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For centuries, Unicorn Cave (above) has been a lure for those seeking secrets from the past. “In the Middle Ages, people literally mined the site for mammoth tusks, cave bear teeth, and the unfamiliar remains of other extinct animals were thought to belong to legendary beasts—dragons, perhaps, or unicorns,” Curry writes. Powdered and mixed with gold and silver, these seemingly magic bones were considered cure-alls for everything from impotence to the plague.
This bone represents the first time something resembling Neanderthal symbolic expression—some call it art— has been directly dated. It gives researchers reason to re-evaluate the old idea that Neanderthals were incapable of creativity or complex thought.
“It’s an idea, a planned motif that you have in your mind and translate into reality,” University of Göttingen archaeologist Thomas Terberger says. “It’s the start of culture, the start of abstract thinking, the birth of art.”
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