ArticlePloS one2023
The earliest unambiguous Neanderthal engravings on cave walls: La Roche-Cotard, Loire Valley, France.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Using digital archaeology and machine learning to determine sex in finger flutings.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dialogues Across Time? Conceptualising the Temporal Relationships of Palimpsests in the Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art of El Castillo (Cantabria, Spain).Journal of archaeological method and theory · 2025Article
- Art beyond cognition: reframing Neanderthal art through social connectivity and cultural transmission.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Early human collective practices and symbolism in the Early Upper Paleolithic of Southwest Asia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Origins and Evolution of Imagination, From Australopithecus to Modern-Day Deep Learning.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive scienceReview
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Authors and funding
25 authors.
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Abstract
Here we report on Neanderthal engravings on a cave wall at La Roche-Cotard (LRC) in central France, made more than 57±3 thousand years ago. Following human occupation, the cave was completely sealed by cold-period sediments, which prevented access until its discovery in the 19th century and first excavation in the early 20th century. The timing of the closure of the cave is based on 50 optically stimulated luminescence ages derived from sediment collected inside and from around the cave. The anthropogenic origin of the spatially-structured, non-figurative marks found within the cave is confirmed using taphonomic, traceological and experimental evidence. Cave closure occurred significantly before the regional arrival of H. sapiens, and all artefacts from within the cave are typical Mousterian lithics; in Western Europe these are uniquely attributed to H. neanderthalensis. We conclude that the LRC engravings are unambiguous examples of Neanderthal abstract design.
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