cave art

American  

noun

1. paintings and engravings on the walls of caves and rock-shelters, especially naturalistic depictions of animals, produced by Upper Paleolithic peoples of western Europe between about 28,000 and 10,000 years ago.

---

Etymology

Origin of cave art

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Cave art is seen as a key marker of when humans began to think in truly abstract, symbolic ways – the kind of imagination that underpins language, religion and science.

From BBC

The oldest Spanish cave art is a red hand stencil in Maltravieso cave in Western Spain, dated to be at least 66,700 years old - though this is controversial and some experts don't think it to be that old.

From BBC

One fragmentary hand stencil there is overlain by thin mineral crusts that, when analysed, was found to have a minimum age of 67,800 years, making it the oldest reliably dated cave art anywhere in the world.

From BBC

Spectacular Ice Age cave art in places like Altamira and El Castillo encouraged the idea that symbolism and art switched on almost overnight in Ice Age Europe.

From BBC

The cave art provides a rare glimpse of a culture that may have relied on this design to communicate valuable insights across generations during a period of climactic shifts.

From New York Times