Neanderthal Fingerprint

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
  • It is impossible to confidently impute intentionality on something so ambiguous. Modern peoples use ochre mixed with fat or oil as body decoration, hair decoration or as a sun-block. Neanderthals could have used it for the same purposes and the fingerprint be entirely incidental.

  • The pebble was carried intentionally from the river bed to the rock shelter so we know that it served a purpose, albeit likely different to the other pebbles that were incised and of a different size. The authors of the article argue that the pigment was applied intentionally. I agree that the evidence suggests this is so, but without more stylised or incised facial features, we can’t interpret it definitively as a ‘pebble figurine’, although that hypothesis can’t be ruled out either.

    Here are some incised pebbles in the Museum of Yarmukian Culture at the Neolithic site of Sh’ar Hagolan. They have been interpreted as ‘pebble figurines’. Around one hundred of these incised pebbles were found at the site. It’s a long jump from 8,000 years ago to 43,000 years ago, yet Neanderthal people would have been capable of this sort of thing.

    https://www.myc.org.il/en/the-museum-of-yarmukian-culture/

  • It is a pale pebble, perhaps pale pebbles were used to test the depth of colour in an ochre mix, before it was used for another purpose. The natural Makapansgat pebble, a manuport dating to about 3 million years ago is much more suggestively anthropomorphic than this pebble.

  • That is an interesting possibility, they must have had to test it somewhere.

    Would Neanderthals ever favour a more stylistic style of marking on the cave walls? Some of the cave art/markings are difficult to understand, never mind their possible function.

Reply
  • That is an interesting possibility, they must have had to test it somewhere.

    Would Neanderthals ever favour a more stylistic style of marking on the cave walls? Some of the cave art/markings are difficult to understand, never mind their possible function.

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