Explore the fascinating history of seven incredible caves around the world, revealing the legacy of our ancestors and their use of these natural shelters for art, burial, and daily life.
Caves have served as natural shelters for humans throughout history, providing spaces for art creation, burial rituals, and even animal butchering. Live Science delves into seven remarkable caves that bear testament to the ingenuity and practices of our ancestors.
From prehistoric cave paintings in France to the enigmatic discoveries in Denisova Cave in Siberia, these archaeological treasures offer glimpses into the lives of early humans and their now-extinct relatives like Neanderthals and Denisovans.One such cave is Lascaux, located in southwestern France. This cave boasts approximately 680 painted frescoes and 1,500 engravings dating back around 21,000 years. The artwork features depictions of aurochs (an extinct species of bovine), along with geometric elements and a possible human figure with a bird-like head, suggesting ritualistic practices.Moving to Chauvet Cave in France, renowned for its remarkably preserved animal paintings, offers a glimpse into the artistic prowess of early humans. The cave's interior showcases images of horses, bears, lions, rhinoceroses, deer, panthers, bison, owls, and mammoths, created using red or black ochres. A particularly intriguing image depicts the lower half of a woman's body alongside what appears to be a bison. Meanwhile, the caves of Zhoukoudian in China, known as 'Peking Man' site, reveal evidence of hominins who inhabited the region between roughly 200,000 and 800,000 years ago. Excavations have uncovered stone tools used for scraping and softening animal hides, suggesting their use for clothing.Other captivating caves include Ain Sukhna in Egypt, adorned with rock art depicting people engaged in swimming, running, and other activities. Dating back between 6,000 and 9,000 years, the artwork reflects a time when the region was much wetter. Denisova Cave in Siberia, known after a hermit who resided there in the 1700s, yielded evidence of at least three hominin species who inhabited the site at different points in time. Stone tools, hominin bones and teeth, as well as the remains of a 13-year-old Denisovan-Neanderthal hybrid, paint a fascinating picture of human evolution in this region
Caves Archaeology Ancient Humans Neanderthals Denisovans Rock Art History
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