A Red Dot, a 43,000 Year Old Fingerprint, and a Stone Out of Place—Potential Evidence of Neanderthal Pareidolia

43,000-year-old human fingerprint is world's oldest — and made by a Neanderthal

The discovery of a 43,000-year-old fingerprint in Spain is challenging the idea that Neanderthals were not capable of symbolic art.

Neanderthals may have made art just like modern humans, say researchers

Close examination of a pebble excavated in central Spain suggests it may have been painted to look like a face tens of thousands of years ago.

Scientists Found a 43,000-Year-Old Fingerprint That May Be the Oldest Ever Left by a Human

The print was left on a 43,000-year-old piece of artwork made on a stone by a Neanderthal. It’s a rare instance of a rock not being used as a tool or weapon.

A red dot, a 43,000 year old fingerprint, and a stone out of place—potential evidence of Neanderthal pareidolia

In the depths of the San Lázaro rock-shelter in Segovia, Central Spain, archaeologists from the Complutense University of Madrid and collaborators have uncovered a compelling trace of Neanderthal symbolic cognition: a pigment-marked granite stone bearing a human fingerprint, and the deliberate placement of red ocher in relation to three mostly natural indentations, creating the potential image of a human face.

The world's oldest fingerprint may also be the world's oldest work of art. The ochre-speckled stone could change scientists' understanding of Neanderthal thinking.

World's oldest fingerprint may be a clue that Neanderthals created art

A man 43,000 years ago dipped a finger in red pigment and made a nose on a face-like pebble in Spain, scientists say One day around 43,000 years ago, a Neanderthal man in what is now central Spain came across a large granite pebble whose pleasing contours and indentations snagged his eye. Something in the shape of that quartz-rich stone - perhaps its odd resemblance to an elongated face - may have compelled him to pick it up, study it and, event…