These burials contain grave goods and the people used colour on their bodies in the form of tattoos. More substantial evidence of this spiritual character, that could have led to cave art, is burials from the Lower Palaeolithic period about 350,000 years ago.
Is this evidence of a spiritual development?.Evidence shows they decorated themselves with beads, collected exotic stones and there is evidence of the collection and use of ochre as a decoration. They were dominant in the Lower Palaeolithic Period almost 3 million years ago. That is a long time before Homo neanderthalensis let alone Homo sapiens.īednarik who studied this cobble claims that, sometime around 850,000 years ago, the people of the Lower Palaeolithic were engaged in behaviour which could be interpreted as ‘art’. Thirdly, because of the place it was found in and the materials around it, it has been suggested that it was deposited in the cave by Australopithecus africanus. Jasper pebble of reddish colour found in 1925 at Makapansgat, South Africa. Secondly, the markings do not appear to be natural they bear all the impressions of having been carved.
Firstly we know that jasper could not have occurred naturally in the dolomite cave where it was found, so it must have been carried there. It seems to have been carved with distinctive ‘staring eyes’ and a ‘mouth’. This cobble is a reddish jasper (silicate mineral containing iron oxide) stone which appears to have the shape of a head. Even in this area though there needs to be care, and the complexity of this research area can be illustrated by the Makapansgat cobble from South Africa. It is clear that one difference is that the Upper Palaeolithic people produced complex communication and art. These are the higher thinking centres of the brain, and indicate a development in speech, imagination, and ethics centres. Homo sapiens show a different type of development, primarily in the frontal lobes. In fact Neanderthals brain development indicates an increased development in the sensory especially vision and motor centres, primarily in the rear half of the brain. Studies of the brains capacity and structure imprint on the skull to determine brain organisation by Dunbar and Pearce (2013 Science Daily) have suggested that it is possible Neanderthals could have produced other things besides tools. It’s not clear if they had a language but their brains were approximately the same size as Homo sapiens.Ĭomparison of size of prefrontal cortex of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens Maybe it was the development of language, since it is clear from the evidence that Neanderthals were tool-makers and lived in groups. It would be wrong to try and explain the success of Homo sapiens in the Upper Palaeolithic by thinking that they were more intelligent than the Neanderthals ( Homo neanderthalensis) of the Lower and Middle Periods. Differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens Over the different periods humans were generally hunter-gathers who used tools and fire, and from the Lower period onwards they seem to have buried their dead. People look different and the culture (ideas, customs, and social behaviour) of the people are different. The Upper Palaeolithic Period is very different from the Middle and Lower periods. Table 1: Timeline of Palaeolithic Period from 325 million to 10,000 years ago.Ĭhristian Jegou Publiphoto Diffusion / Science Photo Libraryīy T. Then around 300,000 years ago, we call this the Middle Palaeolithic followed by the Upper Palaeolithic (Table 1). It was dominated by a number of human-type people and later by the Neanderthals. To make it easier to talk about events the period is broken up into three periods. It was painted on the walls of caves in Europe and in Asia during the Palaeolithic Period some 325 million to 10,000 years ago. Why do you think it was drawn and painted?.Source: © Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy
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