Latest Chauvet Cave Stories
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Archeologists have just uncovered the oldest known Australian rock drawing, prompting experts to speculate that the earliest aboriginal groups were fairly advanced for their time. A report to be published in the next edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science describes how the research team, led by University of Southern Queensland professor Bryce Barker, stumbled upon the rock art that dates back around 28,000 years. While sifting through soil...
Numerous engraved and painted images of female sex organs, animals and geometric figures discovered in southern France are believed to be the world’s earliest known cave art. Radiocarbon dating of the engravings, found on a 1.5 metric ton block of limestone in Chauvet Cave in southeastern France, revealed that the art was created some 37,000 years ago. The cave resides near the areas of Abri Castanet and Abri Blanchard - where some of the oldest examples of mankind living in Eurasia...
Ancient cave painters were realists rather than dreamers, at least when it came to depicting horses, according to an analysis of pre-historic horse DNA. Humans began painting curious creatures -- white horses with black spots -- on the walls of European caves about 25,000 years ago. These horses, while popular breeds today, were thought not to exist before humans domesticated the species about 5000 years ago, leading scientists to wonder how much imagination went into the drawings. ...
