Who made the world’s oldest art? Two strands of evidence now point to two different species. Paintings in northern Spain are older than any modern human presence there, which suggests Neanderthal artists. In Indonesia, very old rock art was almost certainly made by early Homo sapiens. Together they weaken the idea that symbolic expression belonged to our species alone. For Optional Paper I, this is core material on the origins of symbolic behaviour.
Sources: Hoffmann et al., Science (2018); Oktaviana et al., Nature (2024); Nature (21 January 2026), “Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi”. Checked through abstracts and press coverage.
Spain: art older than modern humans
The 2018 Science study dated mineral crusts over paintings in Spanish caves, including red disks, ladder-like shapes and hand stencils at La Pasiega. It gave minimum ages of at least 64,800 years, almost 20,000 years before Homo sapiens reached Europe. Because the paint predates our species locally, the likely makers were Neanderthals.
Treat the Spanish dates with care. The method (uranium-thorium dating) dates crusts that formed after the paint, so it gives minimum ages, not exact ones. Some researchers question whether the crusts sealed the pigment cleanly. Neanderthal ornaments such as pierced shells and ochre-stained pieces support the case, but they do not settle it.
Indonesia: early Homo sapiens art
A 2024 Nature study dated a hunting scene at Leang Karampuang in Sulawesi to at least 51,200 years ago. It is the oldest known figurative and narrative art. A 2026 Nature paper then dated a partly preserved hand stencil at Liang Metanduno on Muna Island to a minimum of about 67,800 years. The authors present this as the oldest dated rock art so far, and it is only about a thousand years older than the Spanish minimum. Someone sprayed ochre around a hand, and later retouching narrowed the fingers into clawlike forms.
These are again minimum ages from mineral crusts. The authors also use the art to argue for early sea crossings in Wallacea. That is an interpretation, not direct proof of a voyage.
Africa and the longer story
Engraved ochre from Blombos Cave in South Africa, about 75,000 years old, shows deliberate pigment use and engraving long before the Upper Palaeolithic. Taken together, these cases favour a gradual and widespread origin of symbolic culture over a sudden “revolution” in Europe.
Using it in UPSC Mains
Contrast the two regions. Spain gives evidence for Neanderthal symbolism, and Sulawesi gives evidence for early Homo sapiens art with narrative scenes. Then add the dating caveat, since an answer that notes minimum ages reads as more careful. Finally, state your position: symbolic capacity was probably not unique to one species, though the evidence is still thin.
Practise with the 2019 question on Upper Palaeolithic traditions in Europe and the Prehistoric Archaeology PYQs. For related reading, see fossil shell ornaments and symbolism and the note on Homo floresiensis and human diversity. The syllabus map is in the Paper 1 archaeology syllabus and the complete optional guide.
Sources
Hoffmann et al., Science (2018); Oktaviana et al., Nature (2024); Nature (2026), rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi.