History › Human origins › Homo sapiens: modern humans
Ice Age cave art (Sulawesi, Chauvet, Lascaux)
from c. 51,000 years ago (Sulawesi); Chauvet c. 36,000; Lascaux c. 17,000· Book, artwork, monument or document· Global
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
From at least 51,000 years ago, people painted animals, hands and hunting scenes on cave walls, from Indonesia to France and Spain.
See it on the History map →What happened
The oldest dated figurative painting, a wild pig with human-like figures in Leang Karampuang cave on Sulawesi, Indonesia, is at least 51,000 years old. In France, Chauvet Cave holds lions, horses and rhinos about 36,000 years old, and Lascaux, found by teenagers in 1940, has some 600 painted animals about 17,000 years old. Artists used ochre, charcoal and stenciled hands, often deep underground by firelight.
Why it matters
The Indonesian finds showed that art was not a European invention but part of the shared toolkit of modern humans everywhere.
How we know
Uranium-series dating of mineral crusts over the paint and radiocarbon dating of charcoal pigments. Chauvet was sealed by rockfalls about 21,000 years ago, preserving it untouched.
Still debated
Why people painted, for magic, ritual, storytelling or teaching, is unknown. Red marks in Spanish caves dated over 64,000 years old, possibly by Neanderthals, are contested.
Connections (2)
▸Neanderthals may also have made Ice Age cave art (Sulawesi, Chauvet, Lascaux)Debated
The connection
If Neanderthals painted, art was not unique to our species. Red marks, a hand stencil and dots in three Spanish caves were dated to over 64,000 years ago, before modern humans reached Europe. Neanderthals also used pigments, eagle talons and shells, perhaps as ornaments.
When and how
La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales caves, Spain; dates published in 2018 by a team led by Dirk Hoffmann and Alistair Pike.
How sure are we?
Uranium-series dating of mineral crusts over the paint. Critics argue the method can overestimate ages, so the case is not settled.
Debates and open questions
Whether the dates are right, whether the marks are deliberate symbols, and whether Neanderthals thought symbolically as we do are all contested.
▸Earliest symbolic art (Blombos Cave) foreshadowed Ice Age cave art (Sulawesi, Chauvet, Lascaux)Mostly agreed
The connection
The abstract patterns and ochre use at Blombos came tens of thousands of years before painted animals appeared on cave walls in Indonesia and Europe. They suggest the capacity for art was present in Africa first and traveled with modern humans as they spread.
When and how
From South Africa about 75,000 years ago to Sulawesi about 51,000 years ago and France about 36,000 years ago.
How sure are we?
The dated sequence of finds and the shared use of red ochre. But it is an inference about shared ability, not a direct line of influence.
Debates and open questions
Whether figurative painting was invented once and carried along, or reinvented in different places, is unknown.