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2026-06-06 14:10:55 • ID: 2419
Red Jasper Handaxe from Le Moustier: a case of Color Symbolism ?
What makes this artefact so interesting is that it is made of very fine, uniform jasper, which is unusual.
We will see below that researchers as early as 1930 suggest that such artefacts represent a case of Neanderthal „color symbolism“.
This means that they thought that colourful artifacts must have had a certain meaning for their creators.
Subsequently, this theory was adopted by several textbooks and museum presentations.
The assumption that the colour red has always been associated with blood is a popular story to this day.
The most famous examples of suggested Middle Paleolithic „colour symbolism“ in Europe come from the Perigord and from Moravia.
The Abri des Merveilles (Les Eyzies) was excavated by the American School of Prehistoric Research, under the direction of its director, MacCurdy,
from 1924 to 1930. The excavator here described two layers of Mousterian followed by a Gravettian.
Some outstanding Neanderthal-era artifacts were unearthed here, including items made of colorful jasper and rock crystal.
Le Moustier (Peyzac-le-Moustier) also provided evidence of jasper working by Neanderthals.
Similar findings are known from Kulna Cave in Moravia.
The items weren't found together on any of these sites, but they did seem to be scattered around over the site.
In the Vézère Valley the vast majority of Paleolithic stone tools were fashioned from high-quality local or regional Cretaceous flint.
Jasper, technically a form of chalcedony/silica is not native to the immediate limestone geology of the Vézère or Dordogne Valley.
However Neanderthals occasionally gathered colorful jasper, quartz, and quartzites in the form of alluvial pebbles directly from the local riverbanks.
It is well known that the most famous primary source of colorful red and yellow jasper utilized by Neanderthals is Fontmaure, located in the Vienne department of west-central France.
This is roughly 150 to 200 kilometers north of the Vézère Valley- but interestingly this source was not used in the local Mousterian of the Perigord noir.
This directly contradicts the hypothesis that Neanderthals placed a high value on the Fontmaure Jaspers.
Neanderthals were well aware of raw material characteristics and because Fontmaure Jasper is often non-uniform and brittle, it was not their primary choice.
Even during the Upper Paleolithic, Fontmaure Jaspers were only occasionally used in the Dordogne /Vezere region by Homo Sapiens.
Does this mean, then, that Neanderthals were incapable of transporting raw materials over distances beyond a 30-50 km treshhold radius (Féblot-Augustin 1993 and 1997, Mellars 1996)?
Not at all – if we look at southern Italy:
Here, high quality materials including jaspers were recovered from several Mousterien sites.
The nearest sources of jasper in this region were found 100–150 km north, indicating that long-distance transfer of exotic materials through direct circulation or exchange regularly occured during Neanderthal times.
MacCurdy, the excavator of Abri des Merveilles drew early attention to a small number of Paleolithic artefacts made from transparent rock crystal and Jasper from the site and suggested some kind of color symbolism.
At a time when Neanderthals were regarded as beings devoid of any culture, MacCurdy drew unusual conclusions about their aesthetic behaviour.
He assumed that artefacts which catch the modern eye, would have done the same for Neanderthals.
In doing so, he attributed a level of artistic sensibility for Neanderthals that went far beyond the prevailing views of his time.
As described above, the discovery of isolated artefacts made from „exotic materials“ in the Middle Palaeolithic of Europe may well have had entirely practical reasons.
Fontmaure in particular, as the most famous example of such an argument for Neanderthal aesthetics, actually tends to prove quite the opposite: the export of Fontmaure jasper was extremely limited and very rarely extended beyond a 50 km radius.
Evidently, the Neanderthals were not particularly impressed by the quality of the raw material, nor were there apparently any other groups seeking access to Fontmaure jasper.
Nevertheless, a number of indications of Neanderthal symbolism and aesthetic sensibility have emerged in recent decades.
Recent findings suggest that Neanderthals were capable of carving geometric patterns onto objects or cave walls.
Carvings in the bedrock of Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar, as well as an engraved giant deer bone from the Einhornhöhle in Germany, indicate that they had an understanding of abstract geometric symbolism.
If we accept the results of isotopic dating programs, Neanderthals created red ochre hand stencils‚ dots, and linear motifs earlier than 65 k.a. at in caves in Spain (La Pasiega, Maltravieso, and Ardales).
Sites like Cueva de los Aviones in Spain, have yielded perforated and painted marine shells that likely served as personal jewelry or makeup containers.
Not to speak of burial rites, that were recently reintroduced into the discussion…..
Together, these findings indicate that the roots of symbolic culture and abstract thinking predate the split between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and that Neanderthals had the cognitive ability to create, assign, and using symbols of communication.
MacCurdy was right in painting a new picture of Neanderthals but evidently for the false reasons.
Suggested Readings:
Balzeau, A., Turq, A., Talamo, S. et al.Pluridisciplinary evidence for burial for the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal child. Sci Rep10, 21230 (2020).
Hoffmann DL, Standish CD, García-Diez M, Pettitt PB, Milton JA, Zilhão J, Alcolea-González JJ, Cantalejo-Duarte P, Collado H, de Balbín R, Lorblanchet M, Ramos-Muñoz J, Weniger GC, Pike AWG. U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art. Science. 2018 Feb 23;359(6378):912-915.
MacCurdy, G. M. (Ed.). (1931). Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research.
Peyrony, D., 1930: Le Moustier. Ses gisements, ses industries, ses couches géologiques Revue anthropologique, XL, 1930, p49 - 52
Rodríguez-Vidal J, d'Errico F, Giles Pacheco F, Blasco R, Rosell J, Jennings RP, Queffelec A, Finlayson G, Fa DA, Gutiérrez López JM, Carrión JS, Negro JJ, Finlayson S, Cáceres LM, Bernal MA, Fernández Jiménez S, Finlayson C. A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Sep 16;111(37):13301-6.
Spinapolice E.E., Raw material economy in Salento (Apulia, Italy): new perspectives on Neanderthal mobility patterns,Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 39, Issue 3,2012,Pages 680-689,
Zaidner, Y., Prévost, M., Shahack-Gross, R. et al. Evidence from Tinshemet Cave in Israel suggests behavioural uniformity across Homo groups in the Levantine mid-Middle Palaeolithic circa 130,000–80,000 years ago. Nat Hum Behav 9, 886–901 (2025).
Zilhão, João et al. “Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 107,3 (2010): 1023-8.
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