Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. By Tim Appenzeller In a damp Spanish cave, Alistair Pike applies a small grinder to the world's oldest known paintings. The stalactite is painted with a red figure that dates back 29,000 to 36,000 years. In addition to Pike and Zilhao, the authors of "U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain" include D.L. Neanderthals, modern humans' closest extinct kin, who died out 30,000 years ago, were thought to be incapable of such activities. One of the paintings tested was of a red disk that archaeologists say was probably made by blowing pigment onto the wall in a cave known as El Castillo. Pike said further tests would show whether Zilhao's gut feeling was correct. In the past, the paintings have been dated using radiocarbon tests, but Pike's team used a different technique that analyzed the proportions of uranium, thorium and related elements in the calcite deposits that formed above and below the paintings. This hand stencil in Spain's El Castillo cave dates back at least 37,300 years, based on uranium-series testing, and could conceivably show a Neanderthal hand outline. That minimizes the impact on the caves, which is a sensitive topic for the officials in charge of the caves. One of the paintings tested was of a red disk that archaeologists say was probably made by blowing pigment onto the wall in a cave known as El Castillo. New method shows cave art is older: Did Neanderthals do it? When archaeologists tried out a new technique to determine the age of Spain's most famous Paleolithic cave paintings, they were surprised to discover that the paintings were thousands of years older than previously thought — so old that it's conceivable they were painted by Neanderthals. The El Castillo cave contains the oldest known cave painting: a large red stippled disk in the Panel de las Manos was dated to more than 40,000 years old using uranium-thorium dating in a 2012 study. ", Penn State archaeologist Dean Snow, who wasn't part of the research team but has worked on some of the same cave paintings that were recently put to the test, was impressed by the results. Pike and his colleagues pioneered this process years ago, in a project aimed at verifying the dates for 12,800-year-old cave engravings in England's Creswell Crags, but the tests reported today represent the highest-profile application of what's known as uranium-series disequilibrium dating. The results, if correct, include the earliest ever reported date for cave art: A red disk from El Castillo Cave, on the Pas River in northern Spain, clocked in at a minimum of 40,800 years. Evidence is now amassing that the gap between Neanderthal and human abilities was not as wide as has been believed. The tests were conducted on 50 Paleolithic paintings in 11 Spanish caves, including the famous pictures of horses and human hands at the Altamira and El Castillo caves. "There is no clear evidence of paintings associated with Neanderthal tools or fossils, so any such evidence would be surprising," Delson told The Associated Press' Seth Borenstein. The smudged red disk below the hand stencils is the oldest cave art yet dated, at 40,800 years old. The oldest of the paintings is a red sphere from a cave called El Castillo. Eric Delson, a professor of anthropology at Lehman College of the City University of New York, says a date on a painting won't be enough. The researchers noted that the earliest paintings were not figurative works, but instead reflected simpler motifs such as dots, disks and lines. Rock Art 27, 1e5. The team's dating of the Gorham etching makes it one of the oldest examples of cave art in Europe. There is no need to hypothesize that Neanderthals created these paintings." The world’s oldest artwork, believed to be at least 40,800 years old, was discovered in the Cave of El Castillo, literally, “the cave of castles”, near the town of Puente Viesgo, about 30 kilometers south of Santander in the Cantabria region of what is today Spain. Snow said the big issue with uranium-series dating has to do with the accuracy of the process. Update for 9:30 p.m. But new work coming from sophisticated dating techniques suggests otherwise: Neanderthals may have been artists. Zilhao said the Neanderthal vs. Homo sapiens debate could shed light on the roots of our own culture. "But I will not say we have proven it, because we haven't, and it cannot be proven at this time. Hoffmann, M. Garcia-Diez, P.B. Pettitt, J. Alcolea, R. De Balbin, C. Gonzalez-Sainz, C. de las Heras, J.A. That stencil was found to be at least 37,300 years old. Zilhao said the research could eventually smash our stereotypical view of the Neanderthal tribe — which died out more than 20,000 years ago. Cave paintings in northern Spain, possibly created by Neanderthals, may be the oldest known examples in the world, according to a new analysis. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. The findings being reported today represent just an initial step in an "ongoing program" to date hundreds of European cave paintings more accurately, said the University of Bristol's Alistair Pike, lead author of a paper published in the journal Science. As water seeps through rock and dribbles over the cave surface, it leaves behind a thin layer of calcite. Hand stencils and the outlines of animals dominate. "We've never really seriously considered that before.". Which is another way of saying, "Stay tuned.". Up until now, it has been believed that only Homo sapiens could have created Paleolithic cave art. Hand stencils and disks made by blowing paint onto the wall in the El Castillo cave, for example, were found to be at least 40,800 years old, making them the oldest known art in Europe. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. This suggests that uranium-series dating can go back to time frames where carbon dating becomes less reliable. But says Zilhão, "We don't know if European cave art arrived with the first modern humans." El Castillo (modern entrance shown in photo) is no dank, narrow cave. "Cave painting is of course one of the most exquisite examples of human symbolic behavior," he said. Archaeologists say they can't be 100 percent sure the paintings were drawn by Neanderthals, but there's a "strong probability." U.S. That time frame matches up with the earliest evidence of the presence of anatomically modern humans in Europe. Zilhão disagrees. However, Pike and his colleagues are confident that the earliest paintings go back at least 40,800 years. this year are to keep SCAFO on a forward pace and continue the momentum of updating this 77 year association into the 21st century, while still maintaining the old traditions and values. In order to prove Neanderthals were cave artists, he believes archaeologists will need to find bones or tools in a cave layer that corresponds directly to the art on a wall. Those proportions vary over time, due to radioactive decay, and can tell you how long it's been since the calcite was formed. Beck thought Pike and his team took "a very conservative approach here." It's still too early to say conclusively whether Neanderthals were behind at least some of the artistry. Newsl. The new analysis dates the disk to at least 40,800 years old, making it the oldest example of European cave art—4,000 years older than paintings at Chauvet Cave in southern France. "The bureaucratic and political difficulties of getting this work done are substantial.". Nearby, there was the red outline of a hand, most likely made by placing the hand on the rock and blowing pigment over it. It's also thousands of years earlier than the previously accepted maximum age, based on carbon dating. It's just, you know, my gut feeling.". In mid-June 2012, a team of European researchers announced the results of a reinvestigation of 50 paintings found in 11 caves on the northwestern coast of Spain. "This evidence is, at least to my mind, sufficient for us to think about Neanderthals as fundamentally human beings that were simply, if you want, racially distinct. ET: University of Arizona geochemist Warren Beck got back to me with his outside perspective on the uranium-series test, and in a word, he thinks it's an "improvement" on previous methods when it comes to figuring out the age of rock art. The uranium tests, like previous radiocarbon tests, showed that there was wide variation in the age of the paintings. In a damp Spanish cave, Alistair Pike applies a … The scrapings amounted to as little as 10 milligrams, which is about the weight of a grain of rice. The paintings were first discovered in the 1870s. Notably, rather than directly examining the art, scientists instead analyzed calcium carbonate (calcite) crusts that covered the paintings. "But the research developments over the last decade have shown that this is probably not deserved.". "Perhaps 20 years ago, we would have needed a whole gram of material, and now we need one-hundredth of that size," Pike said. El Castillo: Earliest Known Cave Paintings Might Have Been Made By Neanderthals | HuffPost. In some cases, the scientists could sample flowstone deposits beneath the layer of paint to get a maximum age as well. The new tests push the age back to near the time when modern humans were first thought to have inhabited the area, around 42,000 years ago. By Ned Potter June 14, 2012. "Neanderthals, of course, have had this bad press for a long time," the University of Barcelona's Joao Zilhao, a member of the research team, told reporters. The tests took advantage of the state of the art in mass spectrometry, which means the scientists didn't require much of a sample. "I think it's a fairly straightforward thing to prove if they were painted by Neanderthals. The technique just might change the way we think about the paintings, and the way we think about our long-extinct, long-maligned Neanderthal cousins as well. "You don't have to have both the art and the occupation in the same site," he says, noting that there are no associated human remains at caves famous for their Paleolithic art, such as Chauvet. That's an interesting approach for several reasons: First, the scientists don't have to depend on getting a reading from the paint itself, which may be contaminated or may not even be amenable to carbon dating. The research team is currently concentrating on hand stencils and red disks, which appear to be the oldest types of cave paintings in Spain. US Edition. Six-foot (2-meter) paintings of horses in Spain's Tito Bustillo Cave overlay earlier red paintings that, from dating elsewhere in the cave, might be older than 29,000 years. (c) 2021 Archaeology Magazine, a Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. He and his team think the revised date of the El Castillodisk suggests Neanderthals could be responsible for the painting. So, by measuring how much uranium has decayed into thorium, Pike figured he could determine the age of the calcite layer. A general view of the Cave of El Castillo in Spain. The El Castillo paintings yielded a time frame stretching from 22,600 years ago all the way back to at least 40,800 years ago. The calcite covering, which is formed by the same process as stalagmites and stalactites, contains trace amounts of uranium, which decays over time into thorium. "The basic findings are the sorts of things you could take to the bank," he told me. A researcher from the University of Bristol removes samples from Tito Bustillo Cave in Spain. It has been suggested that Neandertals, as well as modern humans, may have painted caves. Previously, archaeologists had thought the paintings went back to about 38,000 years. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Paleolithic Cave Arts in Northern Spain(1) El Castillo Cave, Cantabria Is this the world's oldest cave painting ? For example, the 40,800-year-old painting in the El Castillo cave was a large red disk, probably created by blowing pigment onto the rock surface. The cave and its artwork was discovered more than a century ago but the paintings couldn’t be properly dated using traditional … Archaeologists previously estimated the disk, which is surrounded by hands stenciled in red, to be 38,000 years old. When Homo sapiens first began their northward migration from Africa to Europe around 40,000 years ago, some joined the Neanderthals here in Cantabria, a … This contains radioactive uranium, which slowly decays into thorium at a known rate. A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Other researchers have found a perforated bear bone that may or may not have been shaped as a flute for Neanderthals, as well as bird feathers that may have been used as Neanderthal ritual objects or fashion statements. "And that's what makes us human.". The Cave of El Castillo (Cave of the Castle), is a Stone Age rock shelter in Spain which contains the oldest cave painting yet discovered: namely, a panel of abstract signs and hand stencils rock art located in the "Gallery of the Hands", one of which (a disk of red ochre) has been Uranium/Thorium dated by Dr. Alistair Pike of Bristol University, to at least 39,000 BCE. After all, communities of Homo sapiens who lived in Africa and the Near East showed evidence of artistic behaviorgoing back as far as 75,000 to 100,000 years. They used a technique called uranium-thorium dating. Using advanced techniques, the scientists have confirmed that the oldest image on the wall of El Castillo cave in Spain drawn by the Neanderthals is more than 40, 800 years old Scientists suspect that the Neanderthals fell victim to competition with us Homo sapiens types, but they also have found that the species contributed to our genetic heritage through interbreeding. "We were not expecting these results," Zilhao said. "We now have a series of examples of different kinds of pigment use in archaeological contexts that can only be associated with Neanderthals," Trinkaus says. The scientists can thus be confident that the age they get will be the minimum age for the artwork. Archaeologists recently pushed back the date of hand stencil paintings found at El Castillo cave in northern Spain to 40,800 years ago, which opens the possibility that Neanderthals … Hand stencils in El Castillo cave, Spain. Back in the Paleolithic era, it had a natural arch opening and a wide area lit by sunlight, making it a bright, airy spot for a campsite, a meeting area, or even a village shelter in bad weather. IE 11 is not supported. He points to the 2002 discovery of a Neanderthal artist's palette of ochre in a Romanian cave and Zilhão's own work at a Neanderthal site in Spain that uncovered pigmentstained mollusk shells that might have been worn as jewelry. This is quite visible in aspects of their skeletons," Zilhao said. Delson told Reuters' Sharon Begley that the oldest Homo sapiens in Europe "may date from 45,000 to 42,000 years ago. If they find any, Zilhão says, "The results could be described as the last nail in the coffin of the 'Neanderthals as a different and cognitively handicapped species' concept.". He said his view was that Neanderthals were moving away from these caves around 41,000 years ago. "They could be substantially older," Beck said. Zilhão's team plans to continue sampling hand stencils and geometric symbols (often the oldest works found in caves) throughout Europe looking for paintings older than 42,000 years. European cave paintings are older than previously thought, ... because it's open to the public, could walk into El Castillo cave and see a Neanderthal hand on the wall." "You've got to have measurement capabilities that are really, really precise," he said. Another possibility is that humans started painting cave walls soon after their arrival in Europe — perhaps as the result of cultural competition with the native Neanderthals, who are known to have inhabited the region as far back as 250,000 years ago. If it can be proved that these are their paintings, Neanderthals would have been capable of symbolic thought, since painting involves using images to convey meanings understood within a social group. has worked on some of the same cave paintings that were recently put to the test, going back as far as 75,000 to 100,000 years, may or may not have been shaped as a flute for Neanderthals, Neanderthal ritual objects or fashion statements, Delson told The Associated Press' Seth Borenstein, Cave paintings of horses based on reality, Oldest cave art focuses on female sex organs, Gallery: Ancient rock art from around the world. This cave contained the 40,800-year-old red disk. Cave Paintings in Spain: So Old Neanderthals Could Have Done Them. But if you're trying to determine the age of a painting left behind in red ochre, or if you're working with paintings that go back further than, say, 40,000 to 45,000 years, "this is the way to do it," Beck told me. Spots and stencils in El Castillo cave, Spain — one at least 40,800 years old — might be the handiwork of Neanderthals. These paintings are the oldest dated cave paintings in the world. About 25 outlined handprints in another cave … Erik Trinkaus, a professor of physical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis and a frequent collaborator of Zilhão's, says his colleague's assertion is not unreasonable. "What's really exciting about the possibility that this is Neanderthal art is that anyone, because it's open to the public, can walk into El Castillo cave and they can see a Neanderthal hand on the wall," Pike said. If the calcite overlays a painting, it … João Zilhão, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Barcelona who coauthored a paper in Science on the new analysis, believes the earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe is a 41,500-year-old mandible found in the Romanian cave Peştera cu Oase. Because the samples were taken from calcite deposits that formed over the paint in the Spanish caves, the team could be significantly underestimating the actual ages of the paintings themselves. Paintings in El Castillo cave in northwestern Spain are at least 40,800 years old—the oldest ever found, and ancient enough that Neanderthals could have painted them. But he also acknowledged that the latest findings produce "three or four new problems that we didn't have before. If the minimum dates turn out to be significantly older than 42,000 years, that would be strong evidence that Neanderthals were involved, Pike said. That farthest-back age is particularly telling. He said it was a good sign that the research team ran multiple tests on succeeding layers of calcite and got back results that showed a consistent progression of dates. Parietal engravings in Magdalenian strati-graphic context in El Mir on Cave. A smudge of pigment in the Cave of El Castillo in northern Spain dates to more than 40,000 years ago, but it is not clear whether Homo sapiens or Neanderthals created it. I guess [it would be] corroboration of the already-existing evidence, and perhaps if you want a catchphrase, the last nail in the coffin of the notion of Neanderthals as the archetypal 'dumb.'". At more than 40,800 years old, they may be Earth’s oldest cave art. Reporting in Science, researchers write that a red disk painted in Spain's El Castillo cave is at least 40,800 years old—making it the oldest known European cave art. It … A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Neanderthal? Using mass spectrometry, scientists can measure thorium in a calcite sample as small as a grain of rice to arrive at an approximate date when the crust formed. "In probabilistic terms, I would say there is a strong chance that these results imply Neanderthal authorship," Zilhao said. A few of today's reports about the research have included skeptical comments from Eric Delson, a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "These are just places where people went to make this stuff.". That's one of the reasons behind Zilhao's gut feeling about Neanderthal involvement. Int. "That does two things," Pike explained. "For the profession, part of the excitement is going to be that we've got some technologies that are going to be viable for sites in the 30,000- to 50,000-year range," Snow told me. It doesn't render radiocarbon dating totally obsolete: If you're trying to nail down the chronology of a charcoal drawing on a cave wall, carbon dating is what you want. The 11 caves that were sampled are Pedroses, Tito Bustillo, Las Aguas, Altamira, Santian, El Pendo, El Castillo, La Pasiega, Las Chimeneas, Covalanas and La Haza. Or the Neanderthals themselves could have created the first paintings, and Homo sapiens picked up the artistic habit while Homo neanderthalensis faded away. Could further tests by Pike and his team change Delson's mind? Panel of hands from El Castillo cave in Spain. "It means we stop before we damage the painting, and secondly it proves to us and our audience that these things are directly above the art itself.". Although cave art has not previously been linked to the Neanderthals, Zilhao pointed out that the past few years have provided ample evidence that the species had an artistic bent. At another cave, El Castillo in northern Spain, the researchers found primitive art of mind-boggling age. ... cuevas del Castillo, Altamira y el Juyo. ", "Now, with these older dates, we have to entertain the possibility that there might have been some Neanderthal involvement in some of these paintings," Snow said. Lasheras and R. Montes. Located in El Castillo cave in the Cantabria region … El Castillo Cave in northern Spain is famous for containing the oldest cave art in Europe: a red disk that was painted on the cave wall at least 40,800 years ago, perhaps as long as 42,000 years ago. Spain’s El Castillo Cave contains wall paintings that are 41,000 years old, but a lack of Neanderthal artifacts at the site makes it impossible to tell if they or modern humans were responsible. Image: Pedro Saura. Also, the calcite deposits are scraped away, using a knife or a drill, until the pigment just begins to appear beneath it. Hoffmann et al. "When we put this project together, the idea was to improve the chronology of rock art, and particularly in the case of Spain. Now, Alistair Pikeof the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues have come up with a partial solution that will put a minimum age on some previously un-datable paintings. ... All we have to do is go back and date more of these samples, and find a date that predates the arrival of modern humans in Europe," he told me. Neandertal cave art. "Getting permission to work in a cave is really difficult," Snow explained. That date is the minimum possible age of the art behind it. "What will change with the demonstration, if it comes, that Neanderthals were also the first cave artists? Thus, the disk's creation took place around the time when modern humans first arrived in Europe, sometime between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. used uranium-thorium dating of carbonate crusts to show that cave paintings from three different sites in Spain must be older than 64,000 years. "They can't tolerate anything like the kind of sloppiness and standard error that we had to tolerate in the past, using carbon dates.". Neanderthals may have been first human species to create cave paintings Estimates of the age of cave paintings in northern Spain could be the … "The evidence will become very straightforward if we have these dates of 45,000 years or so," Pike said. In 2010, he led a research team and fellow researchers suggested that Neanderthal cave-dwellers wore ornaments and painted their bodies with mineral-based pigments. Pike said that raises three scenarios: El Castillo's modern humans might have developed their cave-painting skills during their migration out of Africa, and put it to use when they arrived in Europe. And Zilhao, the scientists could sample flowstone deposits beneath the layer of.... Of paint to get a maximum age, based on carbon dating becomes less reliable paintings went back at... 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