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 Neanderthal art.

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Gilgamesh of Uruk
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Gilgamesh of Uruk

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PostSubject: Neanderthal art.    Neanderthal art.  EmptyThu 22 Feb 2018, 22:47

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43115488

extract :

Contrary to the traditional view of them as brutes, it turns out that Neanderthals were artists.
A study in Science journal suggests they made cave drawings in Spain that pre-date the arrival of modern humans in Europe by 20,000 years.
They also appear to have used painted sea shells as jewellery.
Art was previously thought to be a behaviour unique to our species (Homo sapiens) and far beyond our evolutionary cousins.
The cave paintings include stencilled impressions of Neanderthal hands, geometric patterns and red circles.
They occupy three sites at La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales - situated up to 700km apart in different parts of Spain.
The researchers used a technique called uranium-thorium dating to obtain accurate ages. It relies on measuring the radioactive decay of uranium that gets incorporated into mineral crusts forming over the paintings.
The results gave a minimum age of 65,000 years ago for the cave art, modern humans only arrived in Europe roughly 45,000 years ago.
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ferval
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PostSubject: Re: Neanderthal art.    Neanderthal art.  EmptyWed 28 Feb 2018, 13:57

I find the statement that sapiens was thought to be the only art-making species surprising unless by 'traditional' view they mean really, really outdated. As far as art-making, it's quite a few years since the engraved ochre turned up in the Blombos caves, dated at around 100,000BP

Neanderthal art.  Blombos_Cave_engrave_ochre_1

and the even earlier engraved shell from Trinil in Indonesia dated at somewhere between 750,000 and 1 million BP.

Neanderthal art.  Joordens_trinil_engravedshelledit



so it looks like old Erectus had an eye for the decorative as well. But he or she may not have started it all, it depends on the definition of art (don't we have a thread about this?). If it is something like 'that in which the form exceeds that required for utility' then many of the ancient hand axes definitely qualify however wee Lucy and her pals may have been the first artists, at least in the same sense as Duchamp, when they went in for 'found art'.

Pebble found in an australopithecine context in Makapansgat and dated to 2,500,000BP.

Neanderthal art.  02nasher6-blog427

I wish I could visit this exhibition
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