:en:Cave painting

File:Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave painting of Bull.jpg, a depiction of an unknown bovine, was discovered in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave and dated to be more than 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old.]]

Nearly 350 caves have now been discovered in France and Spain that contain art from prehistoric times. Initially, the age of the paintings had been a contentious issue, since methods like radiocarbon dating can produce misleading results if contaminated by other samples,{{cite book|last=Welsh|first=Liz|title=Rock-art of the Southwest: a Visitor's Companion|year=2000|publisher=Wilderness Press|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=0-89997-258-6|edition=1st|author2=Welsh, Peter|page=62}} and caves and rocky overhangs (where parietal art is found) are typically littered with debris from many time periods. But subsequent technology has made it possible to date the paintings by sampling the pigment itself, torch marks on the walls,{{cite journal|last=Valladas|first=Helene|title=Direct radiocarbon dating of prehistoric cave paintings by accelerator mass spectrometry|journal=Measurement Science and Technology|date=1 September 2003|volume=14|issue=9|pages=1487–1492|doi=10.1088/0957-0233/14/9/301|s2cid=250809121 }} or the formation of carbonate deposits on top of the paintings.{{cite journal |last1= Hoffmann |first1 = D.L. |last2= Pike |first2= A.W. | last3= García-Diez |first3= M. |last4= Pettitt |first4= P.B. |last5= Zilhão |first5= J. |year= 2016 |title= Methods for U-series dating of CaCO3 crusts associated with Palaeolithic cave art and application to Iberian sites |url= https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/402243/1/Hoffmann%2520et%2520al_accepted.docx|journal= Quaternary Geochronology |volume= 36 |pages= 104–119 |doi= 10.1016/j.quageo.2016.07.004 }} The subject matter can also indicate chronology: for instance, the reindeer depicted in the Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas places the drawings in the last Ice Age.

The oldest known cave painting is a red hand stencil in Maltravieso cave, Cáceres, Spain. It has been dated using the uranium-thorium method to older than 64,000 years and was made by a Neanderthal. The oldest date given to an animal cave painting is now a depiction of several human figures hunting pigs in the caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, dated to be over 43,900 years old. Before this, the oldest known figurative cave paintings were that of a bull dated to 40,000 years, at Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo,Aubert, M. et al [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0679-9 "Palaeolithic Cave art in Borneo"], Nature (2018) and a depiction of a pig with a minimum age of 35,400 years at Timpuseng cave in Sulawesi.

File:Cueva del Castillo interior.jpg, Cantabria (Spain). Dating back to 40,000BC, El Castillo hosts the earliest figurative cave painting in Europe known to date.]]

The earliest known European figurative cave paintings are those of the Cave of El Castillo in Spain, which a 2012 study using uranium-thorium dated back to at least 40,000 BC.{{cite web|language=en |publisher=Science |title=U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain |url=http://science.sciencemag.org/content/336/6087/1409.abstract}}{{cite journal|last=Pike|first=A. W. G.|author2=Hoffmann, D. L. |author3=Garcia-Diez, M. |author4=Pettitt, P. B. |author5=Alcolea, J. |author6=De Balbin, R. |author7=Gonzalez-Sainz, C. |author8=de las Heras, C. |author9=Lasheras, J. A. |author10=Montes, R. |author11=Zilhao, J. |title=U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain|journal=Science|date=14 June 2012|volume=336|issue=6087|pages=1409–1413|doi=10.1126/science.1219957 |pmid=22700921|bibcode=2012Sci...336.1409P |s2cid=7807664}}.

"We present uranium-series disequilibrium dates of calcite deposits

overlying or underlying art found in 11 caves, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific,

and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo, and Tito Bustillo,

Spain. The results demonstrate that the tradition of decorating caves extends back at least

to the Early Aurignacian period, with minimum ages of 40.8 thousand years for a red disk,

37.3 thousand years for a hand stencil, and 35.6 thousand years for a claviform-like symbol.

These minimum ages reveal either that cave art was a part of the cultural repertoire of the first

anatomically modern humans in Europe or that perhaps Neanderthals also engaged in painting caves."

The El Castillo red stippled disk (sample O-83) was dated to {{val|41.40|0.57|u=ka}} (95% CI, corrected).

Table 1: Ages are corrected for detritus by using an assumed ²³²Th/²³⁸U activity of {{val|1.250|0.625}} and ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U and ²³⁴U/²³⁸U at equilibrium.

See also: {{cite web |url=http://www.nature.com/news/spain-claims-top-spot-for-world-s-oldest-cave-art-1.10838 |title=Spain claims top spot for world's oldest cave art : Nature News & Comment |publisher=Nature.com |access-date= January 19, 2017}}

Prior to this announcement, it was believed that the oldest figurative cave paintings were those of the Chauvet Cave in France, dating to earlier than 30,000 BC in the Upper Paleolithic according to radiocarbon dating.{{cite web |last=Clottes |first=Jean |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chav/hd_chav.htm |title=Chauvet Cave (ca. 30,000 B.C.) |work=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=New York |date=October 2002 |access-date=11 May 2013}} Some researchers believe the drawings are too advanced for this era and question this age.{{cite journal|last=Pettitt|first=Paul|title=Art and the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe: Comments on the archaeological arguments for an early Upper Paleolithic antiquity of the Grotte Chauvet art|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|date=1 November 2008 |volume=55 |issue=5 |pages=908–917 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.04.003 |pmid=18678392|bibcode=2008JHumE..55..908P }} More than 80 radiocarbon dates had been obtained by 2011, with samples taken from torch marks and from the paintings themselves, as well as from animal bones and charcoal found on the cave floor. The radiocarbon dates from these samples show that there were two periods of creation in Chauvet: 35,000 years ago and 30,000 years ago.{{cite journal |last=Zorich |first=Zach |title=A Chauvet Primer |journal=Archaeology |volume=64 |issue=2 |date=March–April 2011 |page=39 |url=http://archive.archaeology.org/1103/features/werner_herzog_chauvet_cave_primer.html}} One of the surprises was that many of the paintings were modified repeatedly over thousands of years, possibly explaining the confusion about finer paintings that seemed to date earlier than cruder ones.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

File:Rhinos Chauvet Cave.jpg 30,000 to 32,000 years ago.]]

In 2009, cavers discovered drawings in Coliboaia Cave in Romania, stylistically comparable to those at Chauvet.{{cite journal |last=Ghemis |first=Calin|author2=Clottes, J. |author3=Gely, B. |author4= Prudhomme, F. |title=An Exceptional Archaeological Discovery – the 'Art Gallery' in Coliboaia Cave |journal=Acta Archaeologica Carpathica |year=2011 |volume=XLVI |url=https://www.academia.edu/1488865 |access-date=7 March 2013 |issn=0001-5229}} An initial dating puts the age of an image in the same range as Chauvet: about 32,000 years old.{{cite journal|last=Zorich|first=Zach|title=From the Trenches – Drawing Paleolithic Romania|journal=Archaeology|date=January–February 2012|volume=65|issue=1|url=http://archive.archaeology.org/1201/trenches/coliboaia_cave_romania_charcoal_drawings.html|access-date=7 March 2013}}

In Australia, cave paintings have been found on the Arnhem Land plateau showing megafauna which are thought to have been extinct for over 40,000 years, making this site another candidate for oldest known painting; however, the proposed age is dependent on the estimate of the extinction of the species seemingly depicted.{{cite web|last=Masters|first=Emma|title=Megafauna cave painting could be 40,000 years old|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-05-31/megafauna-cave-painting-could-be-40000-years-old/847564|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)|access-date=30 December 2012|date=May 31, 2010}} Another Australian site, Nawarla Gabarnmang, has charcoal drawings that have been radiocarbon-dated to 28,000 years, making it the oldest site in Australia and among the oldest in the world for which reliable date evidence has been obtained.{{cite news|last=McGuirk|first=Rod|title=Australian rock art among the world's oldest|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0618/Australian-rock-art-among-world-s-oldest|access-date=30 December 2012|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|date=June 18, 2012|agency=AP}}

Other examples may date as late as the Early Bronze Age, but the well-known Magdalenian style seen at Lascaux in France (c.{{space}}15,000 BC) and Altamira in Spain died out about 10,000{{space}}BC, coinciding with the advent of the Neolithic period. Some caves probably continued to be painted over a period of several thousands of years.{{cite news|last=Gray|first=Richard|title=Prehistoric cave paintings took up to 20,000 years to complete|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/3352850/Prehistoric-cave-paintings-took-up-to-20000-years-to-complete.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615073824/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/3352850/Prehistoric-cave-paintings-took-up-to-20000-years-to-complete.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 June 2009|access-date=30 December 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=5 October 2008}}

The next phase of surviving European prehistoric painting, the rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, was very different, concentrating on large assemblies of smaller and much less detailed figures, with at least as many humans as animals. This was created roughly between 10,000 and 5,500 years ago, and painted in rock shelters under cliffs or shallow caves, in contrast to the recesses of deep caves used in the earlier (and much colder) period. Although individual figures are less naturalistic, they are grouped in coherent grouped compositions to a much greater degree. Over a long period of time, the cave art has become less naturalistic and has graduated from beautiful, naturalistic animal drawings to simple ones, and then to abstract shapes.

File:Rock art bull.jpg)]]

Cave artists used a variety of techniques such as finger tracing, modeling in clay, engravings, bas-relief sculpture, hand stencils, and paintings done in two or three colors. Scholars classify cave art as "Signs" or abstract marks.

{{cite book |last1=Renfrew |first1=Colin |title=Archaeology Theories, Methods and Practice |publisher=Thames and Hudson |edition=7th}} The most common subjects in cave paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns, called finger flutings. The species found most often were suitable for hunting by humans, but were not necessarily the actual typical prey found in associated deposits of bones; for example, the painters of Lascaux have mainly left reindeer bones, but this species does not appear at all in the cave paintings, where equine species are the most common. Drawings of humans were rare and are usually schematic as opposed to the more detailed and naturalistic images of animal subjects. Kieran D. O'Hara, geologist, suggests in his book Cave Art and Climate Change that climate controlled the themes depicted.{{cite book|last=O'Hara|first=Kieran|year=2014|title=Cave Art and Climate Change|publisher=Archway Publishing|isbn=9781480811300}}{{page?|date=September 2024}}

Pigments used include red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal. Sometimes the silhouette of the animal was incised in the rock first, and in some caves all or many of the images are only engraved in this fashion,{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} taking them somewhat out of a strict definition of "cave painting".

Similarly, large animals are also the most common subjects in the many small carved and engraved bone or ivory (less often stone) pieces dating from the same periods. But these include the group of Venus figurines, which with a few incomplete exceptions have no real equivalent in Paleolithic cave paintings.{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/23/first-impressions|work=The New Yorker Magazine|date= 23 June 2008|author=Thurman, Judith|title=First Impressions: What does the world's oldest art say about us?}} One counterexample is a feminine figure in the Chauvet Cave, as described in an interview with Dominique Baffier in Cave of Forgotten Dreams.Herzog, Werner. (2010). "Cave of Forgotten Dreams". 43:25.

Hand stencils, formed by placing a hand against the wall and covering the surrounding area in pigment result in the characteristic image of a roughly round area of solid pigment with the negative shape of the hand in the centre, these may then be decorated with dots, dashes, and patterns. Often, these are found in the same caves as other paintings, or may be the only form of painting in a location. Some walls contain many hand stencils. Similar hands are also painted in the usual fashion. A number of hands show a finger wholly or partly missing, for which a number of explanations have been given. Hand images are found in similar forms in Europe, Eastern Asia, Australia, and South America.{{cite web|url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/hands/|title=Hand Paintings and Symbols in Rock Art|first=Bradshaw|last=Foundation|work=bradshawfoundation.com}} One site in Baja California features handprints as a prominent motif in its rock art. Archaeological study of this site revealed that, based on the size of the handprints, they most likely belonged to the women of the community. In addition to this, they were likely used during initiation rituals in Chinigchinich religious practices, which were commonly practiced in the Luiseño territory where this site is located.{{Cite journal |last=Fonseca-Ibarra |first=Enah |date=2018-01-02 |title=Hand Designs in Rock Art from Northern Baja California, Mexico |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1947461X.2018.1444362 |journal=California Archaeology |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1080/1947461X.2018.1444362 |issn=1947-461X}}

File:Bestias11.JPG (Gilf Kebir, Libyan Desert) Estimated 7000 BP ]]

In the early 20th century, following the work of Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen, scholars such as Salomon Reinach, Henri Breuil and {{Ill|Henri Begouën|lt=Count Bégouën|fr}} interpreted the paintings as 'utilitarian' hunting magic to increase the abundance of prey.{{Cite web|date=9 December 2019|title=Hunting magic in rock art|url=https://bradshawfoundation.com/news/rock_art.php?id=Hunting-magic-in-rock-art|access-date=2021-05-25|website=Bradshaw Foundation}} Jacob Bronowski states, "I think that the power that we see expressed here for the first time is the power of anticipation: the forward-looking imagination. In these paintings the hunter was made familiar with dangers which he knew he had to face but to which he had not yet come."{{Cite book|last=Bronowski|first=Jacob|url=http://archive.org/details/ascentofman0000bron_y1z2|title=The Ascent of Man|publisher=BBC Books|year=1990|isbn=978-0-563-20900-3|location=London|pages=54|orig-year=1973}}

Another theory, developed by David Lewis-Williams and broadly based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings were made by paleolithic shamans.{{cite book|last=Whitley|first=David S.|title=Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit: The Origin of Creativity and Belief|year=2009|publisher= Prometheus|isbn= 978-1-59102-636-5|page=35}} The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the caves, enter into a trance state, then paint images of their visions, perhaps with some notion of drawing out power from the cave walls themselves.

R. Dale Guthrie, who has studied both highly artistic and lower quality art and figurines, identifies a wide range of skill and age among the artists. He hypothesizes that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the representation of nude women) are the work of adolescent males, who constituted a large portion of cave painters, based on surrounding hand print analysis.{{cite book|last=Guthrie|first=R. Dale|title=The Nature of Paleolithic Art|year=2005|publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press|location=Chicago [u.a.]|isbn=978-0-226-31126-5|chapter=Preface: Reassembling the Bones |chapter-url=http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/311260.html |access-date=31 December 2012}}{{verify source|date=December 2012}} However, in analyzing hand prints and stencils in French and Spanish caves, Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University has proposed that a proportion of them, including those around the spotted horses in Pech Merle, were of female hands.{{cite news|last=Hammond|first=Norman|title=Cave painters' giveaway handprints at Pech-Merle|url=http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article1818692.ece|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200226134135/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article1818692.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 26, 2020|access-date=31 December 2012|newspaper=The Times|date=September 11, 2009}}

Analysis in 2022, led by Bennett Bacon, an amateur archaeologist, along with a team of professional archeologists and psychologists at the University of Durham, including Paul Pettitt and Robert William Kentridge,{{Cite news |date=2023-01-05 |title=Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-64162799 |access-date=2023-01-05}} suggested that lines and dots (and a commonly seen, if curious, "Y" symbol, which was proposed to mean "to give birth") on upper palaeolithic cave paintings correlated with the mating cycle of animals in a lunar calendar, potentially making them the earliest known evidence of a proto-writing system and explaining one object of many cave paintings.{{Cite journal |last1=Bacon |first1=Bennett |last2=Khatiri |first2=Azadeh |last3=Palmer |first3=James |last4=Freeth |first4=Tony |last5=Pettitt |first5=Paul |last6=Kentridge |first6=Robert |date=2023-01-05 |title=An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |volume=33 |issue=3 |language=en |pages=371–389 |doi=10.1017/S0959774322000415 |issn=0959-7743|doi-access=free }}

{{further|Paleolithic art}}

{{See also|Caves in Cantabria}}

File:20,000 Year Old Cave Paintings Hyena.png painting found in the Chauvet Cave, France]]

File:Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain-110113.jpg]]

Well-known cave paintings include those of:

• Cave of El Castillo, Spain (~40,000 y.o.)
• Kapova Cave, Bashkortostan, Russia (~36,000 y.o.){{Cite web|url=http://u7a.ru/articles/society/11854|title=Башкирия: новые исследования 'состарили' наскальные рисунки Каповой пещеры в два раза|website=u7a.ru|access-date=2019-10-11}}
• Chauvet Cave, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France (~35,000 y.o.)
• Cave of La Pasiega, Cuevas de El Castillo, Cantabria, Spain (~30,000 y.o.?)
• Caves of Arcy-sur-Cure, France (~28,200 y.o.)
• Cosquer Cave, with an entrance below sea level near Marseille, France (~27,000 y.o.)
• Caves of Gargas, France (~27,000 y.o.)
• Grotte de Cussac, France (~25,000 y.o.)
• Pech Merle, near Cabrerets, France (25,000 y.o.)
• Lascaux, France (~17,000 y.o.)
• Cave of Niaux, France (~17,000 y.o.)
• Font-de-Gaume, in the Dordogne Valley, France (~17,000 y.o.)
• Badanj Cave, Stolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina (~16,000 y.o.)
• Cave of Altamira, near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain (~15,500 y.o.)
• La Marche, in Lussac-les-Châteaux, France (~15,000 y.o.)
• Les Combarelles, in Les Eyzies de Tayac, Dordogne, France (~13,600 y.o.)
• Cave of the Trois-Frères, in Ariège, France (~13,000 y.o.){{cite web |title=Trois Frères |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Trois-Freres#ref=ref893311 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2020}}
• Magura Cave, Bulgaria (~10,000 y.o.)
• Solsem cave, Norway (~3,000 y.o.)

File:Men of the old stone age (1915) Wolf.png cave painting of a wolf, Font-de-Gaume, France]]

Other sites include Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire, England (~14,500 ys old cave etchings and bas-reliefs discovered in 2003), Peștera Coliboaia in Romania (~29,000 y.o. art?).{{cite news |last=Tugman |first=Lindsey |url=http://www.thv11.com/news/article/171246/288/Oldest-cave-drawings-found-in-Romanian-cave |title=Oldest cave drawings found in Romanian cave |agency=CBS News |date=1 September 2011 |access-date=11 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921063051/http://www.thv11.com/news/article/171246/288/Oldest-cave-drawings-found-in-Romanian-cave |archive-date=21 September 2013 }}

Rock painting was also performed on cliff faces; but fewer of those have survived because of erosion. One example is the rock paintings of Astuvansalmi (3,000–2,500 BC) in the Saimaa area of Finland.

When Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola first encountered the Magdalenian paintings of the Cave of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain in 1879, the academics of the time considered them hoaxes. Recent reappraisals and numerous additional discoveries have since demonstrated their authenticity, while at the same time stimulating interest in the artistry and symbolismArchived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/hJnEQCMA5Sg Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20151218194343/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnEQCMA5Sg&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnEQCMA5Sg| title = Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe |author= Genevieve von Petzinger | website=YouTube| date = 18 December 2015 }}{{cbignore}} of Upper Palaeolithic peoples.

{{clear left}}

File:Hands in Pettakere Cave DYK crop.jpg (Sulawesi, Indonesia). Hand stencils estimated between 35,000–40,000 BP.]]

In Indonesia the caves in the district of Maros in Sulawesi are famous for their hand prints. About 1,500 negative handprints have also been found in 30 painted caves in the Sangkulirang area of Kalimantan; preliminary dating analysis as of 2005 put their age in the range of 10,000 years old.{{cite journal|last=Chazine|first=J-M.|title=Rock Art, Burials, and Habitations: Caves in East Kalimantan |journal=Asian Perspectives |year=2005 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=219–230 |doi=10.1353/asi.2005.0006 |hdl=10125/17232|s2cid=53372873|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/17232/AP-v44n1-219-230.pdf?sequence=1 |access-date=12 May 2013|hdl-access=free }}

{{cite journal |last=Fage |first=Luc-Henri |title=Hands Across Time: Exploring the Rock Art of Borneo |journal=National Geographic |date=August 2005 |volume=208 |issue=2 |pages=44–45 |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/features/world/asia/indonesia/cave-art-text |access-date=7 October 2013}} A 2014 study based on uranium–thorium dating dated a Maros hand stencil to a minimum age of 39,900 years. A painting of a babirusa was dated to at least 35.4 ka, placing it among the oldest known figurative depictions worldwide.

In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo.{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=In Cave in Borneo Jungle, Scientists Find Oldest Figurative Painting in the World – A cave drawing in Borneo is at least 40,000 years old, raising intriguing questions about creativity in ancient societies. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/science/oldest-cave-art-borneo.html |date=7 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=8 November 2018 }}{{cite journal |author=Aubert, M.|display-authors=et al |title=Palaeolithic cave art in Borneo |date=7 November 2018 |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0679-9 |pmid=30405242 |volume=564 |issue=7735 |pages=254–257 |bibcode=2018Natur.564..254A |s2cid=53208538 }}

And more recently, in 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of cave art at least 45,500 years old in Leang Tedongnge cave, Indonesia. According to the journal Science Advances, the cave painting of a warty pig is the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.{{Cite web|agency=Agence France-Presse|date=2021-01-13|title=World's 'oldest known cave painting' found in Indonesia|url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/13/worlds-oldest-known-cave-painting-found-in-indonesia|access-date=2021-02-24|website=The Guardian|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=2021-01-14 |title=Indonesia: Archaeologists find world's oldest animal cave painting |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55657257|access-date=2021-02-24}} It has been reported that it is rapidly deteriorating as a result of climate change in the region.{{Cite news|date=2021-05-19 |title=Indonesia: Climate change destroying world's oldest animal painting |language=en-GB |work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57166995|access-date=2021-05-19}}

Originating in the Paleolithic period, the rock art found in Khoit Tsenkher Cave, Mongolia, includes symbols and animal forms painted from the walls up to the ceiling.[https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/935/ Khoit tsenkher cave rock painting – UNESCO World Heritage Centre] Stags, buffalo, oxen, ibex, lions, Argali sheep, antelopes, camels, elephants, ostriches, and other animal pictorials are present, often forming a palimpsest of overlapping images. The paintings appear brown or red in color, and are stylistically similar to other Paleolithic rock art from around the world but are unlike any other examples in Mongolia.

The Padah-Lin Caves of Burma contain 11,000-year-old paintings and many rock tools.

{{Main|Cave paintings in India}}

File:Bhimbetka rock paintng1.jpg rock painting]]

The Ambadevi rock shelters have the oldest cave paintings in India, dating back to 25,000 years. The Bhimbetka rock shelters are dated to about 8,000 BC.{{cite book |last1=Mathpal |first1=Yashodhar |title=Prehistoric Painting Of Bhimbetka |date=1984 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=9788170171935 |page=220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GG7-CpvlU30C&pg=PA220 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Tiwari |first1=Shiv Kumar |title=Riddles of Indian Rockshelter Paintings |date=2000 |publisher=Sarup & Sons |isbn=9788176250863 |page=189 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-jO0fvT4r9gC&pg=PA189 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka |date=2003 |publisher=UNESCO |page=16 |url=https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/925.pdf}}{{cite book |last1=Mithen |first1=Steven |title=After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000–5,000 BC |date=2011 |publisher=Orion |isbn=9781780222592 |page=524 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uaxg_QDSsrQC&pg=PT524 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Javid |first1=Ali |last2=Jāvīd |first2=ʻAlī |last3=Javeed |first3=Tabassum |title=World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India |date=2008 |publisher=Algora Publishing |isbn=9780875864846 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54XBlIF9LFgC&pg=PA19 |language=en}} Similar paintings are found in other parts of India as well. In Tamil Nadu, ancient Paleolithic Cave paintings are found in Kombaikadu, Kilvalai, Settavarai and Nehanurpatti. In Odisha they are found in Yogimatha and Gudahandi. In Karnataka, these paintings are found in Hiregudda near Badami. The most recent painting, consisting of geometric figures, date to the medieval period.

Executed mainly in red and white with the occasional use of green and yellow, the paintings depict the lives and times of the people who lived in the caves, including scenes of childbirth, communal dancing and drinking, religious rites and burials, as well as indigenous animals.{{cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=925|title=Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka|publisher=World Heritage Site|access-date=2009-12-22}}

Cave paintings found at the Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia are estimated to date from approximately 25,500–27,500 years ago.{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/apol/hd_apol.htm |title=Apollo 11 (ca. 25,500–23,500 B.C.) and Wonderwerk (ca. 8,000 B.C.) Cave Stones |work=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=New York |date=October 2000 |access-date=11 May 2013}}

In 2011, archaeologists found a small rock fragment at Blombos Cave, about {{convert|300|km|mi|abbr=on}} east of Cape Town on the southern cape coastline in South Africa, among spear points and other excavated material. After extensive testing for seven years, it was revealed that the lines drawn on the rock were handmade and from an ochre crayon dating back 73,000 years. This makes it the oldest known rock painting.{{cite web |author= Fui Lee Luk |date= 2018 |title= The World's Earliest Drawing? |website= news.cnrs.fr |publisher= French National Centre for Scientific Research |url= https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/the-worlds-earliest-drawing |access-date= 2024-05-09 }}{{cite news |last=St. Fleur |first=Nicholas|title=Oldest Known Drawing by Human Hands Discovered in South African Cave |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/science/oldest-drawing-ever-found.html |date=12 September 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=15 September 2018 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/12/earliest-known-drawing-found-on-rock-in-south-african-cave|title=Earliest known drawing found on rock in South African cave|last=Sample|first=Ian|date=2018-09-12|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-09-12}}

Image:(1)Jabiru_dreaming-7.jpg

Significant early cave paintings, executed in ochre, have been found in Kimberley and Kakadu, Australia. Ochre is not an organic material, so carbon dating of these pictures is often impossible. The oldest so far dated at 17,300 years is an ochre painting of a kangaroo in the Kimberley region, which was dated by carbon dating wasp nest material underlying and overlying the painting.{{cite web |title=Australia: Oldest rock art is 17,300-year-old kangaroo |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-56164484 |website=BBC News |publisher=BBC|date=23 February 2021|access-date=25 February 2021}} Sometimes the approximate date, or at least, an epoch, can be surmised from the painting content, contextual artifacts, or organic material intentionally or inadvertently mixed with the inorganic ochre paint, including torch soot.

A red ochre painting, discovered at the centre of the Arnhem Land Plateau, depicts two emu-like birds with their necks outstretched. They have been identified by a palaeontologist as depicting the megafauna species Genyornis, giant birds thought to have become extinct more than 40,000 years ago; however, this evidence is inconclusive for dating. It may suggest that Genyornis became extinct at a later date than previously determined.

Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands is also home to a number of cave paintings created by the seafaring Ngaro people.{{cite web|title=Whitsunday national park islands - Nature, Culture and History|url=https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/parks-whitsundays/culture.html|website=Queensland Government|publisher=The State of Queensland (Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing)|access-date=16 October 2017}}

File:Dera rock art.jpg]]

In the Philippines at Tabon Caves the oldest artwork may be a relief of a shark above the cave entrance. It was partially disfigured by a later jar burial scene.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

The Edakkal Caves of Kerala, India, contain drawings that range over periods from the Neolithic as early as 5,000 BC to 1,000 BC.{{cite news|url=http://newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/article142152.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926052348/http://newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/article142152.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 26, 2013 |title='Edakkal cave findings related to Indus Valley civilization |newspaper=The New Indian Express |date=2009-10-22 |access-date=2012-08-17}}{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/26510292/Sarasvati-River-Indus-Script-Ancient-Village-Or |title=Sarasvati River Indus Script Ancient Village Or |publisher=Scribd.com |access-date=2012-08-17 |archive-date=2012-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105071155/http://www.scribd.com/doc/26510292/Sarasvati-River-Indus-Script-Ancient-Village-Or |url-status=dead }}{{cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Symbols-akin-to-Indus-valley-culture-discovered/Article1-459163.aspx |title=Symbols akin to Indus valley culture discovered |newspaper=Hindustan Times |date=2009-09-29 |access-date=2012-08-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128222211/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Symbols-akin-to-Indus-valley-culture-discovered/Article1-459163.aspx |archive-date=2011-01-28 }}

File:Kohaito, grotta di adi alauti con pitture rupestri databili al 2500 ac ca. 36 dromedari.JPG]]

File:Laas Geel.jpg complex in northern Somaliland.]]

Rock art near Qohaito appears to indicate habitation in the area since the fifth millennium BC, while the town is known to have survived to the sixth century AD. Mount Emba Soira, Eritrea's highest mountain, lies near the site, as does a small successor village. Much of the rock art sites are found together with evidence of prehistoric stone tools, suggesting that the art could predate the widely presumed pastoralist and domestication events that occurred 5,000– 4,000 years ago.{{Cite web|title=Understanding Rock Art in Eritrea|url=http://www.madote.com/2017/04/understanding-rock-art-in-eritrea.html|access-date=2021-02-16|website=Madote}}{{Cite web|title=Qoahito Cultural Landscape|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5600/|access-date=2021-02-16|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|language=en}}

In 2002, a French archaeological team discovered the Laas Geel cave paintings on the outskirts of Hargeisa in Somaliland. Dating back around 5,000 years, the paintings depict both wild animals and decorated cows. They also feature herders, who are believed to be the creators of the rock art.{{cite news|last=Bakano|first=Otto|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jMNd90UAafsRNEDPyelL7Hee1ydw?docId=CNG.82196a5b15ef45a2d4e744675740cd6a.6e1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430102432/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jMNd90UAafsRNEDPyelL7Hee1ydw?docId=CNG.82196a5b15ef45a2d4e744675740cd6a.6e1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 30, 2011 |title=Grotto galleries show early Somali life |agency=AFP |date=April 24, 2011|access-date=11 May 2013}} In 2008, Somali archaeologists announced the discovery of other cave paintings in Dhambalin region, which the researchers suggest includes one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback. The rock art is dated to 1000 to 3000 BC.{{cite journal|last=Mire|first=Sada|title=The Discovery of Dhambalin Rock Art Site, Somaliland|journal=African Archaeological Review|year=2008|volume=25|issue=3–4|pages=153–168|url=http://www.mbali.info/doc494.htm|access-date=22 June 2013|doi=10.1007/s10437-008-9032-2|s2cid=162960112|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627100400/http://www.mbali.info/doc494.htm|archive-date=27 June 2013}}{{cite news|last=Alberge|first=Dalya|title=UK archaeologist finds cave paintings at 100 new African sites|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/17/cave-paintings-found-in-somaliland|access-date=25 June 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=17 September 2010}}

Additionally, between the towns of Las Khorey and El Ayo in Karinhegane is a site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old.{{cite book|last=Hodd|first=Michael|title=East African Handbook|year=1994|publisher=Trade & Travel Publications|isbn=0-8442-8983-3|page=640|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bL8tAQAAIAAJ}}{{cite book|last=Ali|first=Ismail Mohamed|title=Somalia Today: General Information|year=1970|publisher=Ministry of Information and National Guidance, Somali Democratic Republic|page=295|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMVAAAAAYAAJ}} Karihegane's rock art is in the same distinctive style as the Laas Geel and Dhambalin cave paintings.{{cite book|last=Istituto universitario orientale (Naples, Italy)|title=Annali: Supplemento, Issues 70-73|year=1992|publisher=Istituto orientale di Napoli|page=57|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DbhiAAAAMAAJ}}{{cite web|title=Rock Art Sites of Somaliland|url=http://archive.cyark.org/rock-art-sites-of-somaliland-info|publisher=CyArk|access-date=28 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329002706/http://archive.cyark.org/rock-art-sites-of-somaliland-info|archive-date=29 March 2014|url-status=dead}} Around 25 miles from Las Khorey is found Gelweita, another key rock art site.

In Djibouti, rock art of what appear to be antelopes and a giraffe are also found at Dorra and Balho.{{citation |author=Universität Frankfurt am Main|journal=Journal of African Archaeology |title=Volumes 1–2 |date=2003|publisher=Africa Manga Verlag|page=230|isbn=9783937248004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ExwkAQAAIAAJ|access-date=7 September 2014}}

File:Tassili - catapulte?.jpg UNESCO World Heritage Site in southeast Algeria.]]

Many cave paintings are found in the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in southeast Algeria. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the rock art was first discovered in 1933 and has since yielded 15,000 engravings and drawings that keep a record of the various animal migrations, climatic shifts, and change in human inhabitation patterns in this part of the Sahara from 6000 BC to the late classical period.{{cite web|title=Tassili n'Ajjer|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/179|publisher=UNESCO World Heritage Center|access-date=31 December 2012}} Other cave paintings are also found at the Akakus, Mesak Settafet and Tadrart in Libya and other Sahara regions including: Ayr mountains, Niger and Tibesti, Chad.

The Cave of Swimmers and the Cave of Beasts in southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya, in the mountainous Gilf Kebir region of the Sahara Desert. The Cave of Swimmers was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy. The site contains rock painting images of people swimming, which are estimated to have been created 10,000 years ago during the time of the most recent Ice Age.

In 2020, limestone cave decorated with scenes of animals such as donkeys, camels, deer, mule and mountain goats was uncovered in the area of Wadi Al-Zulma by the archaeological mission from the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry. Rock art cave is 15 meters deep and 20 meters high.{{Cite web|title=Ancient cave with distinguished engravings depicting scenes of animals discovered in Sinai – Ancient Egypt – Heritage|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/368014/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Ancient-cave-with-distinguished-engravings-depicti.aspx|access-date=2020-09-09|website=Ahram Online|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2020-04-26|title=Photos: Archaeologists uncover ancient cave in North Sinai|url=https://egyptindependent.com/photos-archaeologists-uncover-ancient-cave-in-north-sinai/|access-date=2020-09-09|website=Egypt Independent|language=en-US}}

File:Southafrica468bushman.jpg from the Western Cape in South Africa.]]

At uKhahlamba / Drakensberg Park, South Africa, now thought to be some 3,000 years old, the paintings by the San people who settled in the area some 8,000 years ago depict animals and humans, and are thought to represent religious beliefs. Human figures are much more common in the rock art of Africa than in Europe.{{cite magazine |first=Leon |last=Jaroff |title=Etched in Stone |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,986446,00.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204205110/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,986446,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 4, 2013 |magazine=Time |date=1997-06-02 |access-date=2008-10-07 |quote=Wildlife and humans tend to get equal billing in African rock art. (In the caves of western Europe, by contrast, pictures of animals cover the walls and human figures are rare.) In southern Africa, home to the San, or Bushmen, many of the rock scenes depicting people interpret the rituals and hallucinations of the shamans who still dominate the San culture today. Among the most evocative images are those believed to represent shamans deep in trance: a reclining, antelope-headed man surrounded by imaginary beasts, for example, or an insect-like humanoid covered with wild decorations.}}

File:2009 07 09 camino cielo paradise 137.jpg]]

{{Main|Great Mural Rock Art}}

Distinctive monochrome and polychrome cave paintings and murals exist in the mid-peninsula regions of southern Baja California and northern Baja California Sur, consisting of Pre-Columbian paintings of humans, land animals, sea creatures, and abstract designs. These paintings are mostly confined to the sierras of this region, but can also be found in outlying mesas and rock shelters. According to recent radiocarbon studies of the area, of materials recovered from archaeological deposits in the rock shelters and on materials in the paintings themselves, suggest that the Great Murals may have a time range extending as far back as 7,500 years ago.{{Cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0717_030717_bajarockart.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030719060253/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0717_030717_bajarockart.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 19, 2003|title=Baja California Rock Art Dated to 7,500 Years Ago|website=news.nationalgeographic.com|access-date=2016-03-29}}

California{{Further|Rock art of the Chumash people}}

Native artists in the Chumash tribes created cave paintings that are located in present-day Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo Counties in Southern California in the United States. They include examples at Burro Flats Painted Cave and Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park.

There are also Native American pictogram examples in caves of the Southwestern United States. Cave art that is 6,000 years old was found in the Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee.{{Cite journal|title=Sacred landscapes of the south-eastern USA: prehistoric rock and cave art in Tennessee |author1 = Simekm Jan F. |author2 =Alan Cressler |author3 =Nicholas P. Herrmann |author4 =Sarah C. Sherwood|year=2013|journal=Antiquity |volume=87|issue=336 |pages=430–446|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00049048 |s2cid = 130296519 }}

Native American tribes have contributed to the makings of Californian cave art, whether it be in Northern or Baja California. The Chumash people of Southern and Baja California made paintings in Swordfish Cave. It was given its name after the swordfish that are painted on its walls and is a sacred site for religious and cultural practices of the Chumash tribe. It was under attack of demolition, which prompted the start of its conservation with cooperation between the Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Tribal Elders Council of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash. These two parties were able to stabilize and conserve the cave and its art. When previously studied, there were many conclusions about how the paintings were made but not a lot of conclusions about the symbolic value of the rock art and what its meaning to the Chumash tribe. The excavation of the inside of the cave became a viewing area for archaeologists and anthropologists, specifically Clayton Lebow, Douglas Harrow, and Rebecca McKim, to find out the symbolic meaning of the art. Some of the tools that were used to make the pictographs were found in the site and were connected to the two early occupations that were in the area. This pushed back the general knowledge of understood antiquity of rock art on California's Central Coast by more than 2,000 years.{{Cite journal |last=Liwosz |first=Chester R. |date=2016-07-02 |title=The Archaeology and Rock Art of Swordfish Cave |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1947461X.2016.1240852 |journal=California Archaeology |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=319–321 |doi=10.1080/1947461X.2016.1240852 |issn=1947-461X}}

The National Institution of Anthropology and History (INAH) established in Mexico recorded over 1,500 rock art related archaeological monuments in Baja California. A little under 300 of the sites were connected to Native American Tribes. Throughout these 300 sites, 65% have paintings, 24% have petroglyphs, 10% have both paintings and petroglyphs, and 1% have geoglyphs. Five of these sites located in Baja California show hand designs or paintings, and they all spread out in that area. These sites include Milagro de Guadalupe (23 imprints), Corral de Queno (6 imprints), Rancho Viejo (1 drawing), Piedras Gordas (5 imprints), and finally Valle Seco (3 imprints).

File:Serra da Capivara - Several Paintings 2b.jpg]]

Serra da Capivara National Park is a national park in the north east of Brazil with many prehistoric paintings; the park was created to protect the prehistoric artifacts and paintings found there. It became a World Heritage Site in 1991. Its best known archaeological site is Pedra Furada.

It is located in northeast state of Piauí, between latitudes 8° 26' 50" and 8° 54' 23" south and longitudes 42° 19' 47" and 42° 45' 51" west. It falls within the municipal areas of São Raimundo Nonato, São João do Piauí, Coronel José Dias and Canto do Buriti. It has an area of 1291.4 square kilometres (319,000 acres). The area has the largest concentration of prehistoric small farms on the American continents. Scientific studies confirm that the Capivara mountain range was densely populated in prehistoric periods.

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for "Cave of the Hands") is a cave located in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, 163 km (101 mi) south of the town of Perito Moreno, within the borders of the Francisco P. Moreno National Park, which includes many sites of archaeological and paleontological importance.

The hand images are often negative (stencilled). Besides these there are also depictions of human beings, guanacos, rheas, felines and other animals, as well as geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, representations of the sun, and hunting scenes. Similar paintings, though in smaller numbers, can be found in nearby caves. There are also red dots on the ceilings, probably made by submerging their hunting bolas in ink, and then throwing them up. The colours of the paintings vary from red (made from hematite) to white, black or yellow. The negative hand impressions date to around 550 BC, the positive impressions from 180 BC, while the hunting drawings are calculated to more than 10,000 years old.{{cite book |last=Le Comte |first=Christian |title=Argentine Indians |year=2003 |publisher=Consorcio de Editores |isbn=987-9479-11-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/argentineindians00chri }} Most of the hands are "left hands" (that is, with thumb on the right, even though this pattern can be obtained as easily with both right and left hands, depending on whether the back or front is used){{cite book|last1=Podestá|first1=María Mercedes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NuG-pvgnd6IC&dq=%22Cueva+de+las+Manos%22+left+hand&pg=PA11|title=El arte rupestre de Argentina indígena: Patagonia|last2=Raffino|first2=Rodolfo A.|last3=Paunero|first3=Rafael Sebastián|last4=Rolandi|first4=Diana S.|publisher=Grupo Abierto Communicaciones|year=2005|isbn=978-987-1121-16-8|language=es|access-date=2021-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029010950/https://www.google.co.uk/gen_204?s=web&t=aft&atyp=csi&ei=10l7Ye-DE4K60PEP6uey8A8&rt=wsrt.491,aft.4960,prt.2585&imn=26&ima=10&imad=9&aftp=18869&bl=TGeo|archive-date=2021-10-29|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last1=Steele|first1=James|title=Stone Knapping: the Necessary Conditions for a Uniquely Hominin Behaviour|last2=Uomini|first2=Natalie|date=2005|publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge|isbn=1-902937-34-1|editor-last=Roux|editor-first=Valentine|location=Cambridge, UK|page=234|chapter=Humans, tools and handedness|oclc=64118071|access-date=2021-04-23|editor-last2=Bril|editor-first2=Blandine|chapter-url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrnjst/Steele%26Uomini2005.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016025838/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrnjst/Steele%26Uomini2005.pdf|archive-date=2021-10-16|url-status=live}} which has been used as an argument to suggest that painters held the spraying pipe with their right hand.{{cite magazine|last=Parfit|first=Michael|date=December 2000|title=Hunt for the First Americans|magazine=National Geographic|publisher=National Geographic Society|volume=198|issue=6|page=40}}{{Cite book|last=Wiesner-Hanks|first=Merry E.|title=A Concise History of the World|date=September 23, 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02837-1|location=New York|pages=11–13|oclc=908262350|author-link=Merry Wiesner-Hanks}}{{Cite book|last=Moore|first=Jerry D.|title=Incidence of travel: recent journeys in ancient South America|date=2017|publisher=University Press of Colorado|isbn=978-1-60732-600-7|location=Boulder|page=100|doi=10.5876/9781607326007|jstor=j.ctt1m3210q|lccn=2016053403|oclc=973325343}}

File:Rockpainting di Misool, Raja Ampat.jpg, Indonesia]]

There are rock paintings in caves in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma. In Thailand, caves and scarps along the Thai-Burmese border, in the Petchabun Range of Central Thailand, and overlooking the Mekong River in Nakorn Sawan Province, all contain galleries of rock paintings. In Malaysia, the Tambun rock art is dated at 2000 years, and those in the Painted Cave at Niah Caves National Park are 1200 years old. The anthropologist Ivor Hugh Norman Evans visited Malaysia in the early 1920s and found that some of the tribes (especially Negritos) were still producing cave paintings and had added depictions of modern objects including what are believed to be automobiles.{{cite web |last=Weber |first=George |url=http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter35/text35.htm |work=The Negrito of Malaysia |title=The Semang |access-date=11 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724065848/http://andaman.org/BOOK/chapter35/text35.htm |archive-date=24 July 2013 }} (See prehistoric Malaysia.)

In Indonesia, rock paintings can be found in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Flores, Timor, Maluku and Papua.{{cite journal |last1=Oktaviana |first1=Adhi Agus |last2=Setiawan |first2=Pindi |title=Pola Gambar Cadas di Situs Gua Harimau, Sumatera Selatan |journal=Pusat Arkeologi Nasional |date=2015 |volume= |issue= |doi= |pages=1–10}}{{cite journal |last1=Fauzi |first1=Mohammad Ruly |last2=Intan |first2=Fadhlan S. |last3=Wibowo |first3=Andy S. |title=Newly discovered cave art sites from Bukit Bulan, Sumatra: Aligning prehistoric symbolic behavior in Indonesian prehistory |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |date=2019 |volume=24 |issue= |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.01.001 |pages=166–174 |bibcode=2019JArSR..24..166F }}{{cite journal |last1=O'Connor |first1=Sue |title=Unusual painted anthropomorph in Lembata island extends our understanding of rock art diversity in Indonesia |journal=Rock Art Research |date=May 2018 |volume=35 |issue=1 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325010281 |access-date=11 November 2022}}

• List of Stone Age art
• 15,000 BC in art

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |first=Mark |last=Dubowski |title=Discovery in the Cave (Children's early reader) |publisher=Random House |location=New York |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-375-85893-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryincave0000dubo }}
• {{cite book|last=Fage|first=Luc-Henri|title=Borneo – Memory of the Caves|year=2010|publisher=Le Kalimanthrope|isbn=978-2-9536616-1-3|author2=Chazine, Jean-Michel}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Heyd|editor1-first=Thomas |editor2-last=Clegg |editor2-first=John |title=Aesthetics and Rock Art|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|year=2005|isbn=0-7546-3924-X}}
• {{cite book |last=Curtis |first=Gregory |title=The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists |publisher=Knopf |year=2006 |isbn=1-4000-4348-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/cavepaintersprob00curt }}
• {{cite journal |last=Nechvatal |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Nechvatal |title=Immersive Excess in the Apse of Lascaux |journal=Technonoetic Arts |volume=3 |issue=3 |year=2005 |pages=181–192 |doi=10.1386/tear.3.3.181/1}}

{{Commons category|Cave paintings}}

{{Wiktionary}}

• [http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/ Bradshaw Foundation] The recording of cave paintings around the world
• [http://www.europreart.net/ EuroPreArt] database of European Prehistoric Art
• [https://arara.wildapricot.org/ American Rock Art Research Association]
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7509683.stm Tour of Afghan cave paintings] from BBC News.
• [http://www.kalimanthrope.com/ Le Kalimanthrope] Rock art of Borneo (Kalimantan, Indonesia)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130622013211/https://sites.google.com/site/journeythrougharthistory/prehistoricart Journey through Art History], an outline of prehistoric art with emphasis on cave paintings from around the world.
• [http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-interactive Human Timeline (Interactive)] – Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).

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Category:Art of the Upper Paleolithic

Category:Indigenous art

Category:Mass media technology

Category:Murals

Category:Pre-Columbian art