Humans make art. We do this for many reasons and with whatever technologies are available to us. But what can we really know about their creators and what the images originally meant?
- c. 10,000 B.C.E.
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Bhimbetka cave paintings
Paintings in the rock shelters in Bhimbetka are the oldest art of South Asia.
Bannerstones, North America
Between 6000 and 1000 B.C.E., thousands of nomadic Native Americans travelled and lived along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, making enigmatic, carefully carved stones.
Clovis culture, North America
The first clear evidence of human activity in North America are spearheads used to hunt large game.
Carvings and paintings, Kakadu (Australia)
The cave paintings, rock carvings, and archaeological sites record the skills and way of life of the region’s inhabitants.
Rock art on the Iberian coast
The late prehistoric rock-art sites of the Mediterranean seaboard of the Iberian peninsula form an exceptionally large group.
Rock drawings in Valcamonica
Valcamonica, situated in the Lombardy plain, has one of the world's greatest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs
Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain (UNESCO/NHK)
Seventeen decorated caves of the Paleolithic age were inscribed as an extension to the Altamira Cave
Figurative cave art in Borneo
These enigmatic artworks are among the world’s oldest examples of figurative depiction.
Warty pig cave painting in Sulawesi, Indonesia
A team of Griffith University archaeologists has shared in the discovery of what may be the world’s oldest known cave painting, dating back to at least 45,500 years ago.
Paleolithic art, an introduction
One of the defining traits of humans is our drive to make art, and this desire to create is as old as our species.
Our earliest technology? A prehistoric handaxe
Fire, clothing, or the wheel: was this humble hand axe the earliest human technology?
Apollo 11 Cave Stones
All evidence points to Africa as the origin of our species … is Africa also the birthplace of art?
