ruled out. 鈥淓very time you cut over the meat what comes out takes a different shape,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou get a scattering of lines in all directions.鈥�

The only conclusion, says the team, is that the lines were deliberately made. 鈥淭he pattern was clearly purposefully made, and not a utilitarian activity. There was a will to produce an abstract pattern,鈥� says d鈥橢rrico.

But is it art?

Higham and of Durham University, UK, agree that the pattern is intentional.

But while d鈥橢rrico and Finlayson claim its abstract nature says something about Neanderthal thinking, others are reluctant to take a stance.

鈥淭he markings are significant if made by Neanderthals and would add to the increasing amount of information implying that they were capable of thinking in more or less abstract ways,鈥� said Higham.

In a way the discovery is not even surprising. Recent discoveries have suggested that Neanderthals wore jewellery made of pierced and painted shells, and feathers, and may have buried their dead.

鈥淚f the date and the species attribution stand,鈥� says of the University of Victoria in Canada, the results 鈥渇it well with what we know about Late Neanderthal culture鈥�.

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