Archaeologists at Complutense University in Madrid have published research suggesting that Neanderthals created art, challenging the long-held belief that only Homo sapiens were capable of symbolic expression. At the San Lázaro rock shelter in central Spain, a site occupied by Neanderthals over 40,000 years ago, researchers discovered a large granite pebble with a red ocher dot applied by a fingertip, along with carved cupules that form a face-like arrangement. Analysis by the Spanish National Police confirmed the dot was intentionally made, and the pebble was transported from three miles away, indicating deliberate selection and symbolic thought.
This finding matters because it pushes back the origins of art-making by tens of thousands of years and suggests that Neanderthals possessed complex cognitive abilities—including imagination, symbolism, and intentional communication—previously attributed only to modern humans. The study provides the oldest known Neanderthal fingerprint and adds to growing evidence that Neanderthals were not cognitively inferior but engaged in behaviors once considered uniquely human. It reshapes our understanding of human evolution and the development of art.