Deep in a Cave in France Neanderthals Constructed Mysterious Ring Structures 176,000 Years Ago

Not a lot is known about the Neanderthals, but researchers say circular arrangements of 176,000-year-old stalagmites in a cave in France shows they were carrying out some kind of cultural or geometric representations tens of thousands of years before modern Homo sapiens entered Europe.  These structures are unlike anything found previously by archaeologists or anything known from history.

A team of researchers analyzed stalagmites and burnt bones from Bruniquel Cave in France’s Averyron region and found they dated to about 140,000 years before their cousins (we modern humans) arrived on the scene.

Rock Shelter, Bruniquel. Antique wood engraved print. Date of printing 1890. From ‘Peoples of the world‘ by Robert Brown, published by Cassel & Co.

Led by Jacques Jaubert of the University of Bordeaux, the large group of researchers reported their findings in the journal Nature.