Mask of la Roche-Cotard

It was found in 1975[2] in the entrance of a cave named La Roche-Cotard, territory of the commune of Langeais (Indre-et-Loire), on the banks of the river Loire.

[3][4] The artifact, possibly created by Neanderthal humans,[2] is a piece of flat flint that has been shaped in a way that seems to resemble the upper part of a face.

A piece of bone pushed through a hole in the stone has been interpreted as a representation of eyes.

Paul Bahn has suggested this "mask" is "highly inconvenient", as "It makes a nonsense of the view that clueless Neanderthals could only copy their cultural superiors the Cro-Magnons".

[8] In 2023 the oldest known Neanderthal engravings were found in La Roche-Cotard cave which have been dated to more than 57,000 years ago.