Cave Paintings Timeline

A 2014 study based on uranium–thorium dating dated a Maros hand stencil to a minimum age of 39,900 years.

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.

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.

A 2012 study using uranium-thorium dating established that the Cave of El Castillo in Spain contains the earliest known European figurative cave paintings, dating back to at least 40,000 BC.

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.

Image source: Cave of Altamira

The Cave of Swimmers was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy.

Image source: Cave of Swimmers

In 2002, a French archaeological team discovered the Laas Geel cave paintings on the outskirts of Hargeisa in Somaliland.

Image source: Laas Geel

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.

Image source: Dhambalin

In 2009, cavers discovered drawings in Coliboaia Cave in Romania, stylistically comparable to those at Chauvet.

In 2011, archaeologists found a small rock fragment at Blombos Cave, about 300 km (190 mi) east of Cape Town on the southern cape coastline in South Africa, among spear points and other excavated material.

Image source: Blombos Cave

In 2020, a 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.

In January 2026, an older hand stencil was discovered in Muna Island, dated to be at least 67,800 years old, making it the oldest known cave paintings in the world.

In the early 20th century, following the work of Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen, scholars such as Salomon Reinach, Henri Breuil and Count Bégouën interpreted the paintings as 'utilitarian' hunting magic to increase the abundance of prey.

A 2012 study found that prehistoric cave artists depicted the walking gait of four-legged animals with greater accuracy than modern artists, suggesting close observation of prey animals was important for survival.

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, suggested that lines and dots (and a commonly seen "Y" symbol, 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.