While there is substantial evidence for art and symbolic behaviour in early Homo sapiens across Africa and Eurasia, similar evidence connected to Neanderthals is sparse and often contested in scientific debates. Each new discovery is thus crucial for our understanding of Neanderthals’ cognitive capacity. Here we report on the discovery of an at least 51,000-year-old engraved giant deer phalanx found at the former cave entrance of Einhornhöhle, northern Germany. The find comes from an apparent Middle Palaeolithic context that is linked to Neanderthals. The engraved bone demonstrates that conceptual imagination, as a prerequisite to compose individual lines into a coherent design, was present in Neanderthals. Therefore, Neanderthal’s awareness of symbolic meaning is very likely. Our findings show that Neanderthals were capable of creating symbolic expressions before H. sapiens arrived in Central Europe.

虽然有大量证据表明早期智人有艺术和象征性行为在非洲和欧亚大陆，与尼安德特人有关的类似证据很少，而且经常在科学辩论中引起争议。因此，每一项新发现对于我们了解尼安德特人的认知能力都至关重要。在这里，我们报告了在德国北部 Einhornhöhle 的前洞穴入口处发现的至少有 51,000 年历史的雕刻巨型鹿方阵。这一发现来自与尼安德特人有关的明显的旧石器时代中期背景。雕刻的骨头表明，尼安德特人存在概念想象力，这是将单独的线条组合成连贯设计的先决条件。因此，尼安德特人对象征意义的意识是很有可能的。我们的研究结果表明，尼安德特人能够在智人之前创造符号表达抵达中欧。