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Discovered by accident in 1994, the cave paintings adorning the walls of Chauvet Cave in France are among the oldest and most beautiful figurative art in human history. About 36,000 years...
Dec 9, 2011 · In 1994, three French cave explorers discovered hundreds of prehistoric paintings and engravings on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southern France.
Chauvet Cave is one of the most significant prehistoric art sites here, discovered in 1994 and achieving World Heritage Status in 2014. Inside, some of the oldest cave paintings ever discovered were accompanied with fossilized remains and markings from a variety of animals.
- Chauvet Cave, France. The Chauvet-Pont-d’ Arc Cave, widely known simply as the Chauvet Cave is one of the most famous prehistoric cave art sites. In addition to being home to some of the oldest cave paintings in the world - these are estimated to be created about 30,000 to 32,000 years BP - it also contains some of the most beautifully preserved examples of prehistoric cave art.
- Cave of Altamira, Spain. The Cave of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain, is home to some of the most famous cave paintings in the world. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of visitors took their toll and in the 1970s, the incredibly well preserved cave paintings dating back to 35,500 years started to show signs of damage.
- Leang Timpuseng Cave, Indonesia. Cave paintings in the Leang Timpuseng Cave in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, have radically changed the understanding of the earliest human creativity.
- Kakadu National Park, Australia. Recognized by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its natural and cultural significance in 1981, the Kakadu National Park is also famous for containing one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the world.
- Alexandra Kiely
- The Altamira Cave Paintings, Spain. The rock art at Altamira, Spain was the first in the world to be recognized as prehistoric artwork, but it took years for that fact to become a consensus.
- Lascaux, France. Get the latest articles delivered to your inbox. Sign up to our Free Weekly Newsletter. Discovered in 1940 by some kids and their dog, the Lascaux caves represented the motherlode of European rock art for many decades.
- The Apollo 11 Cave Stones, Namibia. Rock art abounds in Africa, with at least 100,000 sites discovered from prehistory through to the 19th century, but it has thus far been badly under-studied.
- Kakadu National Park and Other Rock Art Sites, Australia. Humans have lived in the area that is now Kakadu National Park, in the Arnhem Land region of Australia’s northern coast, for about 60,000 years.
We approach the nearest karst undeterred by a group of large black macaques that screech at us from trees high on the cliff and climb a bamboo ladder through ferns to a cave called Leang...
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Oct 5, 2021 · Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images. What does the oldest known art in the world tell us about the people who created it? Images painted, drawn or carved onto rocks and cave...
