Once Belonging to the Neanderthal

Fontmaure Jasper

Period: Middle Paleolithic Period 80,000 - 40,000 years ago

Provenance: Fontmaure, West Central France

Mousterian tools that have been found in Europe were made by Neanderthals and date from between 300,000 BP and 30,000 BP
Neanderthals evolved from African apes along a path similar to humans.
Their stone tools were sometimes finished well enough to show some aesthetic sense. It is here that I am fascinated. That leap. That cognitive ability to "see" an object and realize from that abstract thought.
A rock is shaped into a tool.
A blank canvas into a work of art.

These are studies for a series of larger paintings, reflecting on stone tools that once were in the hand of the Neanderthal.