The oldest cave paintings in Europe found in Spain

Researchers believe that the drawings of the red sphere and handprints found in Spain, in the cave of El Castillo, are so ancient that they could not be done by modern man.

Photo: Pedro Saura / AP

Some scholars are inclined to believe that the drawings are the work of Neanderthals, who lived in the territory of modern Europe from 250,000 to 35,000 BC. and completely disappeared around 30,000 BC, that is, about 10,000 years before modern man came to Europe from the south.

Neanderthals were considered much more primitive than the Cro-Magnons who replaced them. It is believed that Neanderthals were cannibals. Therefore, the assumption that it was Neanderthals who were the authors of cave paintings caused heated discussion in the scientific community.

Eric Delson, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and John Shea of Long Island University stated that Neanderthals could not be artists because they did not have the right tools for this. On the other hand, if the authors of cave paintings were representatives of “homo sapiens”, then in Africa, where they settled much earlier than they came to Europe, similar samples of painting would have been preserved. However, all the most ancient “paintings” are found on European territory.

The approximate age of the drawings found in Spain and possibly made by blowing or spitting out a coloring matter is 40,800 years, that is, they are at least 15,000 years older than previously thought. Previously, the oldest examples of cave paintings in Europe were drawings found in the caves of Chauvet in France, whose age is approximately 32,000 - 37,000 years.

The finds made at El Castillo make scientists take a fresh look at the numerous finds of decorated stones and shells, which previously were unconditionally attributed to the early manifestations of Cro-Magnon art.

According to a report published Thursday in the journal Science, scientists date Spanish cave paintings by measuring the decay of uranium atoms, instead of traditional carbon dating. The paintings were first discovered in 1870. The oldest of the paintings is a red ball; the age of palm prints in another cave is at least 37,300 years. Slightly younger paintings depicting horses.

Rock paintings are “one of the most exquisite examples of symbolic human behavior,” said study co-author Joao Zilhao, an anthropologist at the University of Barcelona. “They understood what symbols are, what art is. And that’s what makes us human. ”

Anna Sidorova