U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain

A groundbreaking study reveals that cave art in Spain, including at UNESCO World Heritage sites like Altamira and El Castillo, dates back to at least the Early Aurignacian period. Using uranium-series disequilibrium dating of calcite deposits, researchers determined minimum ages of 40.8 thousand years for a red disk, 37.3 thousand years for a hand stencil, and 35.6 thousand years for a claviform-like symbol. These findings suggest that cave art may have been part of the cultural practices of the first anatomically modern humans in Europe or possibly even Neandertals, challenging long-held assumptions about the origins of symbolic behavior.

Pike, A. W. G., Hoffmann, D. L., García-Diez, M., Pettitt, P. B., Alcolea, J., De Balbín, R., González-Sainz, C., de las Heras, C., Lasheras, J. A., Montes, R., & Zilhão, J. (2012). U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain. Science, 336(6087), 1409–1413. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219957