If symbolism could be defined as the act of storing information outside of one’s own mind, early Homo sapiens had chosen to store images that were already abundant, and by rendering likenesses of the animals he hunted, the Homo sapiens was attempting to exert power, and to own. The Neanderthal, in contrast, wanted to record what he saw in dreams, to put into the world what otherwise did not exist. The marks that Thal was believed to have left, on cave walls, on rocks, on animal bones, were abstract codes of great mystery and transcendent beauty. Lines, dots, slants, cuts. And two colors: red
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