First artists in history might not be people at all

By Alimat Aliyeva

An international team of archaeologists from Great Britain and Spain has made a groundbreaking discovery that challenges the notion of human primacy in artistic expression. The first artists on Earth were likely Neanderthals, rather than the direct ancestors of modern humans. The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (JASR), raises new questions about the origins of art.

The team’s conclusions are based on findings in the Spanish Maltravieso cave, where stencil drawings of hands, dating back more than 66,000 years, were discovered. These stencils, along with human handprints, are considered among the earliest forms of intentionally created visual art preserved in the archaeological record. Although there are more than 60 red hand stencils in the Maltravieso cave, their exact age remained a mystery until now.

In this new study, the researchers used uranium and thorium isotopes to date the calcium carbonate that covered the cave paintings. They analyzed 22 samples in total. The results revealed that the paintings ranged in age from the Holocene to the Middle Paleolithic. The oldest images were found to be 66,700, 55,200, and 46,600 years old, indicating that the creators were likely Neanderthals.

While it is possible that some of the artworks in Maltravieso were created by modern humans, these would have been made much later—around 6,000 years ago.

The findings suggest that the tradition of creating stencil art in Europe began long before it appeared anywhere else in the world. Previously, the oldest known example of stencil art was found in the Leang Timpuseng cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, with an estimated age of 39,900 years.

Handprints and footprints discovered in the Tibetan Plateau are also known to be about 200,000 years old, but there is no evidence to suggest they were intentionally created. These footprints may have been left accidentally in the mud near a hot mineral spring.

This discovery reshapes our understanding of early human creativity and challenges long-held beliefs about the origins of art. It highlights the sophisticated cognitive abilities of Neanderthals, suggesting that they, too, were capable of symbolic thinking and artistic expression. This finding could also open new discussions about the relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans, as well as the evolution of culture and art.