Cave paintings are pictures that Stone Age people painted or carved on cave walls, mostly between about 40,000 and 14,000 years ago. The oldest reliably dated one, in Sulawesi, Indonesia, is at least 51,200 years old. Famous painted caves include Chauvet and Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Most show animals, painted in red and black.
Stone Age cave paintings quick facts
- About 400 decorated caves and rock shelters are known, most of them in France and Spain.
- The red paint came from iron oxides such as haematite; the black from manganese dioxide and charcoal.
- Hand stencils were made by blowing mouthfuls of paint over a hand pressed on the rock.
- Chauvet Cave in France was discovered on 18 December 1994 and its paintings are about 36,000 years old.
- Animals make up most cave art; people, birds and fish are rare.
What is cave art?
Long before anyone could write, people painted and carved pictures on the walls of caves. We call this cave art. Most of it dates from the last Ice Age, in a part of the Stone Age called the Upper Palaeolithic, roughly between 40,000 and 14,000 years ago.
Experts know of about 400 decorated caves and rock shelters. Most are in France and Spain, but others have been found in Portugal, England, Italy, Romania, Germany, Russia and Indonesia.
The artists were Stone Age hunters and gatherers. To find out how they lived, read our guide to Stone Age people.
The first cave art to be recognised
The first painted cave that experts accepted as truly ancient was Altamira, in northern Spain. Its most famous paintings show bison, painted around 15,000 BCE, about 17,000 years ago.
Experts decided that the art there was the work of modern humans, Homo sapiens, people just like us. Since then, hundreds more painted caves have been found.
The oldest cave art yet found
For a long time, people thought cave art began in Europe. Discoveries on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have changed that.
Scientists working there found that a hand stencil in a cave called Leang Timpuseng was at least 39,900 years old. Nearby, a painting of a babirusa, a wild pig-deer that lives on the island, was at least 35,400 years old.
Then, in 2024, a team led by the Indonesian rock art expert Adhi Agus Oktaviana announced something even older. In a cave called Leang Karampuang, a painting shows three human-like figures with a wild pig. It was painted at least 51,200 years ago.
That makes it the oldest reliably dated cave art in the world. It also shows a scene, with figures doing something together, so it may be one of the oldest stories ever told in pictures. The research was published in the science journal Nature.
Oktaviana has pointed out that none of the famous Ice Age art in Europe comes anywhere near as old, apart from a few disputed finds in Spain.
The Oldest Cave Art
- For a long time, where did people think cave art began?
- What is a babirusa?
- What makes the Leang Karampuang painting special apart from its age?
- In which science journal was the Leang Karampuang research published?
How scientists work out the age
You cannot date paint just by looking at it. Instead, scientists study thin crusts of minerals that grow over the paintings.
Water trickling through the rock leaves behind tiny mineral growths, sometimes called cave popcorn. These contain a little uranium. Uranium slowly turns into thorium at a rate scientists know, so measuring how much of each there is tells them the age of the crust.
Because the crust formed on top of the painting, the painting must be older still. That is why the dates are always given as “at least” a certain age.
For the Leang Karampuang painting, the team used a newer method called laser ablation U-series analysis. A laser samples very thin layers of the crust, one after another. Professors Maxime Aubert and Renaud Joannes-Boyau helped to develop it.
How Old Is That Painting?
- Painting A Stone Age artist paints a picture on the cave wall.
- Water Water trickles through the rock and over the painting.
- Crust A thin mineral crust, sometimes called cave popcorn, grows on top.
- Uranium The little uranium in the crust slowly turns into thorium.
- Measuring Scientists measure how much uranium and thorium the crust holds.
- Answer The crust's age tells them the painting is at least that old.
Chauvet: a cave full of lions
On 18 December 1994, three cave explorers, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel and Christian Hillaire, discovered a decorated cave in the Ardèche region of southern France. It is now called the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave.
Its paintings are about 36,000 years old, according to the French Ministry of Culture. They include horses, lions, bears and megaloceros, a giant deer that is now extinct.
The earliest cave artists often chose the most dangerous animals to paint, many of them now long gone: cave lions, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and cave bears. Chauvet is full of them.
The cave is fragile, so it is closed to visitors. Instead, people can visit a careful copy called Grotte Chauvet 2.
Lascaux: horses, bison and deer
Lascaux, also in France, was discovered in 1940. Its paintings were made about 21,000 years ago, according to the French Ministry of Culture.
By this time, cave artists were painting different animals. Horses, bison, aurochs, deer and ibex had become the favourite subjects, as they are at Lascaux and at another French cave, Niaux. Aurochs were huge wild cattle, now extinct. Ibex are wild mountain goats.
The real cave cannot be visited, but copies can. Lascaux II came first, then Lascaux III, and since 2016 there has been Lascaux IV, an international centre for cave art.
Match the Cave
- Altamira — First painted cave accepted as truly ancient
- Chauvet — Found by three cave explorers in 1994
- Lascaux — Discovered in France in 1940
- Leang Karampuang — Three human-like figures with a wild pig
- Leang Timpuseng — An ancient hand stencil on Sulawesi
- Lascaux IV — An international centre for cave art
How were cave paintings made?
Most cave paintings use just two colours, red and black. The reds were made from iron oxides such as haematite, a reddish mineral. The blacks came from manganese dioxide and from charcoal.
Some pictures were not painted at all. Artists scratched lines into hard walls with sharp flint tools, or drew with their fingers on soft walls. A few even made sculptures, like the clay bison found in the Tuc d’Audoubert cave in France in 1912.
Hand stencils were made by placing a palm flat on the rock and blowing mouthfuls of paint over it. When the hand was lifted away, its outline was left behind. Hand stencils and handprints are especially common in the earliest cave art.
Many paintings are deep inside caves, where it is completely dark. The artists must have brought light with them to see what they were doing.
Making Cave Art
- What is haematite?
- How did artists make pictures on hard walls without paint?
- What was found in the Tuc d'Audoubert cave in France in 1912?
- Why must cave artists have brought light with them?
What did cave artists paint?
Mostly animals. In caves from every period, animals make up most of the pictures.
People appear far less often. Birds and fish are rare. But geometric signs, such as dots and lines, turn up in large numbers, and the kinds of sign change depending on when and where a cave was painted.
Nobody knows what most of these signs meant. They may have carried a message that the artists’ own people understood, but that has since been lost.
Why did people paint in caves?
This is the biggest mystery of all. Experts generally think cave art had a symbolic or religious purpose, or perhaps both, but the exact meaning of the pictures is unknown.
One idea links it to shamans, people believed to be able to reach the spirit world. A shaman might go deep into a cave for a ceremony and try to make contact with the spirits there.
Others think some paintings told stories. The Leang Karampuang painting, with its figures and a pig, looks like a scene from a story, perhaps about a hunt.
It is quite possible that different paintings were made for different reasons. After all, they were made over tens of thousands of years, by many different groups of people.
Fact or Myth?
- Geometric signs such as dots and lines turn up in large numbers in cave art.
- Experts have worked out what every cave sign means.
- Birds and fish are among the most common subjects in cave art.
- One idea links cave art to shamans, people believed to reach the spirit world.
- All cave paintings must have been made for the same reason.
Cave art around the world
Paintings deep inside dark caves are rare outside Europe, but they do exist. There are examples in the Maya caves of Mexico, in the mud-glyph caves of the south-eastern United States, in Koonalda Cave in South Australia, and in the Kalimantan caves of Borneo, which are full of hand stencils.
Art painted or carved on open rocks and shelters is found almost everywhere, from Africa to Australia. Most of it is much younger than the Ice Age cave paintings of Europe.
Looking after cave art
Cave paintings have lasted tens of thousands of years in the dark, still air of caves. Even so, they are easy to damage.
That is why caves such as Chauvet and Lascaux are closed to the public. Copies let people see the art while the real caves are kept safe.
For more about life at this time, see our Stone Age facts for kids and our guide to Old Stone Age tools and weapons.
Three things people get wrong
Cave art did not begin in Europe. The oldest reliably dated cave painting is in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and is at least 51,200 years old.
Cave paintings are not mostly pictures of people. Animals make up most of the images. People, birds and fish are rare.
Nobody knows for sure why cave art was made. Experts think it was symbolic or religious, but the exact meanings are lost.
Did you know? Scientists date cave paintings using the tiny mineral crusts, sometimes called cave popcorn, that grow over them. Because the crust is on top, the painting must be older.
Try it
Put your hand flat on a sheet of paper and dab paint around it with a sponge. Lift your hand away and you have a hand stencil, the same kind of picture Stone Age artists made.
Knowledge check
Why are cave painting dates given as “at least” a certain age?
Show answer
Because scientists date the mineral crust that grew on top of the painting, so the painting must be older than the crust.
Which two colours are used in most cave paintings?
Show answer
Red, from iron oxides, and black, from manganese dioxide and charcoal.
Frequently asked questions
What is the oldest cave painting in the world?
The oldest reliably dated cave painting is in Leang Karampuang cave on Sulawesi, Indonesia. It shows three human-like figures with a wild pig and was painted at least 51,200 years ago.
What did Stone Age people use to make cave paintings?
Stone Age artists made red paint from iron oxides such as haematite, and black from manganese dioxide and charcoal. They also engraved lines with flint tools or their fingers, and blew paint over their hands to make stencils.
What did cave paintings show?
Most cave paintings show animals. Early ones often show dangerous, now-extinct animals such as cave lions and mammoths; later ones show horses, bison, aurochs, deer and ibex. Geometric signs are common, while people are rare.
Why did Stone Age people paint in caves?
Nobody knows for sure. Experts generally think cave art had a symbolic or religious purpose, and some link it to shamans who went into deep caves to contact spirits.
Where are the most famous cave paintings?
Famous painted caves include Chauvet and Lascaux in France, Altamira in Spain, and Leang Karampuang and Leang Timpuseng on Sulawesi in Indonesia.
Can you visit Lascaux and Chauvet caves?
No. The real Lascaux and Chauvet caves are closed to protect their fragile paintings. Visitors can see detailed copies instead, including Lascaux IV and Grotte Chauvet 2.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: cave art — dates, numbers of sites, pigments, engravings, subjects, meanings and cave art beyond Europe
- Griffith University: cave painting in Indonesia is the oldest known picture story — the 51,200-year-old Leang Karampuang painting and how it was dated
- Smithsonian Magazine: a journey to the oldest cave paintings in the world — the Sulawesi hand stencil and babirusa painting, uranium dating and how stencils were made
- French Ministry of Culture: Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave — the discovery, age and animals of Chauvet and the Grotte Chauvet 2 copy
- French Ministry of Culture: Lascaux — the discovery and age of Lascaux and the Lascaux II, III and IV copies
Cave Paintings Final Quiz
- Most cave art dates from which part of the Stone Age?
- Who were the cave artists?
- Which animals did the earliest cave artists often choose to paint?
- What were aurochs?
- How was a hand stencil made?
- Which dating method was used for the Leang Karampuang painting?
- Which of these is NOT a place with cave art outside Europe named in the guide?
- Where is art painted or carved on open rocks and shelters found?
- How have cave paintings lasted tens of thousands of years?
- What is Grotte Chauvet 2?
