Engraved Flint Flake Found in Ukraine May Demonstrate Neanderthal Symbolism

According to a study published in the journal PLoS ONE, a 35,000-year-old flint flake found at a Middle Paleolithic site in Crimea, Ukraine, was likely engraved symbolically by a skilled hand of a Neanderthal.

The engraved flint flake from the Kiik-Koba site, Crimea, Ukraine; the arrow indicates the point of impact. Scale bar – 1 cm. Image credit: Majki? et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195049.

Engraved objects are important clues to the history of human culture and cognition.

Incisions on the cortex — soft outer layer — of stone tools are known from Middle and Lower Paleolithic sites across Europe and the Middle East.

However, it can be difficult to determine the action that created an incision: was it an accidental scrape or purposeful engraving?

To address this issue, Dr. Ana Majkic from the University of Bordeaux, France, and her colleagues from the University of Bergen, Norway, and the NASU Institute of Archaeology, Ukraine, created an interpretive framework that allows scientists to classify the structure and patterns of engraved cortexes and cross-check these attributes with a list of possible causal actions.

The researchers tested their methodology with an engraved flint flake from Kiik-Koba, a key site of Mousterian culture in Crimea.

“Discovered in 1924 by Gleb Bonch-Osmolovsky, Kiik-Koba is a large cave site located 7 km south of the town Zuya, Belogorsk district, on the right bank of the Zuya river, at an altitude of 512 m above sea level and 90 m above the river bank,” they said.

“Kiik-Koba is well known for being the first East European Mousterian site that has yielded Neanderthal remains.”

“The object analyzed in the study has the following dimesions: length – 35.86 mm, width – 18.14 mm, thickness — 5.75 mm, and is kept at the NASU Institute of Archaeology in Kiev, Ukraine.”

Following microscopic examination of the grooved lines on the Kiik-Koba flake, the team concluded that the incisions represent deliberate engravings that would have required fine motor skills and attention to detail.

“These engravings appear to have been made with symbolic or communicative intent,” Dr. Majkic and co-authors said.

“If this interpretation is correct, this engraved flake would join a growing list of signs that Neanderthals engaged in symbolic activities.”

“This has implications for the question of when and how many times this sort of cultural expression has evolved among hominin populations.”

“We hope to hone our framework further for use with artifacts of varying ages and cultural contexts.”

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A. Majki? et al. 2018. Assessing the significance of Palaeolithic engraved cortexes. A case study from the Mousterian site of Kiik-Koba, Crimea. PLoS ONE 13 (5): e0195049; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195049