<p>Neanderthals may have been cave-painting artists, according to research published Thursday that details a new method of analyzing cave paintings in Spain and shows they are the oldest known to man.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The tests on 50 paintings in 11 caves in northern Spain, described in the US journal Science, hint at a previously unknown talent that may have been held by Neanderthals in Europe more than 40,000 years ago.<br /><br />There has never been any proof that Neanderthals produced cave art, but they did bury their dead, used some primitive decorative techniques on their bodies and left behind pendants made of bones and shells, experts said.<br /><br />“So it would not be surprising if Neanderthals were Europe's first cave artists,” said co-author Joao Zilhao, a research professor from the University of Barcelona.<br /><br />The cave images include a club, red discs and handprint stencils that were made by someone placing a hand against a cave wall and blowing paint on it.<br /><br />One such disc in the El Castillo cave dates back more than 40,800 years, making it the oldest cave art in Europe, said the researchers."We are claiming the oldest reliably dated paintings in the world," said lead author Alistair Pike, a reader in archeological sciences from the University of Bristol.<br /><br />A number of “oldest” claims have been made recently, from the Chauvet cave in France at 32,000 years to a limestone wall dating back some 37,000 years at Abri Castanet, a well known archeological site in southwestern France.<br /><br />Other analyses of art in India and Australia purport to be older, but none were tested with the latest technique and some interpretations are invalid because they are based on style, not science, the authors said.<br /><br />While the findings in Spain so far do not prove that the art was done by Neanderthals, "we must say there is a strong probability that that is the case," said Zilhao. Another possibility is that the cave art was done by the first modern humans to reach Europe, with the earliest evidence of their arrival dating to 41,500 years ago. The Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Neanderthals may have been cave-painting artists, according to research published Thursday that details a new method of analyzing cave paintings in Spain and shows they are the oldest known to man.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The tests on 50 paintings in 11 caves in northern Spain, described in the US journal Science, hint at a previously unknown talent that may have been held by Neanderthals in Europe more than 40,000 years ago.<br /><br />There has never been any proof that Neanderthals produced cave art, but they did bury their dead, used some primitive decorative techniques on their bodies and left behind pendants made of bones and shells, experts said.<br /><br />“So it would not be surprising if Neanderthals were Europe's first cave artists,” said co-author Joao Zilhao, a research professor from the University of Barcelona.<br /><br />The cave images include a club, red discs and handprint stencils that were made by someone placing a hand against a cave wall and blowing paint on it.<br /><br />One such disc in the El Castillo cave dates back more than 40,800 years, making it the oldest cave art in Europe, said the researchers."We are claiming the oldest reliably dated paintings in the world," said lead author Alistair Pike, a reader in archeological sciences from the University of Bristol.<br /><br />A number of “oldest” claims have been made recently, from the Chauvet cave in France at 32,000 years to a limestone wall dating back some 37,000 years at Abri Castanet, a well known archeological site in southwestern France.<br /><br />Other analyses of art in India and Australia purport to be older, but none were tested with the latest technique and some interpretations are invalid because they are based on style, not science, the authors said.<br /><br />While the findings in Spain so far do not prove that the art was done by Neanderthals, "we must say there is a strong probability that that is the case," said Zilhao. Another possibility is that the cave art was done by the first modern humans to reach Europe, with the earliest evidence of their arrival dating to 41,500 years ago. The Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.</p>
