Using symbols and creating art is usually attributed to our own species of modern humans, the Homo sapiens. However, scientists now have reason to believe that the extinct Neanderthals produced art in the same way as our ancestors, and apparently did so much earlier.

Modern humans and Neanderthals apparently "shared symbolic thinking" and "must have been cognitively indistinguishable”, researcher João Zilhão from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Barcelona. The new studies, published in the Science and Science Advances journals, are the work of an international team of researchers led by Dirk Hoffmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig in eastern Germany.

Color-enchanced Neanderthal hand stencil from Maltravieso Cave in Spain

Read more: Neanderthals ate woolly rhinos and used aspirin

Neanderthals created 'meaningful symbols'

One of the studies tried to determine the age of three cave painting sites in Spain by using a new method of Uranium-Thorium (U-Th) dating. The results showed that paintings were drawn over 20,000 years before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe.

"With an age in excess of 64,000 years it predates the earliest traces of modern humans in Europe by more than 20,000 years," said researcher Alistair Pike from the University of Southampton. "The cave art must thus have been created by Neanderthals."

The ancient artists mixed pigments for coloring, planned for a light source, and chose a proper location for their works. The examined pictures show groups of animals, dots and geometric signs, hand stencils, hand prints and engravings.

Scientists believe Neanderthals looked like this

"Neanderthals created meaningful symbols in meaningful places”, says cave art specialist Paul Pettitt from University of Durham in England, as cited in the article published by Germany's Max Planck institute.

Seashells on the Spanish coast

Modern humans apparently started painting in caves around 40,000 years ago. Judging by early artifacts found in Africa, our species was painting shells, possibly for decoration, some 70,000 years ago. This too, however, was apparently done earlier.

In the second study, researchers also used the U-Th dating to examine perforated seashells, red and yellow colorants and shell containers with complex mixes of pigments from a sea cave called Cueva de los Aviones, also in Spain.

A brief history of humankind From molecules to the nuclear bomb Life and death are inseparable. The exhibition "A Brief History of Humankind" in Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle museum shows how, 13.8 billion years ago, molecules began to connect and turn into structured organisms. The above video still by US artist Bruce Conner shows what could spell the end of evolution: the nuclear bomb.

A brief history of humankind A turning point: fire Remains of the oldest Eurasian hearth dating back 780,000 years were discovered on the banks of the river Jordan. The ability to control fire was a turning point in evolutionary history that moved mankind to the top of the food chain. Fire gave light, kept people warm; people cooked over a fire and used it to make stone tools. It was a gathering place - a Stone Age TV.

A brief history of humankind The birth of mankind Homo sapiens had a fleeting chin, slanting forehead and a narrow brow ridge. The above skull is about 100,000 years old and was found in Israel, where Homo sapiens co-existed with Neanderthals for quite some time. All of the artifacts displayed in the Bonn exhibition are from Israel - and it's the first time they are on view in Europe.

A brief history of humankind Shaping culture This Neanderthal skull was unearthed in the Amud Cave in Galilee. Anatomically, it is nothing like the skull of Homo sapiens: the chin is even more fleeting, the back of the head shows an indentation. These early humans not only fulfilled their basic needs, archaeologists also found they held burial rituals and other forms of culture.

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A brief history of humankind Gods made of stone Humans started forming figurines depicting gods about 8,000 years ago, at a time when people were settling, planting fields and forming communities. They created goddesses they could pray to for good harvests and fertility. The phallic shape in the above photo could also symbolize a male god. Lines and etchings indicate abstract portraits.

A brief history of humankind External memory aid Unlike animals, humans can collect and write down knowledge. The Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia began to record information and numbers. This clay tablet was inscribed between 4,000 and 3,100 BC, paving the way for the complex memory systems needed to build cities and empires.

A brief history of humankind Money instead of shells This coin made of electrum, a gold and silver alloy, is the oldest-known coin in the world. Embossed with the picture of a grazing stag, it is from the seventh century BC. Of course, other forms of payment already existed: sea shells, pearls and promissory notes.

A brief history of humankind Home sweet home In the third century BC, Arad was a flourishing business center at the crossroads of two trade routes in the Middle East. For 350 years, it was a magnificent city of palaces, temples and homes. The above model shows a typical square one-room dwelling with a flat roof, dating back to between 3,000 to 2,650 BC.

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"We dated the deposit underlying the flowstone to an age of about 115,000 years”, says Dirk Hoffmann. Similar to the first study, the age of the artifacts indicates Neanderthal origin.

Searching for roots of language and thought

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens shared about 99.7 percent of their DNA. There is evidence of interbreeding and traces of Neanderthal genes are apparently still found in present-day humans. The new discoveries indicate that the two species had equivalent cognitive abilities, casting a new light on human evolution.

Read more: Humans and Neanderthals 'shared Europe'

"In our search for the origins of language and advanced human cognition we must therefore look much farther back in time, more than half a million years ago, to the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans," says João Zilhão from the University of Barcelona.