Einhornhöhle 51,000-year-old engraved giant deer phalanx

thingiverse

As soon as it came out on Nature I had to print it. I do not own any of the files here presented, just sharing. The file is under CC-BY-SA 3.0 licence (more on https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) More info here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01487-z 'While there is substantial evidence for art and symbolic behaviour in early Homo sapiens across Africa and Eurasia, similar evidence connected to Neanderthals is sparse and often contested in scientific debates. Each new discovery is thus crucial for our understanding of Neanderthals’ cognitive capacity. Here we report on the discovery of an at least 51,000-year-old engraved giant deer phalanx found at the former cave entrance of Einhornhöhle, northern Germany. The find comes from an apparent Middle Palaeolithic context that is linked to Neanderthals. The engraved bone demonstrates that conceptual imagination, as a prerequisite to compose individual lines into a coherent design, was present in Neanderthals. Therefore, Neanderthal’s awareness of symbolic meaning is very likely. Our findings show that Neanderthals were capable of creating symbolic expressions before H. sapiens arrived in Central Europe.' Stl can be found at 'Data availability' section Leder, D., Hermann, R., Hüls, M. et al. A 51,000-year-old engraved bone reveals Neanderthals’ capacity for symbolic behaviour. Nat Ecol Evol (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01487-z