Prehistoric artifacts from Israel prove our ancestors made art 100,000 years ago
New study shows Middle Paleolithic people intentionally decorated stone tools, offering evidence that abstract thinking began earlier than 50,000 years ago as previously believed
Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.
Some 100,000 years ago, a group of early humans gathered on the terrace before a cave in the Lower Galilee to bury one of their own. The mourners honored the deceased with several offerings, including sea shells, ochre pieces, and a lithic artifact.
According to new research by Israeli and European scholars, that tool, unearthed in the 1970s at the site known today as the Qafzeh Cave, has been instrumental in proving that our ancestors were capable of abstract thinking and artistic expression much earlier than generally thought.
“Most researchers adopt a very European-focused viewpoint suggesting that modern humans conquered the world some 50,000 years ago because they were capable of abstract thinking, were better organized, knew how to work in groups, and therefore managed to overcome the Neanderthals and other types of hominins,” Dr. Mae Goder-Goldberger told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “Our research focused on proving that abstract thinking and use of symbolism existed much earlier, as suggested by other scholars.”
Goder-Goldberger, who works with both the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, co-authored the paper published in the Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences journal last month. Other authors include Dr. João Marreiros of the Laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments at MONREPOS, Johannes Gutenberg University, and the University of Algarve.
The artifacts considered in the study came from several prehistoric sites in modern-day Israel, and include a core from Qafzeh, a core from the Manot Cave, a plaquette from Quneitra and two blades from the Amud Cave (cores and blades are types of stone tools, while plaquettes are engraved stones).
Located just below Nazareth, Qafzeh presents burials dating from 120,000 to 90,000 years ago.
The site of Quneitra stands on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. It was active 54,000 years ago and first excavated in the 1970s.
“This site does not present any human remains,” Goder-Goldberger said. “The plaquette we considered was found among other artifacts typical of the Middle Paleolithic industry, which is the period that is relevant for us.”
The Middle Paleolithic is the period between 250,000 and 50,000 years ago.
Manot is in the Galilee, just below the modern village bearing the same name.
“Most of the finds from this site are from the Upper Paleolithic, which means they are more recent than the artifact we examined,” Goder-Goldberger noted. “However, the shape of the core and the technology used to shape it are unquestionably from the Middle Paleolithic.”
Manot also presented a fragment of a human skull from 55,000 years ago, confirming that the site was already in use during the relevant time.
The researchers analyzed and measured the patterns on the core from Manot, which has radiating lines departing from the highest point of the tool, and the core from Qafzeh, which has parallel lines, as well as the concentric circles featured on the plaquette from Quneitra.
“Our measurements confirm the intentionality of those patterns,” Goder-Goldberger said. “Someone engraved each of the artifacts using a hard stone to form these decorations, following the topography of the tool.”
“The plaquette is especially interesting because while the cores were tools and therefore had a practical purpose, this flint was picked up just for decorating it,” she added. “It is a piece of art.”
Similar intentional engravings were also found in South African and European sites.
The researchers also analyzed tools from the Amud Cave presenting marks that do not appear to follow a pattern to highlight the difference with the rest of the artifacts they considered.
Located not far from the Sea of Galilee, the cave presents both burials of Neanderthal individuals and tool manufacturing from the Middle Paleolithic.
“In the case of the Amud stones, the striation is random,” Goder-Goldberger said. “They were likely used to polish other tools, which probably created the marks.”
The researcher highlighted that intentionally decorated tools dating back to the Middle Paleolithic remain sporadic.
“We are talking about three or four artifacts over 50,000 years,” Goder-Goldberger said. “However, they prove that those early humans, who could have been both archaic modern humans or Neanderthals, did have the cognitive ability to produce them.”
“The toolkit of symbolism, abstract thinking, and social interactions did not just emerge in a vacuum with modern humans 50,000 years ago, but much earlier in human evolution,” she said.
