Dr. Genevieve von Petzinger

Isn't that fun?

Well, I think Ardellus is a really fascinating cave.

I have worked there lightly with some of my colleagues, but it's not my cave.

Pedro has been working there for like 30 plus years.

He's amazing.

And so this is his site.

He just published a book, actually.

on neanderthals and ardalis so i'd like to shout him out um i don't i think it's like an academic book i don't know if you can download it i think you might like it i don't think it's not a money maker book this is him wanting to share all his research but what makes ardalis so fascinating and i have another colleague barbara ostrovich and her work is on how people interact with caves very physically like the embodiment of like putting paint on your hands and actually touching the cave walls

Neanderthals seem to have done that more than humans.

So again, there seems to be different patterns.

And Ardales is a fascinating example because as our colleague Pedro, because again, he's done all the archaeology as well as the art analysis.

Neanderthals appear to have been returning there regularly for very short periods of time, which almost thinks it might be some sort of ritualistic thing.

Like they were going to the cave in order to perform rituals.

And there are hands all over the cave.

There's little blown marks all over the cave.

So again, that idea was, did they keep coming back in order to do certain ceremonies or rituals there?

And the archaeology shows a whole lot of very tight layers, but returns, which is just fascinating.

And so I didn't go down.

There's one part down in the depth of there.

But one of the things about Ardalis is really neat, just to help give your viewers and listeners an idea.