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Oldest confirmed cave art is a single red dot
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Did Neanderthals paint this cave art? pigments like ochre, or carved into the wall, cannot be dated this way. Now, Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues have come up with a partial solution that will put a minimum age on some previously un-datable paintings. As water seeps through limestone and dribbles over its surface, it leaves behind a thin layer of calcite, which contains radioactive
AS CAVE art goes, it doesn’t look like much: a single red dot, hidden among a scatter of handprints and drawings of animals on the wall of El Castillo cave in northern Spain. What sets the dot apart is age: it is at least 40,800 years old, making it the oldest known piece of cave art in Europe. Modern humans had only just migrated out of Africa around that time, “The dot is at least 40,800 which raises the tantalising possibility that the dot was drawn years old, making it the by a Neanderthal. If that’s the case, oldest known piece of cave our extinct cousins may have had art in Europe” the rudiments of written language. Until now, the oldest dated uranium. By measuring how examples of cave art were those in much uranium has decayed into Chauvet cave in France – thought thorium – a reaction that happens to be between 30,000 and 35,000 at a predictable rate – Pike could years old. But many other determine the age of the calcite paintings have never been dated. layer, providing a minimum age Standard radiocarbon dating only for any art that lay beneath it. works when paintings were made Using this method, Pike found using organic material like one red dot in El Castillo to be at charcoal. Anything drawn with least 40,800 years old. Others
Sex born from hard rock and heavy metal THE origin of sexual reproduction was one of the most important events in the history of life – and it would not have been possible without granite. The igneous rock began forming in vast quantities around 2 billion years ago, bringing to the surface the metals that fuel complex life. Life relies on a number of heavy metals to form proteins. Zinc, molybdenum and copper are particularly important for the eukaryotes – a group that includes animals, plants and fungi, most of which may reproduce sexually. 10 | NewScientist | 23 June 2012
painted by modern humans. Homo sapiens arrived in Europe sometime between 42,000 and 40,000 years ago – right around its minimum age. Neanderthals had already been on the continent for tens of thousands of years. So who were the artists? The fact is we don’t know. If they were modern humans, they
came close: a red hand shape was at least 37,300 years old and a symbol that looks like the number “1” in the nearby Altamira cave was at least 35,600 years old (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1219957). The results make these drawings the oldest known pieces of cave art in the world. The dot is so old that it may not have been RICHARD BOUHET/AFP/Getty Images
Michael Marshall
These complex organisms probably did not become widespread until the oceans became rich in heavy metals about 800 million years ago, but last year fossil evidence emerged showing that eukaryotes were living in freshwater lakes on land at least 1 billion years ago (New Scientist, 16 April 2011, p 20). So where did they get their heavy metal fix? John Parnell at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and colleagues studied the rock record and say that an important event was the formation of an ancient supercontinent called Nuna, or Columbia, about 1.9 billion years ago, during the Palaeoproterozoic. “This was a peak time of mantlederived magmatism and hydrothermal activity perhaps unique in Earth’s –Life-giving rock– history,” says Parnell.
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
Pedro Saura
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But he is already examining cave art elsewhere for pieces that are older still. Finding a painting that was just a couple of thousand years older than the dot would leave only one plausible explanation: Neanderthals were painters too. That might not be such a stretch: after all, we know they used crayon-like pigments to draw on themselves and even made simple jewellery. More extraordinary is the suggestion that they might have mastered rudimentary writing skills. When it comes to cave art, dramatic drawings of large animals tend to be the focus of attention, but most art consists of simple symbols like Pike’s dots and hand stencils. April Nowell and Genevieve von Petzinger of the University of Victoria in British –Artist unknown, El Castillo– Columbia, Canada, have found the same symbols drawn all over the either brought the practice with world. They believe the symbols them from Africa – but left little represent an early form of graphic trace of it there – or developed it communication – a hypothesis incredibly quickly once they that is gaining traction among reached Europe. Pike suggests palaeontologists (New Scientist, that humans changed their 20 February 2010, p 30). culture rapidly when they started Could this mean Neanderthals competing with the Neanderthals. were able to write? Only the Cave art, he says, was a by-product discovery of similar, but older of these changes. symbols will say for sure. n
When Nuna formed, large bodies of magma were injected into the continental crust where they cooled to form granite. This igneous rock is rich in metals including zinc, molybdenum and copper. Over time, natural erosion brought the granite to the surface where it, too, eroded, releasing the metals into the soil and
“Granite on the Earth’s surface eroded, releasing the metals life needs to sexually reproduce” water. Sedimentary records show that they were present in nearsurface reservoirs and shallow bodies of water by 1.5 billion to 1 billion years ago, says Parnell (Geology, DOI: 10.1130/G33116.1). “These metals were used by early
cells to develop enzymes that enabled them to carry out a greater diversity of functions and begin to sexually reproduce,” says Parnell. “They gave early life the added dimension of natural selection and variability.” “This paper is different in that it is looking at the biology first,” says Paul Strother at Boston College in Massachusetts, who was a member of the team that found the billionyear-old freshwater fossils last year. “It identifies the requirement of particular metals for evolutionary processes and then shows these metals were in fact present.” The findings offer further evidence that evolution on land may have commenced far earlier than previously thought, Strother adds.
4
09/05/2012
22:44
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Full or part-time Delivery: 1 or 2 week blocks Additional bursaries likely to be available Harper Adams University College is an internationally renowned centre of research and knowledge transfer. We have a working farm on campus with a range of habitats, a dedicated Postgraduate Centre, plus high quality learning resources and well equipped laboratories. Located in the heart of the Shropshire countryside, we offer excellent employment prospects with industry relevant courses.
W: harper.ac.uk/newsci E: [email protected]
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Will Ferguson n 23 June 2012 | NewScientist | 11
Did Neanderthals paint this cave art? pigments like ochre, or carved into the wall, cannot be dated this way. Now, Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues have come up with a partial solution that will put a minimum age on some previously un-datable paintings. As water seeps through limestone and dribbles over its surface, it leaves behind a thin layer of calcite, which contains radioactive
AS CAVE art goes, it doesn’t look like much: a single red dot, hidden among a scatter of handprints and drawings of animals on the wall of El Castillo cave in northern Spain. What sets the dot apart is age: it is at least 40,800 years old, making it the oldest known piece of cave art in Europe. Modern humans had only just migrated out of Africa around that time, “The dot is at least 40,800 which raises the tantalising possibility that the dot was drawn years old, making it the by a Neanderthal. If that’s the case, oldest known piece of cave our extinct cousins may have had art in Europe” the rudiments of written language. Until now, the oldest dated uranium. By measuring how examples of cave art were those in much uranium has decayed into Chauvet cave in France – thought thorium – a reaction that happens to be between 30,000 and 35,000 at a predictable rate – Pike could years old. But many other determine the age of the calcite paintings have never been dated. layer, providing a minimum age Standard radiocarbon dating only for any art that lay beneath it. works when paintings were made Using this method, Pike found using organic material like one red dot in El Castillo to be at charcoal. Anything drawn with least 40,800 years old. Others
Sex born from hard rock and heavy metal THE origin of sexual reproduction was one of the most important events in the history of life – and it would not have been possible without granite. The igneous rock began forming in vast quantities around 2 billion years ago, bringing to the surface the metals that fuel complex life. Life relies on a number of heavy metals to form proteins. Zinc, molybdenum and copper are particularly important for the eukaryotes – a group that includes animals, plants and fungi, most of which may reproduce sexually. 10 | NewScientist | 23 June 2012
painted by modern humans. Homo sapiens arrived in Europe sometime between 42,000 and 40,000 years ago – right around its minimum age. Neanderthals had already been on the continent for tens of thousands of years. So who were the artists? The fact is we don’t know. If they were modern humans, they
came close: a red hand shape was at least 37,300 years old and a symbol that looks like the number “1” in the nearby Altamira cave was at least 35,600 years old (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1219957). The results make these drawings the oldest known pieces of cave art in the world. The dot is so old that it may not have been RICHARD BOUHET/AFP/Getty Images
Michael Marshall
These complex organisms probably did not become widespread until the oceans became rich in heavy metals about 800 million years ago, but last year fossil evidence emerged showing that eukaryotes were living in freshwater lakes on land at least 1 billion years ago (New Scientist, 16 April 2011, p 20). So where did they get their heavy metal fix? John Parnell at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and colleagues studied the rock record and say that an important event was the formation of an ancient supercontinent called Nuna, or Columbia, about 1.9 billion years ago, during the Palaeoproterozoic. “This was a peak time of mantlederived magmatism and hydrothermal activity perhaps unique in Earth’s –Life-giving rock– history,” says Parnell.
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
Pedro Saura
New scientist ad v3.pdf
But he is already examining cave art elsewhere for pieces that are older still. Finding a painting that was just a couple of thousand years older than the dot would leave only one plausible explanation: Neanderthals were painters too. That might not be such a stretch: after all, we know they used crayon-like pigments to draw on themselves and even made simple jewellery. More extraordinary is the suggestion that they might have mastered rudimentary writing skills. When it comes to cave art, dramatic drawings of large animals tend to be the focus of attention, but most art consists of simple symbols like Pike’s dots and hand stencils. April Nowell and Genevieve von Petzinger of the University of Victoria in British –Artist unknown, El Castillo– Columbia, Canada, have found the same symbols drawn all over the either brought the practice with world. They believe the symbols them from Africa – but left little represent an early form of graphic trace of it there – or developed it communication – a hypothesis incredibly quickly once they that is gaining traction among reached Europe. Pike suggests palaeontologists (New Scientist, that humans changed their 20 February 2010, p 30). culture rapidly when they started Could this mean Neanderthals competing with the Neanderthals. were able to write? Only the Cave art, he says, was a by-product discovery of similar, but older of these changes. symbols will say for sure. n
When Nuna formed, large bodies of magma were injected into the continental crust where they cooled to form granite. This igneous rock is rich in metals including zinc, molybdenum and copper. Over time, natural erosion brought the granite to the surface where it, too, eroded, releasing the metals into the soil and
“Granite on the Earth’s surface eroded, releasing the metals life needs to sexually reproduce” water. Sedimentary records show that they were present in nearsurface reservoirs and shallow bodies of water by 1.5 billion to 1 billion years ago, says Parnell (Geology, DOI: 10.1130/G33116.1). “These metals were used by early
cells to develop enzymes that enabled them to carry out a greater diversity of functions and begin to sexually reproduce,” says Parnell. “They gave early life the added dimension of natural selection and variability.” “This paper is different in that it is looking at the biology first,” says Paul Strother at Boston College in Massachusetts, who was a member of the team that found the billionyear-old freshwater fossils last year. “It identifies the requirement of particular metals for evolutionary processes and then shows these metals were in fact present.” The findings offer further evidence that evolution on land may have commenced far earlier than previously thought, Strother adds.
4
09/05/2012
22:44
New Masters Degrees MSc|Conservation and Forest Protection* MSc|Ecological Applications* (3 Royal Entomological Society bursaries of £4000 available)
MSc/MRes|Entomology* MSc|Integrated Pest and Disease Management* MSc|Soil & Water Management MSc|Sustainable Agriculture * Subject to validation
Full or part-time Delivery: 1 or 2 week blocks Additional bursaries likely to be available Harper Adams University College is an internationally renowned centre of research and knowledge transfer. We have a working farm on campus with a range of habitats, a dedicated Postgraduate Centre, plus high quality learning resources and well equipped laboratories. Located in the heart of the Shropshire countryside, we offer excellent employment prospects with industry relevant courses.
W: harper.ac.uk/newsci E: [email protected]
Be
outstanding in your field
Will Ferguson n 23 June 2012 | NewScientist | 11