Dilip Kuner
IT’S the ultimate cold case: forensic tech has just uncovered a 43,000-year-old Neanderthal fingerprint in a Spanish cave.
In a find that’s blowing the dusty socks off archaeologists, a single fingerprint pressed into red ochre on a pebble in the San Lazaro rock shelter near Segovia has been revealed using cutting-edge police tech.
That’s right – the extinct early humans are now part of their very own true-crime-style investigation.
Using multispectral imaging usually reserved for modern crime scenes, Spanish forensic experts spotted the fingerprint lurking inside a tiny red dot on an 8-inch granite pebble.
The print was invisible to the naked eye but has now exposed 13 identifying features, including ridge endings and bifurcations – textbook forensic gold.
Analysis of the ridges – 0.48 millimetres apart – suggests it belonged to an adult male Neanderthal.
This wasn’t any old rock. It was carefully hauled in from the nearby Eresma River, meaning our Neanderthal went to some effort to collect the stone.
The pebble has three natural dents that form what scientists say looks like a face. The ochre fingerprint? Smack bang in the middle – like a nose.
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Some researchers now believe this could be early pareidolia – the brain’s tendency to see faces in things like clouds, tree bark… or in this case, rocks. If true, this pebble might just be the world’s first emoji.
Unlike other pebbles found at the site – which were all clearly used as tools – this one had no wear and tear. And there were no other ochre traces anywhere nearby. So it wasn’t just part of the day’s chores. This was a one-off act of expression – deliberate, symbolic, and deeply human.
This fingerprint joins a growing gallery of Neanderthal creativity: cave art in Spain, jewellery made from eagle talons in Croatia, and now… possibly abstract facial art.
For decades, they were cast as our less-intelligent cousins. But with finds like this, it’s becoming clear they were capable of symbolic thought, creativity – and maybe even self-awareness.
San Lazaro was one of the Neanderthals’ last hangouts, dating to their final 3,000 years in Iberia.
No modern humans had reached central Spain yet, meaning this act was definitely Neanderthal.
As the researchers put it, the fingerprint was applied intentionally, likely pressed into wet pigment to make a lasting mark. And now, 43,000 years later, it’s speaking to us.
