Found almost everywhere in the world, cave paintings are our most powerful window into our original ancestors’ earliest thoughts and feelings
Prehistoric cave art is some of the earliest surviving art in human history. Paintings have been found on walls of caves around the world with depictions of objects, symbols, patterns, shapes, animals, humans and mythical creatures. Cave art more broadly also includes relief carvings and portable sculptures, paintings and carvings on rocks. It is a reminder of how far we have come and how disconnected we are from ancestors we know nothing of. It also reveals that common interests and practices have linked communities since our origins: art-making, animals, storytelling and making our mark. Cave art began with abstract shapes, and became increasingly figurative and representative of complex ideas, incorporating humans, animals and plants as time went by. With no written records from tens of thousands of years ago and few other surviving artefacts or art forms, this anonymous art is some of our only insights into the interests, hopes, dreams and fears of our ancestors, and decoding them is fascinating. As a result, cave art has captivated, and even obsessed, people since the 19th century, as we seek to understand more about our origins.
One article cannot cover the richness and sheer number of fascinating cave paintings the world over. Palaeolithic cave art has been found on every continent except Antarctica: from Namibia to Brazil, Argentina to Arizona – some strikingly similar, and some worlds apart. Here, we will introduce you to ten of the very oldest, and perhaps spur you to uncover many more examples of mankind’s abundant creativity, skill and imagination.
EL CASTILLO CAVE
Spain, c.40,000+ years old
The Monte Castillo caves are located in Puente Viesgo in Spain and are a set of four cavities with two of them being open to the public (El Castillo and Las Monedas). 260 visitors can enter per day. As Homo sapiens began to migrate from Africa towards Europe around 40,000 years ago, some of them joined the Neanderthals in Cantabria and very literally made their mark. The El Castillo Cave was first discovered in 1903 by archaeologist Hermilio Alcalde del Río and first excavated by prehistorian and anthropologist Hugo Obermaier. Inside the cave, one can find plenty of artistic expressions, with drawings representing animals and symbols of humans and a large collection of handprints being present in this cave, also known as the Panel of Hands. In the cave, there are also signs, the so-called dot cloud, disc- and club-like symbols and rectangular forms, engravings and at least two sculptures. The first were thought to be made by Neanderthals, and later added to by Homo sapien arrivals, and these caves add to our growing knowledge of the interactions, inventions an
