Startling new evidence from three caves in Spain suggests that some of the earliest rock paintings have wrongly been attributed to Homo sapiens. Instead they were probably the work of our extinct sister species, the Neanderthals – once dismissed as stupid brutish creatures having more in common with chimpanzees than people.

Scientists now know that the Neanderthals were no ape-men. They used simple stone and bone tools, wore clothing, adorned their bodies and may have had a complex language. The latest discoveries published in the journal Science show that Neanderthals were capable of highly sophisticated symbolic thought. The cave paintings, made with red and black pigments, consist of groups of animals, dots and abstract geometric designs, as well as stencilled handprints.

They occupy three sites at La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales – situated up to 700 kilometres apart in different parts of Spain. The findings fixed the age of the artworks at 64,000 years ago – long before the arrival of the first “modern” humans in western Europe. The only ‘people’ around in that part of the world at the time were Neanderthals which suggests that they were much more sophisticated than is popularly believed.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/22/neanderthals-created-art-20000-before-humans-started-painting-on-cave-walls-academics-claim-7334769/