In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of art found on the walls or ceilings of caves. This category also includes petroglyphs, which are carvings made on rock surfaces. The term "cave paintings" usually means the art is from long ago. Some scientists believe the oldest of these paintings were created not by Homo sapiens, but by Denisovans and Neanderthals.
Studying prehistoric art helps scientists learn about the history of Homo sapiens and how humans developed the ability to think about abstract ideas. Some researchers suggest that these ancient paintings may show examples of creativity, spiritual beliefs, and emotional thinking in early humans.
Dating
Nearly 350 caves in France and Spain have been found to contain art from prehistoric times. At first, scientists disagreed about the age of the paintings because methods like radiocarbon dating can give incorrect results if samples are contaminated. Caves and rocky areas where this art is found often have debris from many time periods. Later, new technology allowed scientists to date the paintings by testing the pigment, torch marks on walls, or carbonate deposits on top of the art. The subjects in the art can also help determine the time period. For example, drawings of reindeer in the Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas suggest the art is from the last Ice Age.
The oldest known cave painting is a handprint in Liang Metanduno on Muna Island, dated to at least 67,800 years ago. This is older than the previously known oldest cave painting, which was found in Maltravieso Cave and made by a Neanderthal, dated to at least 66,800 years ago. The oldest figurative cave painting, showing humans hunting pigs, was found in the Maros-Pangkep karst of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and dated to over 43,900 years ago. Before this discovery, the oldest figurative paintings were a bull in Lubang Jeriji Saléh Cave, East Kalimantan, dated to 40,000 years ago, and a pig in Timpuseng Cave, Sulawesi, dated to at least 35,400 years ago. The oldest rock painting, however, was not in a cave but found in South Africa. A small piece of rock with hand-drawn lines is dated to 73,000 years ago.
In Europe, the earliest known figurative cave paintings are from the Cave of El Castillo in Spain, dated by uranium-thorium dating to at least 40,000 years ago. Before this, the oldest figurative paintings were thought to be in Chauvet Cave, France, dated to more than 30,000 years ago using radiocarbon dating. Some scientists question this age because the art appears too advanced for that time. By 2011, over 80 radiocarbon dates were collected from the cave, showing two periods of creation: 35,000 and 30,000 years ago. Many paintings were modified over thousands of years, which may explain why some appeared older than others.
In 2009, drawings in Coliboaia Cave, Romania, were found to be similar in style to those in Chauvet Cave. Initial dating suggests these are about 32,000 years old. In Australia, cave paintings on the Arnhem Land plateau show extinct megafauna, possibly making this site one of the oldest. However, the age depends on when these animals went extinct. Another site, Nawarla Gabarnmang, has charcoal drawings dated to 28,000 years ago, making it the oldest reliably dated site in Australia and among the oldest globally.
Some cave paintings date to the Early Bronze Age, but famous examples like those in Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain, from around 15,000 years ago, were created during the Magdalenian period and faded by 10,000 years ago with the rise of the Neolithic period. Some caves may have been painted over thousands of years.
A later phase of European prehistoric art, the rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, focused on many small, less detailed figures, including more humans than animals. This art was created between 10,000 and 5,500 years ago, painted in rock shelters rather than deep caves. Though less naturalistic, the figures were often grouped into coherent scenes. Over time, cave art became simpler and more abstract.
The oldest known cave paintings, over 40,000 years old, are from the Maros region in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and include hand stencils and geometric shapes. In 2021, a cave painting of a pig in Sulawesi was dated to over 45,500 years ago. In 2018, non-figurative symbols in Spanish caves were dated to 64,000 years ago, made by Neanderthals before modern humans arrived in Europe. In 2018, a figurative painting of an unknown animal in Lubang Jeriji Saléh Cave, Borneo, was dated to over 40,000 years ago. In 2019, pig-hunting scenes in Sulawesi were dated to at least 51,200 years ago, recognized as the oldest known storytelling in art. In 2024, a painting of humans interacting with a pig in Leang Karampuang Cave was dated to 51,200 years ago. In 2026, a hand stencil on Muna Island was dated to at least 67,800 years ago, making it the oldest known cave painting in the world.
Subjects, themes, and patterns in cave painting
Cave artists used many different methods, such as tracing with fingers, making shapes in clay, engraving, relief sculpture, hand stencils, and painting with two or three colors. Scholars group cave art into categories called "Signs" or abstract symbols. The most common subjects in cave paintings are large wild animals, like bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, as well as hand tracings and abstract patterns called finger flutings. The animals most often shown were useful for hunting, but they did not always match the animals found in nearby bone remains. For example, the Lascaux cave paintings mostly show horses, even though reindeer bones are common there. Drawings of humans are rare and usually simple, unlike the more detailed animal images. Plant images are very rare, making up less than 1% of symbols in European cave art, even though plants form most of Earth’s living material. These artists likely used plants for food, medicine, and shelter, but plants are not shown often in cave art.
A 2012 study found that prehistoric artists showed the walking movement of four-legged animals more accurately than modern artists, suggesting they closely observed animals for survival. Kieran D. O'Hara, a geologist, wrote in his book Cave Art and Climate Change that climate changes influenced the themes in cave art. Colors used included red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide, and charcoal. Sometimes, artists first carved the outline of an animal into the rock, and in some caves, all images are only engraved, not painted. Large animals are also the most common subjects in small carved or engraved items made from bone, ivory, or stone. These items include the Venus figurines, which are not found in Paleolithic cave paintings, except for one example in the Chauvet Cave, as noted in an interview with Dominique Baffier in Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Hand stencils are made by placing a hand on a wall and covering the area around it with pigment, creating a round shape with the hand’s outline in the center. These may be decorated with dots, lines, or patterns. They are often found with other paintings or may be the only art in a location. Some walls have many hand stencils, and similar hand images are painted in the usual way. Some hand images show missing fingers, and several explanations have been suggested. Hand images appear in similar forms in Europe, Eastern Asia, Australia, and South America. In Baja California, handprints are a major feature in rock art. Studies there suggest the handprints likely belonged to women in the community and may have been used in religious rituals.
In the early 20th century, scholars like Salomon Reinach, Henri Breuil, and Count Bégouën interpreted cave paintings as "utilitarian" hunting magic to help increase prey numbers. Jacob Bronowski said, "I think the power shown here for the first time is the power of anticipation: the forward-looking imagination. These paintings helped hunters prepare for dangers they knew they would face."
Another theory, developed by David Lewis-Williams, suggests that cave paintings were made by Paleolithic shamans. These individuals may have entered caves, entered trances, and painted images of their visions, possibly drawing power from the cave walls.
R. Dale Guthrie, who studied both high-quality and lower-quality art, noted a wide range of skill and age among artists. He believed that themes like powerful animals, risky hunting scenes, and nude women were likely created by adolescent males, who made up many cave painters, based on handprint analysis. However, Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University found that some hand stencils, like those near spotted horses in Pech Merle, likely belonged to females.
In 2022, a study led by Bennett Bacon, an amateur archaeologist, with researchers from the University of Durham, including Paul Pettitt and Robert William Kentridge, found that lines, dots, and a "Y" symbol in Upper Paleolithic cave paintings may be connected to the mating cycles of animals in a lunar calendar. This discovery suggests these symbols could be the earliest known example of a proto-writing system, explaining one purpose of cave paintings.
Paleolithic cave art by region
Well-known cave paintings include those from:
The Ignatievka Cave in the Ural Mountains contains a painting of a mammoth and 160 other images. It is believed to be the northernmost Paleolithic cave painting site, but its exact age is uncertain. Nearby, the Serpievka-2 cave has about 60 similar ochre images.
In the 21st century, new sites were discovered. Creswell Crags in England has cave etchings and bas-reliefs that are about 14,500 years old, but no paintings have been found there. In Romania, Peștera Coliboaia has art that may be about 29,000 years old.
Rock paintings were also made on cliff faces, but many have been lost due to erosion. An example is the rock paintings of Astuvansalmi in Finland, created between 3,000 and 2,500 BC.
In 1879, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola discovered the Magdalenian paintings in the Cave of Altamira in Spain. At first, experts thought they were fake. Later studies confirmed they were real and showed the skill and meaning behind the art of Upper Paleolithic people.
In Indonesia, the Maros caves in Sulawesi are famous for hand prints. About 1,500 negative handprints were found in 30 painted caves in Kalimantan. Early dating suggested they were about 10,000 years old. A 2014 study using uranium–thorium dating found a hand stencil in Maros to be at least 39,900 years old. A painting of a babirusa was dated to at least 35,400 years ago, making it one of the oldest known figurative artworks.
In 2018, scientists found a figurative painting in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave on Borneo. It is over 40,000 years old, possibly as old as 52,000 years. In 2021, cave art in Leang Tedongnge cave, Indonesia, was discovered to be at least 45,500 years old. This painting of a warty pig is the oldest evidence of human presence in the region. However, climate change is causing the painting to deteriorate quickly.
In Mongolia, the Khoit Tsenkher Cave has rock art from the Paleolithic period. The paintings include symbols and animals like stags, buffalo, and elephants. They are painted in brown or red and look similar to other Paleolithic art worldwide but are unique to Mongolia.
The Padah-Lin Caves in Burma have paintings and rock tools that are about 11,000 years old.
In India, the Ambadevi rock shelters have the oldest cave paintings, dating back 25,000 years. The Bhimbetka rock shelters are about 8,000 years old. Similar paintings are found in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Karnataka. Some paintings from the medieval period show geometric shapes and scenes of daily life, such as childbirth, dancing, and religious rituals.
Cave paintings in the Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia are estimated to be about 25,500 to 27,500 years old.
In 2011, archaeologists found a rock fragment in Blombos Cave, South Africa. After testing, they determined the lines on the rock were made with an ochre crayon about 73,000 years ago. This is the oldest known rock painting.
In Australia, early cave paintings in Kimberley and Kakadu were made with ochre. Ochre is not organic, so carbon dating is often difficult. The oldest dated painting in Kimberley is a kangaroo that is 17,300 years old. Scientists used carbon dating on wasp nests around the painting to estimate its age. Sometimes, the age of a painting can be guessed based on the images, nearby artifacts, or organic materials mixed with the paint.
A red ochre painting in Arnhem Land Plateau shows two emu-like birds. A paleontologist believes they may represent Genyornis, a type of giant bird that went extinct more than 40,000 years ago. However, this evidence is not certain.
Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands has cave paintings created by the Ngaro people, who were seafarers.
Holocene cave art
The Edakkal Caves in Kerala, India, have drawings that date back as far as 5,000 BC to 1,000 BC.
Rock art near Qohaito suggests people lived there as early as the fifth millennium BC. The town existed until the sixth century CE. Mount Emba Soira, the tallest mountain in Eritrea, is near this area, along with a small village that came later. Many rock art sites are found with tools made of stone, showing the art might be older than events like farming and raising animals, which happened about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago.
In 2002, a French team found cave paintings at Laas Geel near Hargeisa in Somaliland. These paintings, about 5,000 years old, show wild animals, decorated cows, and people who raised animals. In 2008, Somali archaeologists found other paintings in the Dhambalin region. These paintings include one of the earliest known images of a hunter on a horse, dating to 1000 to 3000 BCE.
Between Las Khorey and El Ayo in Karinhegane, there are many cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has writing below it, and together, these writings are about 2,500 years old. The art in Karinhegane has a style similar to the paintings at Laas Geel and Dhambalin. Gelweita, another important rock art site, is about 25 miles from Las Khorey.
In Djibouti, rock art showing antelopes and a giraffe is found at Dorra and Balho.
Many cave paintings are in the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in southeast Algeria. This area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has over 15,000 carvings and drawings that show changes in animals, weather, and human life in the Sahara from 6000 BC to the late classical period. Other paintings are found in Libya and other parts of the Sahara, including the Ayr mountains in Niger and the Tibesti mountains in Chad.
The Cave of Swimmers and the Cave of Beasts are in southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya, in the Gilf Kebir region of the Sahara. The Cave of Swimmers was discovered in 1933 by László Almásy. It has images of people swimming, which are about 10,000 years old, from the time of the last Ice Age.
In 2020, a limestone cave with paintings of donkeys, camels, deer, mules, and mountain goats was found in Wadi Al-Zulma by an archaeological team. The cave is 15 meters deep and 20 meters high.
At uKhahlamba / Drakensberg Park in South Africa, paintings by the San people, who lived there 8,000 years ago, are about 3,000 years old. These paintings show animals, humans, and are believed to have religious meanings. Human figures appear more often in African rock art than in European art.
In southern and northern Baja California, Mexico, there are monochrome and polychrome cave paintings and murals from the Pre-Columbian era. These show humans, animals, sea creatures, and abstract designs. Recent studies suggest these paintings may be as old as 7,500 years.
In Southern California, the Chumash tribes created cave paintings found in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties. Examples include Burro Flats Painted Cave and Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park.
In the Southwestern United States, Native American pictograms in caves are 6,000 years old, found in the Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee.
Native American tribes in California, including the Chumash, created cave art. Swordfish Cave in Baja California has paintings of swordfish and is a sacred site for the Chumash. Conservation efforts by the Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash helped protect the cave. Studies of the cave’s art and tools pushed back the known age of rock art on California’s Central Coast by over 2,000 years.
In Mexico, the National Institution of Anthropology and History (INAH) recorded over 1,500 rock art sites in Baja California. About 300 of these sites are linked to Native American tribes. Of these, 65% have paintings, 24% have carvings, 10% have both, and 1% have large ground carvings. Five sites with hand imprints or paintings are located in Baja California.
Serra da Capivara National Park in northeastern Brazil has many prehistoric paintings. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. The park’s most famous site is Pedra Furada, located in Piauí state. The area covers 1,291.4 square kilometers and has the largest number of prehistoric small farms in the Americas.
Cueva de las Manos, or "Cave of the Hands," is in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. It is part of Francisco P. Moreno National Park and contains hand stencils, human figures, guanacos, rheas, felines, and geometric shapes. Red dots on the ceiling may have been made by throwing ink-covered hunting tools upward.