Neanderthal cave art? A proposal from cognitive archaeology

Abstract

Despite the evidence supporting Neanderthal’s symbolic capacity, cave art remains mainly ascribed to modern humans in the Cantabrian Region (Spain), as well as in other areas like southern Spain or France. However, there is not robust evidence to discard an earlier authorship, as long as dating methods do not have the sufficient resolution to do it. In this context, these lines aim to provide a cognitive perspective to support or dismiss the development of Neanderthal symbolic capacity for the creation of non-figurative cave art. Attention, linked to emotions and causal reasoning are psychological processes shared with other species and involved in the earliest cave art. To assess to what extent Neanderthals may have developed them, multidisciplinar data are analyzed through a methodological framework based on the proposal by Garofoli and Haidle. This method involves comparing the systems of living species to identify correlations between observable and unobservable entities, allowing for the inference of cognitive capacities in extinct species based on their observable traits. The approach is primarily theoretical. The results present Neanderthals as cognitively close to modern humans and able to use symbolic elements to succesfully interact with the environment.