Researchers Discover Paleolithic Cave Art Dated 66,000 Years Ago, Reveal Neanderthals to Be the ‘First Artists'

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Scientists Find Ancient Cave Paintings from 66,000 Years Ago, Suggesting Neanderthals Were the First to Create Art

Researchers from the University of Southampton and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology discovered the world's oldest dated cave paintings. These ancient paintings, created with red and black hues, featured various images of animals, as well as linear signs, geometric shapes, hand stencils, and handprints.

These deposits contain remnants of radioactive elements like uranium and thorium that provide clues about when they were created, ultimately helping to date the layers beneath. “This is an incredibly exciting discovery that implies Neanderthals were much more advanced than commonly thought,” said joint lead author Dr. Chris Standish, an archaeologist at the University of Southampton.

Scientists also wondered if cave art might be linked to the development of human language.

We have examples in three caves that are 700 kilometers apart, and evidence that this was a long-lived tradition. It's quite possible that similar cave art in other caves in Western Europe is also from Neanderthals.

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This evidence also revealed that Neanderthals and early modern humans were more cognitively similar than previously believed.