When did cave paintings appear?

According to Dr. Helena Valladas and colleagues at the Weather and Environmental Laboratory, CEA-CNRS Research Center (France), when conducting the age analysis of horse paintings in Chauvet in central south country

The mural in Lascaux cave
(Photo: uiowa.edu)

France, his team discovered that they may have been drawn about 30,000 years ago, much older than the previous guess of researchers on the development of human painting.

In 1940, in the Lascaux caves, in the Dordogne region, France, very elaborate and sophisticated frescoes were found, thought to be around 17,000 years old. Until 1994, when cave explorers entered a narrow pathway with stone rooms in Chauvet located deep in the Ardeche region, they also discovered more complicated charcoal drawings. and equally sophisticated.

Experts from CEA-CNRS analyzed carbon isotopes to determine their age. As a result, these prehistoric masterpieces appeared at least 29,700-32,400 years ago, meaning about 10,000 years older than the works found at Lascaux. Dr. Helena Valladas remarked: these figures show that the level of art of prehistoric people has reached the level of skill, as much as the residents of 13,000 years later.

Chauvet cave mural (Photo: he.ne)

NGUYEN SINH