Kyd have always loved fingerpainting , and you could probably weigh on one mitt the number of preschooler who do n’t enjoy slap their colourful palm prints onto newspaper – or considerably yet , walls . Amazingly , new research suggest that this oecumenical artistic craze pre - date our own metal money , with evidence repoint the digit atNeanderthalsas the instigators of the messy fun .
Hand stencils – produced by throwing or blow pigment at hands placed against a wall – are among the most iconic forms of prehistoric sway artistic creation . Found incaves across Europe and Asia , these ancient print are the subject of much argumentation , with disagreements over the age of sure website making it difficult to discern who made them .
Among the most significant collections of archaic hand stencils is that found in Maltravieso undermine in westerly Spain . Produced using naturally present ground pigments such as manganese oxide , hematite , magnetic iron-ore , and goethite , the artworks are not suited for carbon 14 geological dating , which signify that until now , scientist have had no agency of telling how old they are .
However , in the past decade or so , the development of non - destructive U - Th dating techniques has finally enable researchers to uncover the mystery of these playful relics . Using these modern methods , the authors of the new study were capable to determine the minimal historic period of 22 sample of carbonate cheekiness found on handwriting stencils at Maltravieso .
So while the results do n’t tell us exactly when the art were made , they do indicate their eld by revealing the late point at which they could have been created . And while some of thehandprintswere found to be at least 6,000 class previous , others were bring about upwards of 66,700 age ago .
put these final result in context , the cogitation writer explain that “ given that there is no convincing evidence for modern humans in Iberia prior to 40 or 45 [ thousand years ] ago … it follows that at least some of the Maltravieso hand stencils were created by human mathematical group in Europe long before modern man . ” And with Neanderthal known to have been present in the region from about 180,000 to 37,000 twelvemonth ago , the species emerges as the most likely artist .
Whether or not innovative human race then copied their extinct relatives by adding their own hand stencils to the collection is undecipherable , since we only know that some examples were madeat leastsix millennia ago . It ’s perfectly possible , therefore , that these print also appeared before our species first strain Iberia .
“ Either way , the data presented here advise that hand stencil were a Neandertal innovation , ” comment the study authors .
As for the purpose of the ancient paw prints , the research worker point out that they were improbable to have been made just for show , as they are find on aerofoil “ mysterious within the cave , in chambers far away from the natural luminousness . ” The artworks may therefore have had some sort of “ ritual or cultic ” subroutine , although this is something we ’re unconvincing to ever be intimate for sure .
The study is published in theJournal of Archaeological Science : Reports .
