NOVOSIBIRSK, August 13. /TASS/. It looks like Neanderthals did have some sense of style as indicated by a piece of rock crystal found at a Neanderthal site in Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains, Southern Siberia. The crystal was obviously used for aesthetic purposes, a Russian history professor said on Monday.
"We have found a small piece of rock crystal in the cultural layers of Chagyrskaya Cave. Evidently, it was brought from outside. It bears no signs of usage but it was broken off some larger piece deliberately. Neanderthals brought a very beautiful crystal but never used it in any way. So, we can speak about increased cognitive abilities: a beautiful object caught their eyes and they brought it home. Indeed, they did have a sense of beauty," said Ksenia Kolobova, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Neanderthals have long been pictured as bumbling creatures with no aesthetic awareness who made no art objects, she noted.
Now, archeologists plan to find a site where this piece of crystal originated from to learn how far it was brought by Neanderthals. "We will survey the nearest rock crystal deposits. We plan a large-scale petrographic study. Neanderthals were among the first hominids in Mountainous Altai to use high-quality raw materials. They conducted prospecting and could transport what they found. We want to know where they brought their materials from, how they did it and what for. It have long been believed they used only pebbles from under their feet," Kolobova said.
Chagyrskaya Cave in Southwestern Altai is the easternmost known Neanderthal site dating to the Middle Stone Age. It was used by Neanderthals some 60,000-40,000 years ago.