Many discoveries from across Europe and beyond demonstrate that the foundations of human culture like art, religion, and spirituality, were not limited to anatomically modern humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens).

It started much earlier, with the Neanderthals. They were the first human species to bury their dead, along with grave goods (La Ferrassie, Kebera cave, Shanidar cave, etc.). Red pigment (ochre) has also been found on multiple occasions (Caves of Ardales, El Castillo cave, etc.).

It is presumed that they have been responsible for the first proto cave art and have been painting their bodies. They were also wearing jewelry (Krapina) and produced music (Divje Babe bone flute).

The culture of the Neanderthals was very different from that of later, anatomically modern humans. Neanderthals were not unfamiliar with artistic or symbolic traditions. Their sense of nature, however, was most likely different from our direct predecessors. The neanderthals' symbolic and aesthetic expression is unusual, unique, and difficult to identify. Many engravings were found (Gorham cave, Kiik-Koba etc.)

While rarely purposefully creating pieces of art, they could identify aesthetically intriguing and beautiful objects from nature and apply a symbolic meaning to them (such as humanoid-shaped stones).

They would also transfer such objects (cave bear skulls or naturally colored rocks that were not used in tool production) from the original finding place and intentionally place them elsewhere.

It's even suggested that they created the first altars and places of worship, but that is far from certain. There are even objects in which present-day researchers would find aesthetic beauty despite practical use (Srečko Brodar about a Mousterian point from Betalov Spodmol).

Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPF…
Edited with Vegas Pro 19

#History #Archeology #Neanderthals #Shorts