Neanderthals Wore Make-Up, Liked To Chat
Francesco d'Errico, an archaeologist from the University of Bordeaux, France, has found crafted lumps of pigment - essentially crayons - left behind by Neanderthals across Europe.
He says that Neanderthals, who most likely had pale skin, used these dark pigments to mark their own as well as animal skins. And, since body art is a form of communication, this implies that the Neanderthals could speak, d'Errico says.
Body painting, argues d'Errico, is a "material proxy" for symbolic communication. What's more, he says, the techniques for making the symbols, and the meaning they carry, would have to be transmitted through language.
And body painting isn't the only proxy associated with Neanderthal remains. Neanderthals adorned their bodies with ornamentation, such as necklaces made from shell beads.
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abcnews.com | Dan Jones | March 27, 2008 05:24 PM