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Neanderthal Fingerprint

ArchaeC

A Neanderthal fingerprint has been discovered on a pebble from Segovia, Spain. Dating to around 43,000 years ago, the dot of pigment was applied by a finger tip and it may be indicative of symbolic behaviour, ie, portable art, rather than accidental. 

‘Pebble figurines’ of the Neolithic are well known in the Levant and other parts of the world. They are commonly incised by Homo Sapiens, but traces of pigment, if used, do not remain.

Could this Neanderthal pebble be a ‘Pebble Figurine’?

           

More than a fingerprint on a pebble: A pigment‑marked object from San Lázaro rock‑shelter in the context of Neanderthal symbolic behavior

David Álvarez‑Alonso1

M. de Andrés‑Herrero1

M. C. Sastre Barrio4 

M. Á. Maté‑González5

Andrés Díez‑Herrero2

S. Miralles‑Mosquera3

E. Nieva Gómez4 · M. R. Díaz Delgado4 · E. Ruiz Mediavilla4

Received: 11 March 2024 / Accepted: 5 May 2025

© The Author(s) 2025

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-025-02243-1.pdf

Parents

  • or posibly the guy had been doing some cave painting, needed a rock to grind up something and went to the beach to get one with a drop of paint still on his fingger he missed washing. We know neanderthals had artistic capacity it doesn't mean every thing of theirs we find has some deep artistic / ritual meaning. 99% of stuff we recover in archiology is stuff people threw away or left behind in a hurry or was trashed by disasters. The main exception is grave goods and the closer people are to the edge in terms of survival the less they can aford to leave behind in their loved ones graves.

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  • or posibly the guy had been doing some cave painting, needed a rock to grind up something and went to the beach to get one with a drop of paint still on his fingger he missed washing. We know neanderthals had artistic capacity it doesn't mean every thing of theirs we find has some deep artistic / ritual meaning. 99% of stuff we recover in archiology is stuff people threw away or left behind in a hurry or was trashed by disasters. The main exception is grave goods and the closer people are to the edge in terms of survival the less they can aford to leave behind in their loved ones graves.

Children
  • in reply to Peter

    Could have happened. Now if another of these pebbles with an ochre dot turned up, it might focus the argument.