New Scientist - July 27, 2019

27 July 2019 | New Scientist | 13

THEY might not look much

compared to the work of

Michelangelo or Vincent van

Gogh. But a couple of abstract

etchings discovered in China

could be a sign that the

Denisovans, our mysterious

extinct cousins, were artists.

The 100,000-year-old marks

on two pieces of bone also

bolster the idea that Denisovans,

like Neanderthals, were capable

of symbolic thought – once

regarded as something only

modern humans could do.

The bones were unearthed

at Lingjing in Henan Province,

China. They come from a site

where a population of archaic

humans, thought to be

Denisovans – though this needs

to be confirmed – lived between

125,000 and 105,000 years ago.

Detailed analysis of the Lingjing

engravings showed that they

had been carefully drawn with

a sharp point, and weren’t

cutmarks from processing meat.

“The microscopic analysis of the

lines shows that they cannot be

interpreted as marks of butchery,

the alternative interpretation,”

says Francesco d’Errico at the

University of Bordeaux in France.

To enhance their visibility,

the lines on one of the bones

had been rubbed with reddish

ochre, a pigment often found on

prehistoric ornaments (Antiquity,

doi.org/gf43nn).

We can’t yet be certain that it

was the Denisovans who engraved

these bones, especially as we

now know that modern humans

reached China between 80,

and 120,000 years ago. “It’s

difficult to be 100 per cent sure,”

says d’Errico. “However, the skull

of an archaic hominin was found

in the same layers in which the

engraved bones were found.

This strongly suggests the authors

of the engravings were archaic

hominins.”

There are profound

implications if a Denisovan or

other archaic human was the

artist. The Denisovans are thought

to have occupied a vast territory in

east Asia, but few artefacts dating

to the time of their existence have

been uncovered in the region. A

bracelet made of green rock, rings

and beads dating back to 45,

years ago have been found in the

Denisova cave in Siberia, where

Denisovans were first identified

back in 2010. But some researchers

suspect they were produced by

modern humans, who arrived in

Siberia at this time.

Though apparently simple

in design, the Lingjing bone

engravings suggest that the people

who made them had the advanced

cognitive skills needed to

represent information through

abstract symbols. No other living

animal, not even a chimpanzee,

has been known to produce

abstract, non-functional designs.

“This finding is really quite

groundbreaking,” says Genevieve

von Petzinger at the University of

Victoria, Canada, who specialises

in geometric symbols in cave art.

“[The marks] are an artificial

memory system – a way to retain

information over time and space.

To see closely related human

species making these graphic

marks is absolutely fascinating,”

says von Petzinger.

The researchers are hopeful

that more finds will be uncovered

soon. “China and other regions

of Eurasia have been under-

investigated and it is very probable

that in a near future we will have

more discoveries,” says d’Errico. ❚

“They also found that the

illusion worked when the

model teeth were covered

in Velcro”

Archaeology

Alison George

D’E

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ICO

/DO

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Denisovan art uncovered?

Carvings on bone may be the handiwork of ancient humans

Psychology

Strange illusion

makes people lose

track of their teeth

AN ILLUSION can trick people into

thinking their teeth are closer to

their neck than they are, showing

that our bodily perceptions are

easily influenced.

Davide Bono and Patrick Haggard

at University College London were

inspired by the rubber hand illusion,

a famous illusion in psychology

where the participant is tricked into

believing a rubber hand is their own.

In Bono and Haggard’s version,

the participant wears a blindfold

and is told that Bono will take their

right hand and use it to stroke their

own teeth.

Instead, he uses the person’s

hand to stroke a model set of

human teeth made of plaster

placed 8 centimetres below their

real teeth. Simultaneously, Bono

uses his own hand to stroke the

person’s teeth in exactly the same

way. Once the stroking has stopped,

the participants are asked to point

to their teeth.

Eight people took part in the

experiment and on average they

pointed 1.5 centimetres below

their own teeth in the direction of

the dental model (European Journal

of Neuroscience, doi.org/c8m5).

The experiment suggests that

our perception of where our mouth

is is flexible, an effect called

proprioceptive drift.

The pair found that even if the

strokes on the model teeth and

the participant’s real teeth were in

opposite directions, as long as they

started and finished at the same

time the illusion still persisted. 

They also found that the illusion

worked when the model teeth

were covered in Velcro. But it

didn’t work with a different model

that had gaps between the teeth.

It isn’t clear why there would

be this difference. Bono says

we may have some higher-level

conception of what our teeth

should be like, but one that can

still be easily manipulated. ❚

Jason Arunn Murugesu

The vertical lines on this

bone may have been

etched by Denisovans

1 cm