Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 23 February 2018
Science Says: European art scene began with Neander-

By MALCOLM RITTER said Joao Zilhao of the Cat-
AP Science Writer alan Institution for Research
NEW YORK (AP) — From the and Advanced Studies in
murky depths of Spanish Barcelona, Spain, who did
caves comes a surprising the study with Hoffmann
insight: Neanderthals cre- and others.
ated art. Not all experts were con-
That’s been proposed be- vinced by the studies.
fore, but experts say two Harold Dibble, an archae-
new studies finally give ologist at the University of
convincing evidence that Pennsylvania who stud-
our evolutionary cousins ies Neanderthal behavior,
had the brainpower to wondered if the shell color
make artistic works and use and holes could have oc-
symbols. curred naturally. And he
The key finding: New age said he’d like to see the
estimates that show paint- dating in the cave art pa-
ings on cave walls and Associated Press per confirmed by another
decorated seashells in lab.
Spain were created long themselves,” said Paola Vil- like a ladder, and others The finding shows Neander- Warren Sharp of the Berke-
before our species entered la of the University of Colo- include red dots and disks thals shared symbolic think- ley Geochronology Cen-
Europe. So there’s no way rado Museum in Boulder, on curtainlike rock forma- ing with H. sapiens, and ter in California, an expert
Homo sapiens could have who also didn’t participate tions. Another is a stenciled suggests the two species on the dating technique
made them or influenced in the new work. outline of a hand, made by were “indistinguishable” in used in both papers, said
Neanderthals to merely Neanderthals lived in Eu- spewing pigment over a terms of overall mental abil- he found the results of both
copy their artwork. rope and Asia before dis- hand held against the wall, ity, the researchers wrote. studies to be “very solid.”
Until now, most scientists appearing about 40,000 Hoffmann said. Nobody knows what the They show “we are not
thought all cave paint- years ago, around the time Making the hand stencil shells symbolized. Maybe the only ones capable of
ings were the work of our H. sapiens moved into Eu- involves so many steps, in- they indicated member- ‘modern’ behavior,” he
species. But the new work rope from Africa. cluding preparation of the ship in a group like a clan, wrote in an email.q
concludes that some pre- The research, released pigment, that it’s clearly
and other authors wrote in Underwater video
viously known paintings — Thursday by the journals a deliberate creation, he
an array of lines, some disks Science and Science Ad-
and the outline of a hand vances , focused on deter- the paper. What’s more,
— were rendered about mining the ages of previ- a number of hand stencils shows marine life
20,000 years before H. sapi- ously known artifacts. seem to have been placed
ens moved into Europe. One team of European re- with care rather than ran- growing at wind farm
That’s a surprise that “consti- searchers concentrated domly, so they are certainly
tutes a major breakthrough on painted artwork in three “meaningful symbols,” the
in the field of human evolu- caves in northern, southern authors wrote.
tion studies,” said Wil Roe- and west-central Spain. The other study sought to By PHILIP MARCELO "The turbine foundations
broeks of Leiden University They carefully removed tiny find the age of shells that Associated Press are now acting as an ar-
in the Netherlands, an ex- bits of rocky crust that had had been colored and BOSTON (AP) — Offshore tificial reef," said Nancy
pert on Neanderthals who formed on the artwork sur- punctured in another cave, wind proponents are tout- Sopko, the wind energy
didn’t participate in the faces and analyzed them in southeast Spain. Previ- ing new undersea foot- association's director of
new work. in a lab. Results indicated ous studies had estimated age that suggests a vibrant offshore wind and federal
Now, he said in an email, artwork from all three were an age of 45,000 to 50,000 marine habitat is growing legislative affairs. "This is a
Neanderthal “ownership of around 65,000 years old, years old, too young to rule around the nation's first success story that can be
some cave art is a fact.” much older than the ar- out a link to H. sapiens. offshore wind farm — a replicated all along our
The second study provided rival of H. sapiens in Europe, For the new work, research- five-turbine operation off coastlines."
evidence that Neander- which occurred some ers analyzed rock that had Rhode Island's waters. But the video does little
thals used pigments and 45,000 to 40,000 years ago. formed above where the The American Wind Ener- to temper the concerns
piercings to modify shells The artwork is rudimen- shells had been found. gy Association, an indus- of commercial fishermen,
some 115,000 years ago, tary, but a study author, Results indicated the shells try trade group, says the who are worried about
which is far earlier than simi- Dirk Hoffmann of the Max were around 115,000 years roughly two-minute clip navigating dense forests of
lar artifacts are associated Planck Institute for Evolu- old. That is some 20,000 to it posted on YouTube this turbines to get to their his-
with H. sapiens anywhere. tionary Anthropology in 40,000 years older than week shows the potential toric fishing grounds, says
That shows Neanderthals Leipzig, Germany, said it’s comparable artifacts in for the nation's fishing in- Jim Kendall, a former scal-
“were quite capable of symbolic. One work is a Africa or western Asia that dustry as larger projects are lop fisherman in New Bed-
inventing the ornaments collection of lines that look are attributed to H. sapiens. envisioned up and down ford, Massachusetts.
the East Coast. "This is nice and fun to see,
but it doesn't tip the con-
versation," Seth Rolbein, of
the Cape Cod Commer-
cial Fishermen's Alliance in
Chatham, Massachusetts,
said of the video.
Offshore wind develop-
ers from New England to
the Carolinas are racing to
build the nation's first large-
scale wind farm. q