More than 50,000-year-old Neanderthal engravings are found in a French cave – 06/25/2023 – Science

The oldest known rock carvings in France — and possibly Europe — were discovered in the Loire Valley in central France, where researchers found drawings dating back at least 57,000 years, to Neanderthal times.

According to the findings, reported in the American journal PLOS One, the engravings, also called “finger-flutings”, predate the arrival of Homo Sapiens in Western Europe.

They appear in sections of the longest uniform wall of a cave at La Roche-Cotard in central France.

The abstract designs were “clearly intentional” and made a “new and very important contribution to our knowledge of Neanderthal behavior,” the research team wrote.

“The layout of these non-figurative graphic entities is an organized and deliberate composition and is the result of a thought process that gives rise to conscious design and intent.”

The Roche-Cotard cave was discovered near Tours, in central France, in 1846, but it remained virtually inaccessible until 1912, when the site’s owner cleared the silt that had blocked the entrance for thousands of years.

Extensive archaeological excavations then began in 2008, with dating techniques proving that the carvings were made before the ancestors of modern humans settled in the area.

“The engravings have been dated to over 57,000 years ago, and thanks to stratigraphy some have been shown to date to probably around 75,000 years ago, making this the cave with the oldest prehistoric ornaments in France, if not Europe,” the authors wrote in a press release.

Most of the images were traced with the finger and “represent non-figurative drawings,” according to a statement from France’s CNRS research institute and the University of Rennes, which participated in the research.

“Some are quite simple, with finger impacts around a large fossil set in rock or long lines across a large surface, while others are more elaborate.”

(With agencies)