In a rugged landscape in central Spain, archaeologists have discovered a unique granite cobblestone marked with a red ochre dot that preserves the mark of a Neandertal fingerprint. Dating back approximately 43,000 years, it could be the oldest and most complete Neandertal fingerprint ever identified.
Roughly 20 centimeters long, the rock bears a resemblance to a human face, with the ochre dot where a nose might be, researchers report May 24 in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. This arrangement, the scientists say, suggests it’s a case of pareidolia — the tendency to perceive familiar shapes, such as faces, in random objects. It’s possible the likeness inspired the Neandertal who placed the pigment there.
The stone was excavated in the summer of 2022 at Abrigo de San Lázaro, a Paleolithic rock shelter carved into dolomite cliffs overlooking the Eresma River. It emerged from a sediment layer precisely dated to 43,000 and 42,000 years ago through radiocarbon analysis of organic material. That’s near the end of Neandertal history.
The rock appeared with the red dot facing upward, in a layer with few other stones, most showing signs that they were once used as hammering tools. It quickly attracted the archaeologist’s interest because it was larger than any other stone in the layer, “and from the first moment, we saw that it had a red dot,” says David Álvarez Alonso, an historian and archaeologist at the Complutense University in Madrid.
Intrigued by the dot’s precision and placement, the team first confirmed that it wasn´t a natural feature of the rock through a mineralogical analysis. They hypothesized the dot may have been made by dipping a fingertip into a mixture of the natural pigment ochre and water, then pressing it to the rock. To test the idea, the team consulted forensic specialists at Spain’s national police.
Puzzled by the request, the forensic specialists were initially skeptical of their ability to solve such a cold case, Álvarez Alonso says. But multispectral imaging — a technique that examines surfaces under different wavelengths of light — revealed fingerprint ridges, showing the print was made as the ochre was applied.
The shape suggests it was likely made with the tip of a finger, though it’s unclear which one. Based on comparisons to fingerprint databases, the most probable match is an adult male, rather than a woman or child.
Unlike incidental prints left on objects such as resin balls found in Germany — probably during toolmaking — this print appears intentional. The placement of the dot, combined with the lack of obvious utility for the rock, suggests a symbolic purpose, the researchers say.
It is impossible to determine the painter’s intention, Álvarez Alonso says. But in a context where rocks were used as tools, to him it’s clear the person who marked this one was conferring it a different meaning.
This interpretation contributes to an ongoing reevaluation of Neandertal cognitive abilities. For much of the last century, Neandertals were viewed as lacking symbolic thought — a trait thought to separate them from modern humans. But over the past two decades, discoveries such as painted seashells and pendants, have eroded that distinction.
Some of the most compelling evidence comes from the painted caves of southern Spain — such as Ardales and Maltravieso — where Neandertals made geometric patterns and hand stencils roughly 20,000 years before Homo sapiens arrived in the region. Although those markings lack the vivid imagery of later Upper Paleolithic art, produced between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, the work’s symbolic intent is becoming increasingly accepted.
“This is a beautiful and original study,” says archaeologist José Ramos-Muñoz of the University of Cadiz, Spain, who was not involved in the research. “The oldest art consists of dots, lines and smudges,” he says, and more evidence of that keeps appearing. “This is another data point in the same direction.”