The rock was used only for the art -- a rarity for the ancient time period -- rather than a tool or some other utilitarian usage.
A Neanderthal may have given us the oldest-known human fingerprint by attempting to paint a face on a small granite pebble in what is now modern-day Spain
In a new study published in Archaeological and Anthropological Science, experts claim that a 43,000-year-old fingerprint left in red ocher pigment was intentionally placed on the rock in what was possibly an early form of art. The Neanderthal was attempting to paint a face on a small granite pebble in what is now modern-day Spain.
"This object contributes to our understanding of Neanderthals' capacity for abstraction, suggesting that it could represent one of the earliest human facial symbolizations in prehistory," wrote the study authors, a collaboration between the Complutense University of Madrid, the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain, the General Commissariat of Scientific Police of the National Police, and the University of Salamanca.
Discovered in the San Lazaro rock shelter in central Spain, the team used scanning electron microscopy and multispectral spectroscopy analyses to find the complete fingerprint and then forensic analyses to determine it had to come from a human.
"It is not just a fingerprint; it is the signature of an individual who manipulated this object with a purpose that goes beyond the utilitarian," the researchers wrote.
The authors believe the fingerprint was intentionally placed and the pigment suggests it was applied with the tip of a finger after being soaked in pigment. "Someone held it, painted it, and placed it there," the researchers wrote.
Found on a pebble believed to have originated from the Eresma River and moved to the shelter, the rock shows no signs of ever being used as a tool, giving the pebble a rare non-utilitarian function from the Middle Paleolithic period, according to a translated statement from the researchers. The painted fingerprint matches up with the pebble's form to make it seem that the Neanderthal who added the red-soaked print meant to create a "human face, with eyes, a mouth, and a ridge shaped like a nose."
"This pebble could thus represent one of the oldest known abstractions of a human face in the prehistoric record," the authors wrote, noting it could be "face pareidolia," the act of humans giving objects human-like qualities.
The study said that detailed analyses of the print showed it was "unequivocally attributed to Neanderthals." The human who dipped their finger into the pigment "intentionally manipulated" the rock for non-utilitarian purposes and by bringing the rock into the shelter, the Neanderthal could have been following ritualistic behavior or simply trying to liven up a space with a little abstract art.