A new set of Uranium/Thorium dates on the flowstone covering cave paintings in the Cantabrian region of Spain has pushed the date for inception of art back to the earliest arrival of early modern humans in Europe: and throws yet another wrench into our understanding of behavioral modernity.
The Panel of Hands, El Castillo Cave, Spain. A hand stencil has been dated to earlier than 37,300 years ago and a red disk to earlier than 40,600 years ago, making them the oldest cave paintings in Europe. Image courtesy of Pedro Saura
The technique of U/Th dating is widely accepted, dating the time when thin, nearly transparent calcite flowstone deposits formed, covering ancient art work. The dates are what old school archaeologists would call minimum dates: the paintings had to have have been made before the flowstone was deposited. Dates from caves throughout Cantabria on the northern coast of Spain include Castillo Cave, where portions of the Panel of the Hands illustrated above was covered by calcite flowstone 40,600 years ago.
The arrival of Early Modern Humans in Europe is still problematic (you can read a summary of some of the issues in Why don't we call them Cro Magnon anymore?), but it is widely believed to have happened about 40,000-45,000 years ago. Europe at the time was populated mostly by Neanderthals.
So--who painted the Panel of Hands? Was it Early Modern Human, or was it Neanderthal? An interesting question, don't you think?
Pike AWG, Hoffmann DL, García-Diez M, Pettitt PB, Alcolea J, De Balbín R, González-Sainz C, de las Heras C, Lasheras JA, Montes R et al. 2012. U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain. Science 336:1409-1413.
Comments
The reason wrenches keep appearing in our understanding of art, behavioral modernity and human intelligence is because that understanding is no longer tenable. We do not know if Homo sapiens neandertalensis or Homo sapiens sapiens is responsible for the recently dated cave paintings in Spain. No “date for art” should be used as an indicator of the presence of Homo sapiens sapiens.
The argument that art, and thus human “behavioral modernity,” appeared around 35,000 years ago no longer holds water. Now, John Feliks has demonstrated in a series of testable, falsifiable, geometric proofs that Homo erectus at 400,000 years ago had comparable intelligence to humans today. Feliks is a founder of the Pleistocene Coalition. Abstracts of his paper “The graphics of Bilzingsleben” are available in a recent series in their free online bi-monthly newsletter and his web site.
Feliks makes an analysis of engraved bone artifacts from the famous Homo erectus site in Germany and shows beyond doubt, using falsifiable geometric proofs, the presence of intelligence and capabilities heretofore attributable only to “behaviorally modern Homo sapiens.” There have been no “advances in human intelligence” in recent evolution. A Homo erectus of 400,000 years ago was as cognitively “evolved” as we Homo sapiens of our time. Erectus, and thus Neanderthals, were already truly human as opposed to the dogmatic belief they were “ape-men.”
Feliks writes, “Hence, the following advanced cognitive qualities may be quite easily assumed for the species Homo erectus by way of geometric analogy: interrelationship sensitivity and complex organizational skill; language; use of metaphor and hidden meaning; philosophy; mysticism or other “spiritual” perspectives; and a general ability to discern, appreciate, and create the most subtle nuance within any area of intellectual endeavor.”
The originsnet web site is a good resource to understand early art and cognition. There is a paper there called “Knocking Down the Straw Man Once Again: Out-of-Africa in the Middle Paleolithic and Siberia as a Test Case” which summarizes the “short chronology” which persists as dogma at this point:
“Without being too sarcastic, the short chronology ROM model and now the ‘notquite-so-short’ chronology might be caricatured as something like this: about 50,000 (or maybe 75,000) years ago, after a 10,000 year bottleneck, or maybe they were shy about it, a small group of hopped-up sapiens, probably numbering a couple thousand, carrying the ‘big bang creative explosion’, including language (thanks to a mutant gene), art, symbols, and all kinds of other amazing things that dazzle the mind, got real thirsty. You see there was a bad drought going on. Hey, I need a drink. What’s that you say, I can get a drink in Australia. Awesome. So these Star Trek übermenschen travelling at warp speed left Africa around 50,000 years ago and arrived in Australia 55,000 years ago or maybe the left 70,000 years ago and arrived in India 75,000 years ago. Anyway they were real fast. Speed freaks. Zoom zoom. It was a stunning success. Along the way all Neanderthals and other archaic Homo sapiens, who were simply illiterate savages and slow on the draw, were quickly exterminated, or to be polite, ‘replaced’. Thank goodness. Now we have music, ornaments, power bracelets, and Coca Cola and the whole world is happy.”
Also, cupules, the worlds oldest surviving rock art form according to Robert G. Bednarik, date to a minimum of 290,000 years ago. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~auranet/cognit/shared_files/cupules.pdf
Thanks for your comment… but!
References, please! Where does Feliks write this; what Bednarik paper are you referring to?
I think there’s a problem with the link “Why Don’t We Call Them Cro-Magnon Anymore?” Could you please check it out, Kris. I’d like to know the answer! Thanks.
Hmm. Seems to work okay for me:
http://archaeology.about.com/od/earlymansites/a/cro_magnon.htm