🧐 Ancient Beat #153: Early seafaring, Neanderthal fingerprints, and the splitting of (interesting) hairs
At the Abrigo de San Lázaro site near Segovia, Spain, archaeologists uncovered a granite stone with a red ochre dot reinforcing the image of a human face — a clear instance of symbolic art dating back over 42,000 years. Embedded in the pigment is the oldest and most complete human fingerprint known, identified through multispectral forensic analysis as belonging to an adult Neanderthal male. The stone’s natural indentations resemble eyes and a mouth, with the added red pigment representi...| www.ancientbeat.com
