Co-author Eric Robert, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, says the graphics are impossible to interpret because they were made by a vanished people for viewing by their contemporaries.
“These images are not for us, and we do not have the keys to understanding their meaning, their possibly diverse and multiple functions,” he says. . .

• Robert believes that comparisons between Neanderthal and Sapiens traditions aren’t necessary. 
• For each species, he believes, the appearance of prehistoric carvings and paintings is less about when people were capable of making them and more about when social dynamics created a need for them at a specific time—even if those needs are a mystery to us today.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years

The art was created long before modern humans inhabited France’s Loire Valley

Brian Handwerk

Science Correspondent

June 21, 2023

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Engravings discovered in La Roche-Cotard cave Jean-Claude Marquet, CC-BY 4.0

Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years

The art was created long before modern humans inhabited France’s Loire Valley

Brian Handwerk

Science Correspondent

June 21, 2023

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Engravings discovered in La Roche-Cotard cave Jean-Claude Marquet, CC-BY 4.0

More than 57,000 years have passed since Paleolithic humans stood before the cave wall, with its soft, chalky rock beckoning like a blank canvas. Their thoughts and intentions are forever unknowable. But by dragging their fingers across the rock and pushing them into the cave wall, these creative cave dwellers deliberately produced enduring lines and dots that would lie hidden beneath the French countryside for tens of thousands of years.

Now, scientists have discovered that these arresting patterns are the oldest known example of Neanderthal cave engravings.

Authors of a study published Wednesday in PLOS One analyzed, plotted and 3D modeled these intriguing markings and compared them with other wall markings of all types to confirm that they are the organized, intentional products of human hands. The team also dated deep sediment layers that had buried the cave’s opening to reveal that it was sealed up with the engravings inside at least 57,000 and as long as 75,000 years ago—long before Homo sapiens arrived in this part of Europe.

• This find, supported by the cave’s array of distinctly Neanderthal stone tools, identifies Neanderthals as the cave art creators and adds to growing evidence that our closest relatives were more complex than their dim caveman stereotype might suggest.