Prehistoric women and men work independently

An analysis of the handprints on an Indonesian cave wall shows that men and women did not share each other's work during the art labor process.

Handprints in the cave

Experts of the French National Center for Scientific Research have studied the remains of the Gua Masri II cave in Indonesia, based on a computer model to determine which fingerprints are for men and of female.

They found a group of men with fingerprints gathering at some point, and women leaving fingerprints in other areas.

"This finding supports the theory that prehistoric men do separate activities for women," said Jean-Michel Chazine at France's Credo Center for Ocean Studies. "This result proves that women's role is much more important than previously thought."

The new software is based on the principle that the master's gender can be found based on the ratio of the ring finger and index finger. These two fingers are almost the same in women but are large in men.

Two caves Gua Masri is located in the Central Highlands of Borneo, which contains hundreds of fingerprints dating to 8,000-20,000 years old.

MT (according to AFP)