Shocked by another human species' 130,000-year-old artwork

A piece of bear bone carved 130,000 years ago is the oldest work of art in Eurasia. But it does not belong to us homo sapiens.

The research team led by Professor Tomasz Płonka, an archaeologist from the University of Wrocław (Poland), used modern techniques to analyze an artifact unearthed more than 70 years ago and discovered that it was a work of art. The art of ancient Neanderthals.

According to Live Science, the bone fragment was discovered in 1953 in Dziadowa Skała cave in southern Poland.

The bear bone fragment was identified as a work of art from ancient Neanderthals photographed from 4 different angles - (Photo: Journal of Archaeological Science).

The sediment contained bone fragments dating to the Eemian period (130,000 to 115,000 years ago), one of the warmer periods of the last ice age

Initially, archaeologists believed it was the rib of a bear. But new analysis by Dr. Plonka and his colleagues shows that it is a left forelimb bone, possibly from a brown bear (Ursus arctos).

At the same time, the process of re-examining the bone fragment with a 3D microscope and computed tomography (CT) scan - thereby creating a digital model of the bone - further clarified the "strange traces".

They found that the markings were intentional, some engravings were systematically repeated.

To find out how to make the incisions, the team made experimental marks on fresh cattle bones with flint blades and Paleolithic knives using seven incision techniques, including shifting back and forth and strong sawing motion.

This shows that these incisions are not suitable for slaughtering, using tools or trampling animals. On the contrary, it was carved quite delicately into the bone with a flint knife.

In other words, it is truly a work of art. Dating back 130,000 years , it is the oldest work of art in Eurasia.

From there, the research published in the scientific journal Journal of Archaeological Science concluded that these consistencies showed that prehistoric artists not only doodle but also may have had advanced cognitive abilities.

The bone resembles a cylinder, about 10.6cm long, decorated with 17 equally spaced parallel cuts. The person who carved it did it in one go and was right-handed.

More interestingly, he - or she - is not Homo sapiens, according to other archaeological evidence in the area.

The area where the bone was found was the ancient territory of the Neanderthals of that period.

They are a species in the same genus Homo as us, having interbred with our ancestors more than 30,000-40,000 years ago, leaving a small percentage of DNA in most of our bodies.

Neanderthals had a peculiar habit of making similar parallel markings on their bones, which researchers now believe was some kind of cultural symbolism.

One of the most interesting examples ever found is the skull of a female of this species with 35 carvings, most of them parallel.

Previously, people thought that the life of Neanderthals was quite wild. But evidence found in recent years shows that before their extinction, they had very well developed skills in weaving, making weapons, tools, jewelry.

They also have a strict social organization, division of labor in the community, as well as their own funeral customs, cave art style, etc.

Some of the early technology of Homo sapiens may even have been inherited from this interspecies cousin.