Recently, in the Spanish caves of Nerja, located near Malaga in Andalusia, ancient rock paintings were unexpectedly discovered. Older than those at Chauvet, southern France, between 35,000 and 33,000 years old.
The Nerja Caves, discovered in 1959 by five boys, are known for the world's largest stalagmite, reaching 32 meters in height. And now they will be popular for their rock paintings. And although the entrance to the bowels of the Earth until that time was free, now it will be closed from tourists.
This find, according to scientists, is an "academic bomb." Because, after analyzing and finding out that the age of the drawings varies from 43, 5 to 42, 3 thousand years, we can conclude that these drawings belong to the Neanderthals! But before this discovery, the presence of imagination and creativity was attributed only to Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens.
In the drawing, which resembles (strangely) a link in the DNA chain, the ancient artist depicted only a hunt for pinnipeds, fur seals or seals. These animals were found in large numbers in local waters.
However, scientists warn against premature conclusions. After all, the exact dating of rock art is not easy. But determining the age of paintings is a very important and necessary matter. It allows you to better know our ancestors, their way of thinking, etc.
Accurate data will not be available until 2013. Currently, excavations are underway in the Nerja caves in search of other images, and possibly tools of labor of the Neanderthals, which disappeared 37,000 years ago. According to scientists, they died out either from a change in climatic conditions, or were supplanted by the more developed Homo sapiens. However, as it turned out, they were not primitive creatures who only knew how to hunt.
