A new study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior describes what may be the oldest rock paintings in Australia. One kangaroo painting described in the paper may be 17,500 years old.
Ancient Sulawesi paintings of pigs dating back at least 43,900 years are so detailed researchers today can identify their exact species.
Engravings from some 8,000 years ago show ancient humans felt a connection with dogs. These engravings depict hunting dogs on leashes.
M. Guagnin, et al. JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. (2018)
Paintings found in the Amazon by the LASTJOURNEY project show how humans there once lived alongside extinct animals, including mastodons.
Cave art may have even helped ancient humans develop language by practicing symbolic thinking.
Universal History Archive
Interestingly, one study claims animals in ancient paintings may actually represent constellations. If so, it would mean we had knowledge of astronomy thousands of years before the science is thought to have developed.
Other scientists dispute that claim. Paul Pettitt, Ph.D, of Durham University, told Inverse the study was "embarassingly bad."
Cave paintings even show that Neanderthals shared humans' artistic inclinations.
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