Spiritual and symbolic activities of Neanderthals

Various Neanderthal cultural remains can be interpreted as related to symbolic activities: burials, ornaments, pigments, unusual objects that do not fall within the technical sphere (wings, feathers, raptor claws) and, more recently, the frequentation of deep underground environments which implies freeing of oneself from trepidations about darkness and relies on the discovery of unknown or even dangerous environments. The findings of the last few years are ground-breaking, and have increased in number and quality and, among them, are unique and exceptional discoveries. However, many older discoveries still need to be re-visited from a taphonomic perspective or through new dating programmes. The main conclusion is that Neanderthal cultural and behavioural capacities do not look very different from those of contemporary populations in Africa (Homo sapiens or other still undefined taxa) of the Near and Middle East. They are rather comparable or indistinguishable in some instances, up to and including technological innovations, which can also be attributed to the Neanderthal lineage, despite these innovations not being as widespread and rapidly adopted as they appear to have been in the Upper Palaeolithic.