Heavy Brows, High Art?: Newly Unearthed Painted Shells Show Neandertals Were Homo sapiens's Mental Equals

By Charles Q. Choi
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HELL GAME: The two sides of a perforated upper half-valve of Pecten maximus from Middle Paleolithic level I-k of Cueva Anton (height: 120 mm). The external side (right, in the picture) was painted with an orange mix of goethite and hematite, either to regain the original appearance or to make it the same color as the internal side, which remained its natural red Joao Zilhao

Newly discovered painted scallops and cockleshells in Spain are the first hard...