The creation of art has historically been thought of as a distinctly Homo sapiens behavior, but the recent discovery of a crayon-like piece of ocher that’s at least 42,000 years old adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that our Neanderthal cousins also dabbled in a bit of symbolism. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Researchers came to this conclusion after investigating 16 pieces of ocher found in sites in Crimea and mainland Ukraine known to have been occupied by Neanderthals. Using microscopic and chemical analysis, they were able to identify that some of the pieces had been deliberately modified, with techniques “including grinding, scoring, flaking, and scraping.”

That’s all well and good, but how do we k

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