The First Artists Lived 30,000 Years Ago

 Some of the earliest art, created thousands of years ago, can be found in caves, especially in Europe.

A cave painting of a rhinoceros from about 30,000 years ago. There are no rhinoceroses in Europe today. 

This map shows Europe during its last glaciation, about 20,000 to 70,000 years before today

A painting of a bear 

Part of Chauvet Cave today. 

Over 30,000 years ago, during the Stone Age, when people used stone tools, some of the first artists created paintings inside of caves. Chauvet Cave is a prehistoric cave site found in the limestone cliffs of Southern France. People lived inside the cave 32,000 to 26,000 years ago during the Paleolithic Age. The Paleolithic Age is the name we give to the period of time which extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins (human-like creatures) around 3.3 million years ago, down to roughly around 11,650 years ago. 

The Paleolithic era more generally refers to a time in human history when foraging (eating wild plants), hunting, and fishing were the primary means of obtaining food.

Chauvet Cave is a prehistoric cave site found in the limestone cliffs of Southern France. Jean-Marie Chauvet and two other speleologists, or cave researchers, would make the discovery on December 18, 1994. This would be the first external contact with the cave since a rock slide sealed its entrance 25,000 years ago.

Both predator (animals that eat other animals) and prey (the animals predators eat) animals, such as horses, cave bears, owls, deer, and lions are depicted, but the majority of the paintings focus on predators. 

The paintings were made with juices from plants and berries, charcoal from burnt sticks. The only light they had came from a fire. 

Stone Tools

Everyday Life in Chauvet Cave