Unicorn Bones Found? Nope, Neanderthals Just Carved Artwork on Toe Bone of Extinct Giant Deer

New research recently found that a German cave, once popular for its unicorn bones during medieval periods, is home to a piece of symbolic Neanderthal artwork, a far-rarer non-mythical treasure.

A Live Science report specified, according to the researchers, a chevron-designed piece; the artwork was carved into the now-extinct giant deer's toe bone.

The team dated the unicorn bones to 51,000 years ago, a period when Homo sapiens had not yet ventured into the region, proposing that the Neanderthals had carved the bone on their own, minus the influence or help from the so-called "anatomically modern humans."

In addition, the symbolic artwork also proposed that Neanderthals had a greater cognitive capability compared to what was previously thought.

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Self-Expression Through Symbols

Neanderthals, lead researcher Dirk Leder said, were very smart. He, who is an archeologist at the State Service for Cultural Heritage Lower Saxony in Hanover, Germany added, Neanderthals were able to communicate and express themselves through symbols. Perhaps, he elaborated, they were cognitively quite similar to the human species.

Nonetheless, some archeologists still doubt that Neanderthals made symbolic art on their own. The recent find of an ancient Homo sapiens skull from Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republic had Neanderthal DNA's long segments, symbolic of an interbreeding occurrence of over 50,000 years back, explained Silvia Bello, a researcher at the Center for Human Evolution Research at the Natural History Museum, London, who was not part of either study.

The cave called Einhornhö, "unicorn cave" in German terms, has a storied history. Beginning in medieval times, treasure hunters claimed to have discovered unicorn bones there, said Leder.

Certainly, he added, they were only cave bear bones, although they sold them as medicine or a remedy to pharmacies to turn a profit.

In the mid-1980s, archeologists discovered stone tools in the cave which Neanderthals crafted. To examine more, Leder, together with his team, returned in 2014.

However, it was not until 2019 that they found the caved toe bone, which lay buried close to a prehistoric cave but the since-collapsed entrance. Originally, the scientists could see just a single carved on the bone, explained Leder.

Chevron Designed Bones

It was not until excavators cleaned off the gritty deposit, revealing the chevron design, that archeologists knew they had something special.

To bone easily fits the palm of a person, measuring 2.2 by 1.6 inches in area, with 1.2-inch thickness. The 1.3-ounce object is carved with 10 lines. Six of the carved lines, a similar

Mail Online report said, make up the triangular chevron pattern and four-run perpendicular to the bottom.

Describing the lines, Leder said they were deeply carved, proposing they were not haphazardly-made butchering marks, and they were quite evenly spaced, specifying that the bones had been intentionally carved.

The reason Neanderthals carved it, nonetheless, stays a mystery. The team examined the bone with microscopy and micro-CT scans to find out whether it had wear marks.

Such marks would specify if it were work as a jewelry piece, for example, as a pendent, although they did not find any.

Nevertheless, the toe bone can stand on its own minus falling over, and thus, probably, the Netherlands placed it on its base as a display object, according to Leder.

Accurate 'Geometric Patterns'

In the study, "A 51,000-year-old engraved bone reveals Neanderthals' capacity for symbolic behavior", published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the researchers noted the engraved bone does not have any practical use.

It is tiny, curved and even though it can stand on its own, it is not quite stable. This means that the one possibly was not a chopping board or a processing surface.

Rather, the researchers wrote in their research; its accurate geometric pattern contributed to the fact that the giant deer was quite an "impressive herbivore" and unusually seen north of the Alps at that time, proposed that it had symbolic meaning.

As an experiment, the team of Leder carved bones with 0.07-inch-deep lines. They did so through boiling of cow toe bones and cutting and scraping them with flint blades, approaches that matched the ancient bones, the microscopic analysis showed.

Each line required two blades, which rapidly turned dull, and took roughly 10 minutes, which means that the six lines that formed the chevrons have been made in approximately 90 minutes, the study authors found.

Related information about a unicorn skull's discovery is shown on the Viral Play List's YouTube video below: