Art of the Middle Paleolithic

[3][4] Similarly, the Blombos Cave of South Africa yielded some stones with engraved grid or cross-hatch patterns, dated to some 73,000 years ago, but they are attributed to Homo sapiens.

[2] In July 2021, scientists reported the discovery of a bone carving, one of the world's oldest works of art, made by Neanderthals about 51,000 years ago.

The "Divje Babe flute" had controversially been claimed as a Neanderthal musical instrument, though many researchers believe that its holes are most likely the bite marks of carnivores.

[11][12] In 2002 in Blombos cave, situated in South Africa, ochre stones were discovered engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns, dated to some 70,000 years ago.

The interpretation of the hatching patterns as "symbolic" has been challenged, and several purely functional explanations of the objects have been proposed, e.g. as an ingredient in mastic, skin protection against sun or insects, as soft-hammers for delicate knapping, as a hide preservative or as medicine.

Acheulean hand-axes from Kent . The types shown are (clockwise from top) cordate, ficron and ovate. Arguably a form of early art.
The "abstract drawing" (ochre cross-hatching) discovered in Blombos Cave in South Africa , ca. 73,000 years old. [ 5 ]
Pseudodon shell DUB1006-fL with the earliest known geometric engravings, supposedly, made by Homo erectus ; ca. 500,000 BP; from Trinil ( Java ); Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( Netherlands ). [ 23 ]
" Venus of Tan-Tan " (left) and " Venus of Berekhat Ram " (replicas)