Was there art and culture before humans?

An introduction to Neanderthal and other pre-human art

Human art began around 70,000 years ago. Our first known example is that of the Blombos cave drawings, where humans made “crayons” of rock and clay. Some describe the site as an “ochre processing workshop.” Early people were already making basic jewelry by then, mostly shell bead necklaces. Europe’s first major culture, the Aurignacians, dates as far back as 41,000 BC. Clear examples of human art, such as cave paintings, began to appear around this time.

But what about pre-human art history? The origin of anatomically modern humans dates to just 200,000-300,000 years ago, before we had the capacity for coherent language and cumulative culture.

Neanderthals and Denisovans

In my previous Substack article, I mentioned that Neanderthal culture was more complex than stereotypes dictate. For example, evidence of Neanderthal activity has been found on islands thousands of years before Homo sapiens developed sailing. A club-swinging numbskull doesn’t build boats. There’s something more here.

The use of ochre (a clay pigment) has a history of use in ancient burials, as are flowers. Some scholars suggest that pigment could’ve been used by Neanderthals as body paint or to adorn clothing. We have evidence of ochre use as far back as 250,000 years, but applications are unconfirmed, and we aren’t certain if it has symbolic meaning. A 2012 study noted “The use of manganese and iron oxides by late Neandertals is well documented in Europe, especially for the period 60–40 kya.” In 2018, a study dated some Iberian cave paintings to 64,000 years ago, attributing them to Neanderthals since humans hadn’t entered Europe yet.

Neanderthals appear to have created jewelry using shells, bone, feathers, and/or stone, even before they attempted painting. Or etching/carving: a purported cave etching is more than 39,000 years old, predating humans in the area.