The oldest lifelike portraits of human faces have been uncovered in a cave in southern France. The images were first discovered over 50 years ago, but were forgotten after doubts about their authenticity. Now German scientist Dr. Michael Rappenglueck, of Munich University, says these are drawings of real, prehistoric people.
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The world?s oldest example of abstract art, dating back more than 70,000 years, has been found in a cave in South Africa. It was found on two pieces of ochre in a cave on the shore of the Indian Ocean.
Previously, the earliest evidence of abstract art came mainly in France and dated back less than 35,000 years.
Dr. Christopher Henshilwood, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, says, ?[The art] may have been constructed with symbolic intent, the meaning of which is now unknown. The engraving itself is quite a complex geometric pattern. There is a system to the patterns. We don’t know what they mean, but they are symbols that I think could have been interpreted by those people as having meaning that would have been understood by others.? read more