New dating tests have proven that drawings from the Caves of
Nerja, in Málaga, Spain, are the oldest paintings in the world
made by humans. The pictures apparently depict seals and were
painted more than 42,000 years ago, making them the first known
cave paintings created by Neanderthals. Before this discovery,
the drawings made about 32,000 years ago in the Chauvent-
Pont-d’Arc Cave in the Ardèche department of southern France,
were the considered the oldest. However the new tests, dating
the charcoal that was found next to the Nerja cave paintings,
dates them somewhere between 42,300 and 43,500 years old. The
paintings themselves haven’t yet been tested since the team has
been hampered with lack of funding. Project leader José Luis
Sanchidrián, from the University of Córdoba, thinks that it
could revolutionize the understanding of human history.
Neanderthals decorated their bodies with paint and had an
aesthetic sense, he states. Until now, it was thought that Homo
sapiens sapiens created all of the art in c