Ancient artist at work. I was very intrigued by the recent description of a carved giant deer (Megal
Ancient artist at work. I was very intrigued by the recent description of a carved giant deer (Megaloceros) toe bone found in a cave in Germany, made around 51,000 years ago and attributed to a Neanderthal (Leder et al., 2021). The carvings have no apparent practical use, and appear to be an example of geometric art. It may be that, since giant deer were impressive animals and rich food sources, the Neanderthal who made it wanted to honour their significance. This discovery adds to a growing understanding of our ancient relatives’ minds, demonstrating that they too likely embraced concepts like symbolism. Experimental evidence suggests that the bone was boiled before being worked with a flint blade -- source link
#neanderthal#anthropology#paleolithic#archaeology#carving#paleoart#megaloceros#drawing#scientific illustration#stone age#pleistocene#prehistoric#geometry#ancient art#pencil#ice age#human evolution