It’s a truly sensational discovery made in one grotto in the center of the Loire Valley, which can provide new elements to understand the complexity of the Loire ValleyNeanderthalsfalsely labeled “rougher and less human”.
They are credited with only a meager list of symbolic enactments, the meaning of which is disputed.
Instead the engravings The substance that has just been discovered and the numerous researches of the last decades have revealed what it was equipped with symbolic and decorative ability and able to organize aesthetic and artistic activities.
La Roche-Cotard: the oldest petroglyphs of all time
Scientists discovered that oldest petroglyphs in Europe in the cave of La Roche Cotard: It is a series of graphic, non-figurative signs traced on the walls over 57,000 years ago and known as “finger ripples‘, marks left by human fingers.
Built on a wall 12 meters high, “they consist of a large number of lines of two types: more or less circular and simple dots created with the fingertip, pointing in the same direction; and some more complex lines created by fingertip dragging along the wall surface form a kind of structure with triangular, rectangular panels,” he explained Jean Claude MarquetMember of the University of Tours research team that conducted the study published in PLOS ONE.
To determine with certainty that the incisions were intentionally made by Neanderthals by leaving footprints on the soft surface, the researchers examined the marks and created them using photogrammetry 3D models for comparison with other engravings made by humans: because of the arrangement, spacing and shape, they concluded that they are deliberate and organized forms created by human hands.
Additionally, using optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL), the team was able to locate the sediments present in the cave over time, concluding that their accumulation led to the cave’s complete closure around 57,000 years ago, rendering it inaccessible long before that to Homo sapiens came to the region. The layers also suggest that the signs are there at all 75,000 years.
But there is more: the stone tools in the cave are only made of stone Mousterian typea classic technique attributed to the Neanderthals, so there is no doubt who made the engravings.
A new piece of Neanderthal knowledge
The La Roche-Cotard petroglyphs are of significant importance for the knowledge of the Neanderthals, of which so far there are few examples of symbolic expressions, among which we must mention engraved crow bone in Siberia, in Zaskalnaya, 38,000 to 43,000 years ago, with a stair or column motif with equidistant notches and an interweaving of some lines carved into the ground 38,000 years ago grotto in Gibraltar.
This new find, together with those already known, proves to be further evidence of this complex behavior of Neanderthals who buried the dead, made jewelry, engraved objects and walls: a number of practices that exist beyond simple living and point to a symbolic and spiritual universe yet to be explored, perhaps with the discovery of more works.