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BY SINI STEPHAN
ANCHOR LOGAN TITTLE
The caves of northern Spain reveal art dating back thousands of years. One particular faded
dot is said to be over 40,000 years old. Al Jazeera reports.
“Which is a good 15 millennia, 15,000 years older than originally thought. A few dates
suggest the art could have been made by neanderthals, rather than modern man.”
Scientists examined the crusts that had formed on top of the paintings of the cave.
The BBC says...
“These atoms decay...at a very precise rate through the ages, and the ratio of... two
different elements in any sample can therefore be used as a kind of clock to time the moment
when the calcite crust first formed.”
But the question remains- Who made it?
The cave art dates back to a time when modern humans just migrated out of Africa.
New Scientist indicates
“If modern humans were the artists, they either brought the practice with them from
Africa.”
– but if they were drawn by Neanderthals
“our extinct cousins may have had the rudiments of written language.”
“Neanderthals may have mimicked the drawings produced by modern humans, without understanding
what they meant.”
The use of symbolism is a trait that set our animal species apart from all others. Scientists
believe this discovery will tell us more about the evolution of the human race.