Early modern humans were first to exhibit artistic expression and cultural innovation around the world. This evidence dates back to Africa, approximately 100,000 years ago.We see tools made of other materials, like bone, ivory, antlers and shell bead ornaments. There are also advancements such as the use cave art, pigments and deliberate burials.
Archeologists have found similar cultural and technological innovation at European Neanderthal sites, although they are rarer. These ornaments include tooth pendants, talons of birds of prey, and evidence of funerary behaviour. There is evidence, though not conclusive, that Neanderthals made abstract motifs and stencils at cave sites in Spain.
Complex behavior
Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in Europe around 45,000 years ago. They then overlapped with Neanderthals over thousands of years. The two groups met for the first time around 45,000 years ago. They also merged with Neanderthals for thousands of years.
The study authors stated that the engraved bone of deer was of independent Neanderthal authorship and therefore not connected to Homo sapiens, despite its age.
Six lines were drawn by computerized topography on the engraved bone to show the shape and form of the chevron symbol.
They pointed out that evidence of Homo sapiens in central Europe dates back to the Upper Danube region, which was between 43,500- 38,000 years ago. This is several millennia before the engraved bone. They stated that the first evidence of Homo sapiens in Europe, pendants made out of animal teeth 45,500 years old, is located 1,500 km (932 miles) from Bulgaria.
Bello, Natural History Museum, said that more recent research had been done.Genetic evidenceA skull of a Homo sapien from the Czech Republic, approximately 400 km (248 miles) away from Einhornhohle, was found that indicated the individual may have some Neanderthal DNA.
“Given the early exchanges of genes, it is impossible to exclude an equally early exchange between Neanderthal and modern human populations. This may have had an influence on the production of the engravedartefact from Einhornhohle,” she wrote the commentary.
She wrote, “The possibility that an acquired knowledge is from modern humans does not undervalue, my opinion, the cognitive capabilities of Neanderthals.”
“Rather, learning, integrating innovation into one’s culture, and adapting to new technologies and abstract ideas should be considered a part of behavioural complexity.”
