Археологичид Францын өмнөд хэсэгт орших Брюникель агуйн гүнээс неандерталчуудын бүтээсэн байж болох эртний чулуун байгууламжийг илрүүлжээ.
Францын Брюникель агуйн 336 метрийн гүнээс археологичид хугархай сталагмитаар өрж хийсэн хоёр дугуй хэлбэртэй байгууламжийг олсон байна. 2016 онд хийсэн уран-цуврал шинжилгээгээр эдгээр бүтцийг ойролцоогоор 176,500 жилийн настай болохыг тогтоосон нь тухайн үед Европ тивд орчин үеийн хүн (Homo sapiens) хараахан ирээгүй байсныг илтгэж байгаа юм. Иймд эдгээр байгууламжийг неандерталчууд бүтээсэн гэж эрдэмтэд үзэж байна.
Нийтдээ 2.2 тонн орчим кальцит ашиглан бүтээсэн уг байгууламжийн том цагираг нь 6.7х4.5 метр, жижиг нь 2.2х2.1 метрийн хэмжээтэй ажээ. Судлаач Жак Жобер болон түүний багийнхан 400 орчим ижил хэмжээтэй сталагмитын хэлтэрхийг ашиглан, нарийн төлөвлөгөөтэйгөөр уг байгууламжийг босгосон нь неандерталчуудын нийгмийн зохион байгуулалт болон хамтын ажиллагааны чадвар урьд өмнө төсөөлж байснаас илүү өндөр байсныг харуулж байна. Зарим хэлтэрхий дээр галын ул мөр үлдсэн нь ажиглагдсан боловч яг ямар зориулалтаар ашиглаж байсан нь тодорхойгүй хэвээр байна.
Эдгээр бүтцийн зориулалт нь одоогоор таамаглалын түвшинд байгаа бөгөөд судлаачид тэдгээрийг орон байр, зан үйлийн зориулалттай сүм, эсвэл ахуйн хэрэгцээнд зориулсан байж магадгүй гэж үзэж байна. Энэхүү олдвор нь неандерталчуудыг оюуны чадамжгүй гэж үздэг байсан хуучин ойлголтыг эрс өөрчилж, тэднийг нарийн төвөгтэй сэтгэлгээтэй байсныг нотлох баримт болж байна. Сүүлийн жилүүдэд Испани зэрэг улсуудаас олдсон неандерталчуудын бүтээсэн хадны сүг зураг зэрэг бусад олдворууд ч энэхүү таамаглалыг дэмжсээр байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Nearly 336 meters into the pitch-black depths of Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France, archaeologists found two rings built from broken stalagmites. The structures are roughly 176,500 years old, meaning they predate the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe by a wide margin. That leaves only one plausible builder: Neanderthals.
The discovery has forced a rethink of what Neanderthals were capable of. For decades, they were cast as the dim-witted cousins of modern humans, incapable of the kind of planning, cooperation, and symbolic thinking that supposedly set our species apart. Bruniquel Cave complicates that picture considerably.
What makes this site so fascinating isn’t just how old it is, but how carefully and intentionally it was built. Reaching this hidden chamber alone would have meant traveling hundreds of meters through complete darkness with artificial light. Whoever built these rings clearly meant to be there, and clearly meant to build something specific.
A Circle of Broken Stone
The two ring structures sit in the cave’s largest chamber, built almost entirely from stalagmites torn from the cavern floor. The larger ring measures 6.7 by 4.5 meters, while the smaller one comes in at 2.2 by 2.1 meters. Altogether, the builders used around 400 stalagmite fragments, adding up to 112.4 meters in combined length and roughly 2.2 tons of calcite.
What stands out is the uniformity of the pieces. Most fragments measure close to 30 centimeters, suggesting they weren’t just snapped off and dumped in place but deliberately broken down to a consistent size before being arranged into the circular formations.
Many of the fragments also bear scorch marks, with the calcite discolored black and red in patches, pointing to intentional exposure to fire. However, why exactly they were burned is still an open question.
Dating Trouble, and a Neanderthal Verdict
The site’s authorship wasn’t always so clear-cut. When archaeologists first studied Bruniquel Cave in the 1990s, a burnt bone fragment found among the stalagmites pointed to an age of around 47,600 years, a timeframe that left room for modern humans to have been involved.
As reported in a study published by Nature, that changed in 2016, when a separate research team applied uranium-series dating directly to the calcite. The results pushed the age back dramatically, to roughly 176,500 years. Since Homo sapiens hadn’t yet reached Europe at that point, the structures could only have been the work of Neanderthals, according to the researchers who carried out the dating.
What Was It For?
The purpose of the rings remains genuinely unresolved. Some researchers have floated the idea that the structures served as a form of shelter, built during a period when glacial conditions gripped the region. Others have suggested a ritual function, something akin to an early temple, or simply a domestic space with a practical, everyday use.
Whatever the answer, the scale of the undertaking speaks for itself. As Jacques Jaubert and his co-authors put it in their 2016 paper on the dating results, the find is unprecedented in two respects.
“First, it reveals the appropriation of a deep karst space (including lighting) by a pre-modern human species.” He added “Second, it concerns elaborate constructions that have never been reported before, made with hundreds of partially calibrated, broken stalagmites (speleofacts) that appear to have been deliberately moved and placed in their current locations, along with the presence of several intentionally heated zones.”
The researchers went even further, suggesting that the Neanderthal group behind the rings had a level of social organization far more advanced than previously believed. This discovery fits into a growing body of evidence from other cave sites, including Spain, where Neanderthals created paintings on stalagmites around 65,000 years ago.
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