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Central Spanish researchers say they may have revealed one of the most ancient symbolic objects with a human fingerprint in Europe, dating tens of thousands of years. By releasing the secret identity that exactly made the sign, involving the assistance of forensic experts working in the crime scene.
Based on a new study, printed printed printed printed, found in a San Lázar rock shelter in Segovia, mentions the potential Neanderthals’ ability to create symbolic art. This discovery adds to more and more evidence, including the signs and paintings of the caves in recent years, and creates the case that our prehistoric relatives, disappearing about 40,000 years ago, have been more like modern people than some may think.
The Spanish researchers’ team noticed an elongated rock below 5 feet (1.5 meters) at the time of excavation in 2022. In July And announced his conclusions on May 24. Published document in the magazine Archeological and Hopological Sciences. According to the study, San Lázar is a living room that is believed to have occupied Neanderthals.
Regained the pebble in the San Lázar Rock shelter in Segovia, Spain. -Álvarez-alonso, D., from Andrés-Herrero, M., Díez-Herrero, A. et al./pringer Nature Nature
“When we first saw (pebble) … We looked at the stone, all the team and the students, and we were like” UH, it looks like a face, “said the research co -author María de Andrés Herrero, a prehistoric professor at Madrid’s Combultnse University. Such a conclusion was unexpected in the Neanderthal context, she added.
Herrero said she and her team date back to fingerprints, and they are sure that it dates back to 43,000 years. Researchers believe that the rock was found near the riverbed and deliberately brought to a rocky shelter. Unlike other artifacts found in the shelter, this pebble was unique: it seemed to have no functional use and had a peculiar red dot that intrigued the investigators.
“We thought the red dot has something, I don’t know what … And the only way we could know that there is a fingerprint was to contact the main Spanish specialist (for) fingerprints,” Herrero said. “That’s why we contacted the police.”
The left photo depicts excavation in the San Lázar Rocky shelter, where an archaeological artifact was found. On the right is an image of a 3D model obtained for excavation documentation. -Álvarez-alonso, D., de Andrés-Herrero, M., Díez-Herrero, A. et al./pringer Nature
Distinguished by the secret of the Neanderthals
With the help of experts working in crime scene, investigators were able to confirm that fingerprints exist at the point.
However, the police initially skeptical about the find. “They are used to setting fingerprints that are very recent, from 2 days, 1 week, 1 month. But 43,000 years ago – they were very strange and very difficult,” Herrero said.
Using forensic methods and multifaceted analysis (advanced image capture method), the research experts and the research team were able to notice a fingerprint at a red spot. “We couldn’t really believe it,” Herrero said. A forensic researcher has developed a special camera to capture evidence, and this was the first time such methods have been used to determine the determination of Neanderthal fingerprints, says Herrero.
Then the Forensic Team Department Department analyzed the marking to confirm that it is compatible with the human fingerprint – and to make sure that it does not belong to any of the investigators. The police division could check that it was likely to belong to an adult Neanderthalist.
For about 43,000 years, this sign is the oldest known complete human fingerprint. -Álvarez-alonso, D., from Andrés-Herrero, M., Díez-Herrero, A. et al./pringer Nature Nature
“The test of forensic fingerprints of forensic experts undoubtedly shows that this came from direct contact with human fingerprints,” said Paul Pettitt, a professor of Paleolithic archeology at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
According to Herrero, the artifact can be the oldest hominin fingerprint of all time. Another, perhaps an older imprint, was found in Königsaue, Germany, back in 1963, but it is a partial fingerprint.
According to the study, San Lázar’s fingerprints can also be the oldest with pigment. The researchers were able to confirm that the ocher, the clay pigment, was placed on the tip of the finger that made a mark on the quartz -rich granite pebble.
The statistical modeling used by the researchers showed that the pebble sign was “not random” but intentionally arranged intentionally, Herrero said.
Pettitt stated that he was not surprised by the conclusion.
“This is another example of emerging data that reveals the visual culture of Neanderthals,” he explained. “This is an amazingly clear and unequivocal example of the use of red pigment, one of the growing databases revealing that Neanderthals have used pigments to leave their body (hands, fingertips) on cave walls and portable items.”
One theory is that the ravine on the rock resembles part of the face: eyes, mouth and chin. Red spot layout, researchers raised in a hypothesis, may be a nose. In this case, the pebble marking would be a visual sign with a symbolic purpose.
A. Experts used an automatic biometric identification system to print. These images show characteristic points detected by the system, which coincide with the central part of the finger. B. The typical points set here coincide with the palm of your hand. -Álvarez-alonso, D., de Andrés-Herrero, M., Díez-Herrero, A. et al./pringer Nature
“There is a meaning or message that no matter what an object and action may appear,” the authors wrote. They added that there was reason to suspect that the pebble was intended for a face imaging.
A study that called Pebble’s properties “exclusive” shows that it can be a visual symbol that can be considered a “piece of portable art in some contexts”.
Neanderthal and modern people
In this case, the understanding of scientists about what the Neanderthals could continue to change. “The fact that the pebble was elected for its appearance and then marked by an ocher indicates that there is a human mind that can symbolize, imagine, idealize and design its thoughts on the object,” the study authors wrote.
Although there is no way to know in a certain way, Herrero thinks it is a demonstration of how our understanding of a “thin line” that distinguishes Neanderthals from modern people becomes thinner. “They were able to recognize their faces in things because you and I were able to recognize the lion in the clouds,” she said.
Pettitt has proposed a similar perspective, saying that the conclusions were in line with “emerging evidence that the Neanderthal imagination had experimented with the human form and the extension of this form inside and on the natural world.”
Herrero said the research team is now planning to look for more “invisible artefacts” to help interpret the past. Forensic police will play an important role in finding information, unseen to the naked eye.
“We have to collaborate and integrate forensic technology in archeology, or perhaps archaeology in forensic technology,” she explained, saying that cooperation is “opening a new window to check our past.”
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