EARTH
PHOTO/Pedro Saura
Scientists have studied Paleolithic cave art for more than a century, but new research suggests paintings and carvings in some Spanish caves are thousands of years older than previously thought, which would make them the oldest cave art in Europe. The new evidence has left researchers wondering if the artists were modern humans or Neanderthals.
Modern humans are thought to have spread throughout Europe starting between 42,000 and 41,000 years ago. The earliest European cave paintings to date, in Grotte Chauvet, France, have been dated to 37,000 to 35,000 years old and attributed to modern humans.
In a new study published Friday in Science, Alistair Pike, a reader in archaeological science at the University of Bristol in England and his colleagues reported that one cave painting in northwestern Spain is more than 40,000 years old. Pike and his team sampled 50 paintings and engravings in 11 Spanish caves, including the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo. “When we put this project together, the idea was to improve the chronology of cave art,” said João Zilhão, a research professor in archaeology at the University of Barcelona in Spain and a co-author of the study, at a press conference to announce the findings.
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