COULD THE CAVE ARTISTS ACTUALLY SEE THEIR COLORS? – CONTINUED, PART 2:

 This one is just for fun, perhaps more for philosophers, please don’t take it too seriously – I do not.

Cave painting of auroch, Lascaux, France. Internet image, public domain.

Then the question became whether the lack of blue was actually based on a physical difference, or was perhaps a cultural or linguistic question.

“Anthropologists took up the challenge next. They were curious about how color was perceived by traditional cultures with limited or no contact to outsiders. In 1898, anthropologist and psychiatrist W.H. R. Rivers went to the Torres Straits Islands, located between New Guinea and Australia, where he investigated the islanders’ color perception. Rivers was astonished to hear the elders describe the sky as black, and a child describe the sky as being dark like dirty water. Rivers and other anthropologists concluded that early humans and members of isolated cultures were not color blind. They saw the same colors we see but linguistically don’t distinguish beyond hues of white, black, or red. This might be a simple enough explanation for Homer’s wine-dark sea, but it still raises the question: did ancient peoples perceive the color ‘blue’?” (Hall 2018) Remember, it is difficult to cognitively contemplate a phenomenon that you do not have a name or label for.

“Before the color blue became a common concept, perhaps humans saw it but simply didn’t recognize it as such. Even more fascinating—or perhaps disturbing—is the realization that the way we perceive the world around us may be something of an illusion, a trick played on us not by some external force but by our own minds, shadows cast against the back of Plato’s allegorical cave. We are oblivious to whatever realities exist outside of our perception. While we modern humans can differentiate between 1 million colors today, our perception is still largely limited to eleven color categories (in the English language: white, black, gray, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, orange, purple). More humbling is the fact that we humans get by with just three types of photoreceptor cone cells (corresponding roughly to red, green, and blue sensitive detectors). Somewhere, silently scuttling beneath Homer’s wine-dark sea, the modest mantis shrimp boasts 16 different types of photoreceptor cone cells, viewing the world through a kaleidoscopic vision of unknowable colors, the likes of which we can only dream.” (Hall 2018) Once again, I enjoy Hall’s slightly sardonic comparison of our human color vision to that of the mantis shrimp.

In  2018, Fiona MacDonald reported on a field trial conducted in 2006 by Jules Davidoff, among the Himba people of Namibia. “But just because there was no word for blue, does that mean our ancestors couldn’t see it? There have been various studies conducted to try to work this out, but one of the most compelling was published in 2006 by Jules Davidoff, a psychologist from Goldsmiths University of London. Davidoff and his team worked with the Himba tribe from Namibia. In their language, there is no word for blue and no real distinction between green and blue. To test whether that meant they couldn’t actually see blue, he showed members of the tribe a circle with 11 green squares and one obviously blue square. But the Himba tribe struggled to tell Davidoff which of the squares was a different color to the others. Those who did hazard a guess at which square was different took a long time the get the right answer, and there were a lot of mistakes. But, interestingly, the Himba have lots more words for green than we do.” (MacDonald 2018) They could see the one square as different, but lacking the mental concept of a color ‘blue’ they had trouble seeing it as different enough to point out. This tends to confirm the statement that we cannot fully comprehend something until we have a name (or label) for it.

 

Hachure on a Mimbres bowl. Internet image, public domain.

MacDonald also reported on a “study by MIT scientists in 2007 that showed that native Russian speakers, who don’t have one single word for blue, but instead have a word for light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (sinly), can discriminate between light and dark shades of blue much faster than English speakers.” (MacDonald 2018)

In 2022 Nikola Jones explained a reasonable hypothesis for the development of color terms throughout the history of a culture. “There are several big datasets out there looking at color categorization across cultures. And the consensus is that there are some commonalities. This implies that there might be some biological constraints on the way people learn to categorize color. But not every culture has the same number of categories. So, there’s also this suggestion that color categories are cultural, and cultures experience a kind of evolution in color terms. A language might initially make only two or three distinctions between colors, and then those categories build up in complexity over time.” (Jones 2022)

Hachure on a Mimbres bowl. Pinterest.

I have already written about the use of hachure on ceramics by the Ancestral Puebloans in the American southwest, and the theory that it represented the color blue to them (see my column of 7 June 2025). The origin of the idea that hachure, closely spaced, parallel thin lines, used to fill a space might be intended to symbolize the color blue was credited to J. J. Brody by Stephen Plog (2003). “One of the common design characteristics on black-on-white pottery from the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the northern American Southwest is the use of thin, parallel lines (hachure) to fill the interior of bands, triangles, This essay explores a proposal offered by Jerry Brody that hachure was a symbol for the color blue-is examined by exploring colors and color patterns used to decorate nonceramic material from the of northwestern New Mexico. His proposal is supported and the implications of this conclusion for future studies of this nature are discussed.” (Plog 2003:1) This, however, was not a suggestion that Ancestral Puebloans could not see the color blue, they had a name for the color, comprehended it, and designated it as the color of the direction West in many of these cultures. The assumption is, rather, that good blue pigments are much rarer than blacks or reds, especially blues that would stand up to the firing of a piece of pottery. There are, however, some remarkable examples of blue pictographs in the American west although considerably fewer than most other pigments. I should also point out that most indigenous peoples lend spiritual significance to various colors.

Blue painted figures, Carrot Man site in western Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 2005.

I also questioned whether or not hachure on rock art might have also symbolized blue, even if painted on with a different pigment. Of course, the rock art we study does actually, if rarely, have blue pigments based on natural clays and other materials.

Blue painted figures, Carrot Man site in western Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 2005.

Given all of this, the basic question remains ‘did the ancient painters of cave art such as can be found in Lascaux and Chauvet caves see the same range of colors as we do?” There is certainly very little blue found in Paleolithic cave painting, but I take that as a lack of convenient sources of blue pigment at that time, not a lack of visual acuity in color determination. Most of the readily available sources of blue for them would have been in plants in the indigo family which, if used in painting cave walls, might be fugitive, leaving us no evidence of blue in Europe’s painted caves.

I hope you have found this as interesting as I.

 

 

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

 

REFERENCES:

 

Hall, Christopher, 2018, Blue is the Rarest Color: Language and Visual Perception, 30 August 2018, Burnaway digital magazine online, https://burnaway.org/magazine/blue-language-visual-perception. Accessed online 19 February 2025.

 

Jones, Nicola, 2022, Color is in the eye, and brain, of the beholder, 27 October 2022, Knowable Magazine online. Accessed online 8 April 2025.

 

Macdonald, Fiona, 2018, There’s Evidence Humans Didn’t Actually See Blue Until Modern Times, 7 April 2025, https://www.sciencealert.com. Accessed online 19 February 2025.

 

Plog, Stephen, 2003, Exploring the Ubiquitous Through the Unusual: Color Symbolism in Pueblo Black on White Pottery, October 2003, American Antiquity, Volume 68 (4), pp. 665-695. Accessed online at JSTOR, 7 March 2025.

 

 

SECONDARY REFERENCE:

 

Brody, J. J., 1991, Anasazi and Pueblo Painting, A School of American Research Book, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

COULD THE CAVE ARTISTS ACTUALLY SEE THEIR COLORS? – PART 1:

Color wheel. Internet image, public domain.

What follows is my take on a philosophical question – “did ancient people see colors the same way we do?” This one is just for fun, please don’t take it too seriously – I do not.

 

I have recently run across a very strange line of inquiry (or speculation anyway) that investigates whether or not ancient people could see/discriminate/comprehend all of the colors that we see. This became a fascinating mental exercise for me. Such a question would perhaps be pertinent to us as to whether or not the Paleolithic cave-artists saw the same colors we see, and did that reflect in their paintings? Before beginning I have to confess that in extensive searches of cave paintings in Europe, both on the internet and in printed books, I have failed to find an example painted in blue.

Cave painting of auroch, Lascaux, France. Internet image, public domain.

One strong possibility is that while they certainly saw the colors, meaning that their eyes picked up on all the same wavelengths of light that we do, they may not have comprehended what they were seeing. Based upon the old truism that you cannot actually comprehend something that you do not have a name for, until the name for the color blue was invented (in whatever language they spoke) they just were not as aware of it as they would have been shades of red. Remember, there seems to have been a historic fascination with red ocher.

Cave painting of auroch and horses, Lascaux, France. Internet image, public domain.

One of the first examples scholars noticed was in the writings of the Greek poet Homer. Christopher Hall (2018) has studied this subject extensively and explains that “Then Achilles, in tears, moved far away from his companions, and sat down on the shore, and gazed out over the wine-dark sea. (Iliad, 1. 351-353, trans. Stephen Mitchell) What color is the sea? Perhaps a silver-pewter at dawn, or a deep blue, or a warm green-blue, depending on the particular day, depth, and geographic location —but have you ever described the sea as being the color of claret? One of the characteristics of Homer’s writing is his use of epithets:  rosy-fingered dawn, swift-footed Achilles. Arguably the most famous of these is his oinops pontos, his wine-dark sea; it appears over a dozen times in the Iliad and the Odyssey, companion books chronicling the Greek siege of Troy, the Trojan War, and then the difficult journey undertaken by Odysseus after the war as he attempts to find his way home back to Ithaca. Wine-dark sea has been the subject of much speculation over the past couple hundred years. Shouldn’t the sea be blue? Strangely, nowhere in Homer’s epic poetry is the color blue ever mentioned. Water, water everywhere, but not a hint of blue.” (Hall 2018) I love the humor in Hall’s use of Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (way back when I read this in High School English it was spelled “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner). He is pointing out the omission of any reference to the color blue, and some of Homer’s substitute phrases for it.

 

To begin with I need to add another disclaimer – an online search for “ancient Greek blue pigments” will yield many sites that do claim that the ancient Greeks had a word for blue. But again I have to confess that in extensive searches of images of Greek art, both on the internet and in printed books, I have failed to find an example painted in blue.

Hall continues “One of the first people to seriously study Homer’s use of color was the 19th-century classics scholar and British Prime Minister William Gladstone. In 1858, Gladstone published a seminal 1,700-page study of Homer’s epic poetry, which included a 30-page statistical analysis of Homer’s use of color. Gladstone notes that, compared to modern writers, Homer rarely mentions color, and what is mentioned is mostly limited to shades of black and white, with red, yellow, and green making only occasional appearances. Black is mentioned almost 200 times, white about 100. Red is mentioned fewer than 15 times, and yellow and green fewer than 10. Moreover, Homer’s descriptions of color can be, at times, completely bizarre: skies the color of bronze, stars are an iron or copper hue, sheep wool and ox skin appear purple, horses and lions are red, and honey glows green. Most conspicuous, however, Gladstone noted the complete absence of the color blue. Nothing is ever described as ‘blue.” (Hall 2018) Might it just have been that Homer was color blind? This turned out to be Gladstone’s explanation.

Wall painted Egyptian blue, Tomb of Meruka, Egypt. Internet image, public domain.

But then the question is was it just Homer who was color blind or were all ancient Greeks color blind? “But Homer’s blindness could not be an explanation for the strange use of color in the Iliad and Odyssey. The existing texts record stories from a longstanding oral tradition. Moreover, once Gladstone sifted through Homer’s texts, he also analyzed the descriptions in other ancient Greek texts and found they too had a conspicuous lack of color terms, limited to mostly shades of black and white—and again, a total absence of the color “blue.” The word didn’t even exist. Did the Homeric Greeks have defective color vision? Was there something physically different about their eyes? Indeed, that was Gladstone’s conclusion: “[The] organ of colour and its impressions were but partially developed among the Greeks of the heroic age.” The ancient Greeks, according to him, were color blind.” (Hall 2018) In other words, it was not just Homer, it apparently was his whole culture.

Egyptian blue pyxis (cylindrical container). Internet image, public domain.

Since then, many other theories have been posited for the lack of the word blue in Homer’s writings. “All of these potential explanations fail to account for one very important thing, however: the absence of the word “blue” in ancient Greek literature. The Greek islands are practically surrounded by the color blue: blue sky, blue sea—and yet the word for “blue” is conspicuously absent. Gladstone was on to something with his statistical compilation of color use in ancient Greek literature, but as it turns out, his study was a bit narrow: the ancient Greeks were not alone in their limited color descriptions, nor in the conspicuous absence of the color “blue.” Expanding upon Gladstone’s research, philosopher and philologist Lazarus Geiger found the same phenomenon in ancient Hebrew literature, Assyrian texts, Icelandic sagas, the Koran, ancient Chinese stories, Hindu Vedic hymns and Indian epics such as the Mahabharata. It is as though the entire ancient world were living in murky world of black and white, basking under heavy, brazen bronze skies, interrupted on rare occasion by flashes of red or yellow. The only ancient culture to have a word for blue was the Egyptians, as they developed the first synthetic pigment, Egyptian blue (the secret of its manufacture was lost in Roman times, but is thought to have been derived from heating together a quartz sand, a copper compound, calcium carbonate, and a small amount of alkali).” (Hall 2018) This resulted in a coarse blue sandy, partially vitrified product (somewhat similar to faience blue glaze) that was then ground fine enough to be used as the pigment. Egyptian blue was possibly the first artificially produced pigment.

Egyptian blue, Nebamun hunting. wall painting from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun, Thebes, New Kingdom, 1350 BC. Image credit Werner Forman Archive  Bridgeman Images.

“In the annals of history, ancient Egyptian society emerges as the trailblazer in embracing a distinct term for the color blue, owing to its pioneering development of blue dyes. This innovation found its vibrant expression in the renowned hue known as Egyptian blue. This stunning color featured in artworks such as the tombs of Mereruka  from the Old Kingdom (2600 to 2100 BC).” (Cowie 2024)

 

Then the question became whether the lack of blue was actually based on a physical difference, or was perhaps a cultural or linguistic question.

 

NOTE 1: The second part of this column will be posted next week.

NOTE 2: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

 

REFERENCES:

 

Cowie, Ashley, 2024, Hidden Hue: Why Ancient Civilizations Failed to See the Color Blue? 18 June 2024, Ancient Origins, https://www.ancientorginsunleashed.com. Accessed online 19 February 2025.

 

Hall, Christopher, 2018, Blue is the Rarest Color: Language and Visual Perception, 30 August 2018, Burnaway digital magazine online, https://burnaway.org/magazine/blue-language-visual-perception. Accessed online 19 February 2025.

FENDING STICKS, RABBIT STICKS, BOOMARANGS OR SERPENTS?

Sand Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients, Colorado. Photograph and drawing from Radislaw Palonka, 2019.

Virtually any sinuous form by itself in rock art has been identified either as a serpent, or a ‘rabbit stick’. These were once often referred to as ‘boomerangs’ as well. There is another possibility, however, that is not mentioned as often – these forms may represent fending sticks. These date back to the period before the bow and arrow when the common projectile weapon system was the atlatl and dart. Warriors could carry fending sticks to deflect the darts from an atlatl. With the right timing the dart could be deflected to the side with a sweeping movement of the fending stick held in front of you. This has actually been demonstrated as an experimental archeology project by some fearless, or crazy, graduate students.

 

Basketmaker II, from White Dog Cave, Arizona. Photograph from semanticscholar.org.

In the early days of archeology in the American southwest these “S-shaped” grooved sticks were usually identified as rabbit sticks or boomerangs, assuming that they were meant as a throwing weapon for small game hunting analogous to Australian aboriginal non-returning boomerangs. “Curved wooden throwing sticks, or “rabbit sticks,” also could be hurled at small game. In concept, they are not unlike the Australian boomerang, although rabbit sticks do not return to the sender. Also, known as fending sticks, the curved sticks may been used as weapons, for warding off blows in battle.” (Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory)

Rabbit Stick, Photograph B. Bernard, University of New Mexico Field School collections, 66.90.50.

When found in rock art, however, these shapes were once almost universally identified as snake images. I would argue, however, that an image intended to be a serpent would include some serpent-like details; a head, forked tongue or in the American southwest rattlesnake rattles.

 

Petroglyiph, anthropomorphs with S-shaped stick, John's Canyon, SE Utah. From Phil R. Geib, 2016, Fig. 11.8.

More recently the use of these items as fending sticks has gained some purchase. These fending sticks can indeed be taken as evidence of warfare. As Stephen A LeBlanc (1999) explained “There are Basketmaker rock art depictions of men holding trophy skins, there was a special form of basket used only to dry and stretch scalps, and fending sticks are commonly recovered along with atlatls. This last item may need clarification. During the earliest times in the Southwest, the bow and arrow were not present, and the atlatl was used to throw small spears or darts. With these atlatls, curved sticks with a thong that was wrapped around the user's wrist are often found. The best explanation for these sticks is that were used to fend off darts thrown by atlatls. That is, they served as a kind of shield-thus, their sole function would have been warfare. If frequency and standardization of fending sticks are any measure, warfare using atlatls was also quite common.” (LeBlanc 1999:3) In other words, the argument is that their association with images of atlatls suggests a relationship, and indicates their use as fending sticks.

Petroglyiph, anthropomorphs with paired S-shaped sticks. From Phil R. Geib, 2016, Fig. 11.4.

An explanation from the Maxwell Museum in Albuquerque gives a clear description, and suggests the relationship between fending sticks and rabbit sticks. ”The prehistoric sticks come in two basic shapes: the S-shaped version shown above, and sticks shaped like an open C. It's possible that the S-shaped sticks are older, and functioned primarily to defend the user against incoming atlatl darts. Such darts travel slowly enough that with practice, it's possible to deflect them as they approach—at least that's the theory. The S-shaped sticks are our best candidates for "fending sticks." Fending sticks became obsolete once the bow and arrow was adopted in the Southwest, about 1,400 years ago. Arrows travel too quickly to be batted to one side by the intended target. Instead, the region's warriors began using shields. Under this telling of events, the loss of the "fending" function led to the use of shorter, C-shaped sticks used primarily for throwing—the modern Pueblo "rabbit stick." (Maxwell Museum) Of course, a thrown stick can still be thought of as a weapon as well.

Petroglyiph, anthropomorphs with S-shaped sticks, Chinle Wash, Arizona. From Phil R. Geib, 2016, Fig. 11.7.

Phillip R. Geib has also led in the area of study into the use of fending sticks in the American southwest and rock art. “A defender can knock aside atlatl darts from close range with these sticks. Some tribes in South America perform a similar feat in a duel-like context and Diego de Landa may have observed an analogous ritual in the 1500s among the Yucatec Maya. The fending hypothesis is most logical in a duel. Many of the analyzed prehistoric sticks come from a known Puebloan war god shrine in central New Mexico, where an informant identified one as symbol of membership in a warrior society. In addition to prowess as a man killer, war society membership in the distant past might have involved atlatl duels where dart defense with a stick displayed great skill and courage. Basketmakers may have considered S-shaped sticks as an ancient symbol of warrior status.” (Geib 2016) This is very strong evidence of the use of these bent sticks in personal defense, and a reasonable hypothesis for their being recorded on the rocks, a record of a warrior’s personal status.

 

Petroglyiph, anthropomorphs with paired S-shaped sticks, Chinle Wash, Arizona. From Phil R. Geib, 2016, Fig. 11.5.

Geib backed up his researches into the use of fending sticks in the American southwest with related and contemporary examples from South America. “Deflecting atlatl darts with a short stick might seem absurd or illogical, yet certain tribes in South America still conduct duel-like atlatl fights that involve dart deflection for defense. -  - Warriors from opposing villages are paired to face each other; one is on offense first while the other is on defense, then the roles switch. The group with the greatest number of ‘hits’ is judged the winner. - - Dart defense in this South American example is achieved with a more substantial obstacle than a FCS (flat curved stick). Still, it shows that atlatl darts can be deflected or dodged, even when thrown from a close range. It is key that attention is focused on single projectiles. It is within such a rule-bound, duel-like fight that use of FCS for defense against atlatl darts makes sense: a duel would be far less risky, even if lethal tips were used. The antiquity of South American atlatl dueling remains unknown but it could be considerable given the weapons involved.” (Geib 2017)

 

Australian woomeras serve as spear throwers and fending sticks. Image from aboriginal-bark-painting.com.

Not only in South America can we find examples of the use of deflection for defense against the thrown spear. In Australia the aboriginal woomera (their version of the atlatl) is a multipurpose tool. Its primary use is to launch a spear for greater distance. However, it is also used as a fire making tool, a receptacle for mixing ochre in ceremonies, and also as a fending stick to deflect spears in battle. Woomeras have even been found with a stone blade set into the handle to use as a tool for working on other wooden artifacts (sort of a prehistoric Swiss Army Knife). So we have a number of examples from other parts of the world for the use of fending sticks as defense against thrown spears in conflict. Obviously, when atlatls were replaced by the bow and arrow the era for using fending sticks for personal defense was over. The smaller size and considerably greater speed of an arrow would make it virtually impossible to count on deflecting them with a fending stick, and selection would have soon removed any warriors who refused to learn that lesson.

Petroglyiph, anthropomorph with S-shaped stick. From Phil R. Geib, 2016, Fig. 11.10d.

Are these images fending sticks or rabbit sticks (non-returning boomerangs) used for hunting small game? Well, I would argue that such an image could represent either, or both at the same time. In any case these curved sticks are obviously an important tool and/or weapon, and as such likely subject matter to record in the people’s rock art.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Geib, Phil R., 2017, Mesoamerican Flat Curved Sticks: Innovative ‘Toltec’ Short Sword, Fending Stick, or Other Purpose?, 31 August 2017, Published online by Cambridge University Press. Accessed online 12 January 2024.

Geib, Phil R., 2016, Basketmaker II Warfare and Fending Sticks in the North American Southwest, 1 May 2016, PhD dissertation, University of New Mexico, https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/27. Accessed online 13 January 2024.

Leblanc, Stephen A., 1999, Southwestern Warfare: Reality and Consequences, Archaeology Southwest, Spring 1999, Volume 13, Number 2, pp. 1-7. Accessed online 25 November 2023.

Maxwell Museum, undated, The Testimony of Hands: An Online Exploration of the Archaeology Collections of the Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Accessed online 13 January 2025.

Palonka, Radosław, 2019, Rock Art from the Lower Sand Canyon in the Mesa Verde Region, ,Colorado, USA, KIVA, 85:3, 232-256, DOI: 10.1080/00231940.2019.1643071

Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory, Undated, About Darts, Atlatls, and Other Weaponry Systems, University of Texas, Austin, Texas. Accessed online 25 November 2023. Accessed online 13 January 2025.

 

 

 

PALEO-FORENSICS IN ROCK ART: IDENTIFYING A 43,000-YEAR-OLD NEANDERTAL FINGERPRINT:

San Lazaro rock shelter, Spain. Photograph from Alvarez-Alonso et al., 2025, Figure 3A.

Although the term forensic is generally used in the context of gathering evidence for a police investigation, or presenting that evidence in a court of law, I am using the term forensic here because of the detection, determination, and analysis of a fingerprint, much like we would see done in a criminal investigation.

San Lazaro rock shelter excavation units, Spain. Photograph from Alvarez-Alonso et al., 2025, Figure 3B.

Archeological investigations at San Lazaro rock shelter near Segovia in central Spain turned up a number of pebbles (rounded river rocks) that showed signs of percussion, they had been used as hammerstones.

The stone in situ.  Photograph from Alvarez-Alonso et al., 2025, Figure 6.

Among them was a somewhat larger piece of rock that had no evidence of being used as a hammerstone, but had a small, round red dot of ocher paint on it. “Twenty-three pebbles of leucogranite and gneiss have been found in level H, most of them used as hammerstones, showing extensive evidence of percussion marks. These pebbles have been analyzed for comparison with the leucogranite pebble studied in this paper. All pebbles with traces of use as hammerstones are predominantly sub-rounded or small oval shapes, with none exceeding 11 cm in their longest axis. No other pebble displays traces or remains of ocher, nor do they have natural concavities or cupules.” (Alvarez-Alonso et al. 2025: 9)

Photograph from Alvarez-Alonso et al., 2025, Figure 1B.

The red dot in the center of one face of the rock was midway between two indentations at one end and a single indentation at the other end. If one were to think of these indentations as eyes and a mouth then the red dot is precisely placed to mark the position of a nose.

Assuming that the red dot had been applied with a fingertip, the team (Alvarez-Alonso et al. 2025) arranged for a police forensic lab to examine it. “Determined to test their conviction that the red mark was a human fingerprint placed deliberately between the indentations that could have been the eyes and mouth of a face, the team enlisted the help of other experts. Further investigations confirmed that the pigment, which contained iron oxides and clay minerals, was not found elsewhere in or around the cave. ‘We then got in touch with the scientific police to determine whether we were right that the dot had been applied using a fingertip,’ said Alvarez Alonso. ‘They confirmed that it had.’ The print, they concluded, was human and could be that of an adult male.” (Jones 2025) I assume that the phrase ‘scientific police’ in the preceding paragraph refers to a police forensic laboratory.

“The object to be analyzed in detail is a quartz-rich granite pebble, with a sub-ellipsoidal-planar morphology (21.4 × 11.3 × 7.6 cm). On one of its faces, the pebble has three small cupules and at the center of these, positioned centrally relative to the three marks, a sub-circular red dot is visible on its surface.” (Alvarez-Alonso et al. 2025:6)

The red dot. Photograph from Alvarez-Alonso et al., 2025, Figure 9.

So the question then became ‘why was such a fingerprint so carefully been placed on this stone? “Once we had that and all the other pieces, context and information, we advanced the theory that this could be a pareidolia [catching sight of a face in an ordinary, inanimate object] which then led to a human intervention in the form of the red dot,’ said the archaeologist. ‘Without that red dot, you can’t make any claims about the object.’” (Jones 2025)

Multispectral analysis of the fingerprint. Photograph from Alvarez-Alonso et al., 2025, Figure 11.

It was discovered that the particular layer that this was excavated from had to be Neandertal in age. “Several ¹⁴C-AMS dates have been obtained to contextualize the find chronologically, both for Level H itself and for one of the upper archeological strata, Level D. The results range from 43 ky cal BP for Level H to 42.5–42.1 ky cal BP for Level D, on samples of horse teeth.” (Alvarez-Alonso et al. 2025: 6)

So we have the intentional application of paint to a rock – rock art! This is my excuse for writing this, but I am also excited about it being a genuine Neandertal fingerprint.

The first Neandertal fingerprint on a piece of birch gum. Internet photograph, public domain.

However, this is not the first Neandertal fingerprint discovered. And as impressive as a date of 43ka is, the first one found was much older. “Even more complex demonstrations of Neanderthal hafting technology. In the 1970s archaeologists excavating another German brown coal mine at Konigsaue found two small black lumps from a lakeside excavation, dating around 85 to 74 ka. One had certainly been part of a composite tool: three surfaces bore imprints of a lithic tool, a wooden surface and the unmistakable whorls from a partial Neanderthal fingerprint. It was only in 2001 that chemical analysis identified unique biomarkers from birch trees: specifically, tar derived by cooking the bark in low-oxygen conditions.” (Sykes 126) This technology has since been replicated numerous times through experimental archaeology.

So, two Neandertal fingerprints, this is something that could not have even been imagined when I was in school – amazing.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Alvarez-Alonso, David et al., 2025, More than a fingerprint on a pebble: A pigment-marked object from San Lazaro rock shelter in the context of Neanderthal symbolic behavior, 5 May 2025, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2025) 17:131. Accessed online 28 May 2025.

Jones, Sam, 2025, World’s oldest fingerprint may be a clue that Neanderthals created art, 26 May 2025, The Guardian online, https://www.theguardian.com. Accessed online 28 May 2025.

Sykes, Rebecca Wragg, 2020, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art, Bloomsbury Sigma, London.

 

V

CARVED STONE DISKS UNEARTHED IN UKRAINE MAY BE VIKING SUN COMPASSES:

 

Disk from Listven, Ukraine, pyrophyllite slate. Photograph by O. Veremeychyk, Figure 1.

And, while we are on the subject of carved stone disks - - the excavation of a number of interesting carved stone disks in Ukraine has been interpreted as having possible connections with Viking navigation tools.

Castle Hill, Liubech, Ukraine. Photograph by O. Veremeychyk, Figure 2.

“A total of eight pyrophyllite slate objects, sourced from outcrops near Ovruch (Ukraine), were analyzed. These disks have been previously interpreted as various items, including calendars, craft tools such as needle sharpeners and polishing stones, as well as components of hand-operated bow drills. Through measurements and surface analysis, three stone disks (Kyiv, Listven, Liubech) exhibit similarities to Vikings’ sun compasses, with a limited number of examples found in Greenland and the Baltic Sea region. The analyzed objects were dated to the period between the late 12th and mid-13^th centuries. The origin of the raw material suggests local manufacturing.” (Veremeychyk and Antowska-Goraczniak 2024:383) I seriously doubt ‘needle sharpeners’ or ‘polishing stones’. There are no apparent results of such activities – remember the shapes of sharpening grooves as a form of rock art. A bow drill weight is more possible, or perhaps even the weight from a drop spindle for spinning wool. All in all, however, the stone disks seem more like known Viking ‘solar compasses’ than any of these other possibilities.

Uunartoq disc, Greenland. Image from researchgate.com.

“Three of the disks, in particular, had characteristics reminiscent of Viking solar compasses: the central holes and engraved radial patterns may have allowed for temporary gnomonic lines to be drawn with erasable materials like chalk or charcoal. This flexibility would have been indispensable for observing and adapting to new latitudes as the user moved. Yet the lack of permanent markings of the equinox and solstice lines, common in Viking solar compasses, still gives one pause for skepticism. Supporting this hypothesis, the researchers pointed out that the diameter and design of the Ukranian disks are very similar to those of navigational instruments found at Woline in Poland and in Greenland. Such parallels hint at the possibility that the pyrophyllite disks could represent a local adaptation of Viking navigation instruments.” (Radley 2025) The historic Rus region had major interactions with, and cultural influences from Scandinavian Vikings. Although these stones were not recovered from locations near open ocean waters it is likely that Viking trading vessels would have routinely carried their accustomed navigational aids just in case, and Viking traders are known to have explored all the navigable river systems in that area.

Wolin Stone, Wolin, Poland. Internet image, public domain.

Viking presence in Rus can be dated to the ninth century AD. “The close connection between the Rus and the Norse is confirmed both by extensive Scandinavian settlement in Bel)arus, Russia, and Ukraine and by Slavic influences in the Swedish language. Though the dabate over the origin of the Rus’ remains politically charged, there is broad agreement that if the proto-Rus’ were indeed originally Norse, they were quickly nativized, adopting Slavic languages and other cultural practices. This position, roughly representing a scholarly consensus (at least outside nationalist historiography), was summarized by the historian, F. Donald Logan, “in 839, the Rus’ were Swedes; in 1043 the Rus’ were Slavs.” (Wikipedia)

The Greenland example of a disc had been discovered in 1948. “The remains of the supposed compass – known as the Uunartoq disc – were found in Greenland in 1948 in an 11^th-century convent. Though some researchers originally argued it was simply a decorative object, other researchers have suggested the disc was an important navigational tool that the Vikings would have used in their roughly 1,600-mile-long (2,500 kilometers) trek from Norway to Greenland.” (Poppick 2014)

The Vikings were inveterate travelers, having reached Greenland, Iceland, and North America by sailing the open ocean. They also reached Constantinople, not only by sailing down the Atlantic coast of Europe and through the Mediterranean, but by transiting rivers in the area known as Rus and through Slavic territories in eastern Europe.

Disks recognized hereto. Wooden - a,c; stone - b; whale bone - d. (Illustrated by O. Antowska-Gorączniak after a – Jagodziński 2015, fig. 37; b – Thrislund 1987, 27; c – Stanisławski 2000, fig. 4, 5; d – Jagodziński 2015, fig. 39) Fig. 5 from Veremeychyk and  Antowska-Goraczniak, 2024. 

“In the early medieval period, the utilization and advancement of  navigational instruments were ascribed to Scandinavians, who were believed to have been able to use such tools not only in coastal sailing but also undertake long voyages across open seas, eliminating the need to constantly observe the shoreline. Both constellations and the Sun played crucial roles in sea navigation during this era. Compasses utilizing sunlight have been recognized as a significant technological advancement of the time. Scandinavians, with their vessel construction, navigational skills, and compass usage, successfully reached distant islands in the northern Atlantic, such as Greenland, Newfoundland, and the shores of present-day Canada. The sagas also provide limited information on sea voyages and directional settings, indirectly suggesting the use of navigational instruments. In favorable weather conditions, a navigator ‘could then discern the quarters of heaven’, indicating the ability to find direction, and the radial lines on the disks might have facilitated such quarter division, aiding in staying on course.” (Veremeychyk and Antowska-Goraczniak 2024:395) Of course, navigational tools were not needed for coastal sailing, but between such compasses and Viking ‘sun stones’ they could navigate their longships across great distances of open ocean. ‘Sun stones’ were a form of calcite crystal known as Icelandic spar with unique optical properties that allow the user to detect the position of the sun, even on a totally overcast or foggy day to help navigate at sea. Icelandic spar is also a natural polarizer.

Historic core of Rus' territory. Map by professor A. Motsya. Internet image, public domain.

“The pyrophyllite slate disks, as discussed above, likely originated as a local product, manufactured in the territories of southern Rus’ given the proximity of the raw material outcrops. However, if their function as compasses is acknowledged (a plausible scenario), it can be speculated that the inhabitants of the region acquired knowledge about such instruments from the Scandinavians, who had a presence in the area from the early 10^th century. Considering the locations where these stone disks were discovered, particularly Kyiv, Listven, and Liubech situated along the significant communication and trade route ‘from Varangians to the Greeks’ it is conceivable that the skill of using navigational instruments, such as sun compasses, in this part of Europe might have been imparted by Scandinavian traders and sailors.” (Veremeychyk and Antowska-Goraczniak 2024:395-396) Another piece of evidence that the stone disks might be a product of Viking influence is the locations wherein they were found. Viking traders explored the ‘southern Rus’ area and even reached Constantinople by following waterways through that region. With their ‘sun stones’ and ‘solar compasses’ Viking sailors could determine the position of the sun which gave them the ability to make their amazing voyages. I believe that even if they were only traversing a river in southern ‘Rus’ their navigational instruments would have been on board the boat as standard equipment. Just because they were found a long distance from the sea does not mean that they are not Viking navigational instruments.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Poppick, Laura, 2014, Forget GPS: Medieval Compass Guided Vikings After Sunset, 25 March 2014,  LiveScience online, https://www.lovescience.com. Accessed online 1 May 2025

Radley, Dario, 2025, Medieval stone disks found in Ukraine could be Viking solar compasses, 11 January 2025, Archaeology Magazine online, archaeologymag.com. Accessed online 12 February 2025.

Veremeychyk, Olena, and Olga Antowska-Goraczniak, 2024, New medieval sun compasses? The problem of the function of stone disks from southern Rus, Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 76(2), pp. 383-398. DOI:10.23858/SA76.2024.2.3290. Accessed online 12 February 2025.

Wikipedia, Kievan Rus’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27. Accessed online 11 June 2025.