one of the oldest caves is that of chauvet in france. paintings in the cave fall into two groups. one has been dated to around 30,000 to 33,000 years ago, the other to 26,000 or 27,000 years ago.p546 the oldest known cave paintings, based on radiocarbon dating of "black from drawings, from torch marks and from the floors". as of 1999, the dates of 31 samples from the cave have been reported. the oldest paintings have been dated from 32,900±490 years ago.