14 101 x Abundant evidence of flintworking and the extraction of flint nodules comes from the Mount Gambier region. In the caves from which the flint was taken, the walls and ceilings are often decorated with patterns of engraved circles and lines. The richness of Australia's early artistic tradition is only now beginning to be fully appreciated.
# Mount Gambier, Circle containing lattice pattern
5 101 x Seven stone slabs recovered from this southern African cave were decorated with paintings depicting various animals. They were found in the same layer as charcoal which could be dated, showing that they were executed sometime between 25,000 and 17,000 years ago.
# Apollo 11 Cave
11 101 x Rock engravings more than 10,000 years old were found in this cave.
# Wonderwerk Cave
34 102 F Although late Palaeolithic people did not make pottery (except in Japan), presumably having no need of it, they were aware of how terracotta could be made and occasionally produced portable art in this material, like this head of a horned animal from North Africa.
# Afalou Bou Rhummel, Timelines
3 101 x Neanderthal remains at this long-occupied site included animal teeth and bones made into jewellery: these are among the rare examples of Neanderthal artistic endeavour.
# Kostenki
16 101 x A cave containing almost 5000 pieces of engraved or painted plaques and stones, some of them located around the hearths and occupation areas. None of the depictions, which include many human heads, showed any particular artistic skill.
# ParpallÛ
15 102 B A open air settlement dated around 10,400 BC. It was paved with slates, which were found to have been engraved with schematic human figures. The act of engraving seems to have been significant, since no care was been given to the slabs subsequently, and many were reused, disregarding the earlier engravings on them.
# Gˆnnersdorf, Bahn
32 101 x An incised baboon fibula was found here: it is thought to have been used as a tally stick.
# Border Cave, Timelines
17 102 K One of humanity's earliest artistic endeavours, this ivory statuette of a man was carved around 30,000 BC.
# Hohlenstein-Stadel, statuette
10 101 x Geometric designs engraved on the walls of Early Man cave are at least 13,000 years old, the age of the deposit of occupation material that covers the engravings. Rock art is very abundant in Australia and goes back to the time of the earliest inhabitants of the land.
# Early Man Shelter, Images
12 102 C A curious phenomenon called desert varnish has made it possible to date some of the earliest Australian engravings at Panaramitee to around 43,000 BC. This varnish is a shiny chemical crust that forms over desert rock: minute organic particles trapped in it provide the dating material.
# Panaramitee, Timelines
6 102 E Fine painted decorations in the caves at Bhimbetkar depict the lives of hunter-gatherers over the ages. The earliest examples were executed in the Palaeolithic period and were generally in a distinctive greenish paint. Usually these early paintings are of animals.
# Bhimbetkar, elephant
28 101 x Between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago, people in South Asia were decorating ostrich eggshells which they may have used as containers. A fragment of one such eggshell, embellished with a criss-cross design, was found at Patne.
# Patne, Timelines
19 103 M This fine ivory carving may depict a bear. Bear bones are commonly found in caves occupied by Palaeolithic people - the remains of beasts that died during hibernation, when the people were not using the caves. The beautiful statues from this site are among the earliest surviving works of art, dated before 30,000 BC.
# Vogelherd, Germany, Coles
20 102 D A limestone pebble found in the cave of Aq Kupruk bears a crudely carved face.
# Aq Kupruk, optional
13 102 O The soft walls and ceiling of this cave were marked by the meandering impressions of human fingers dragged across the surface. These were probably created by people who visited the cave to mine flint 24-15,000 years ago.
# Koonalda, meandering impressions of human fingers
31 101 x Engraved pebbles dated around 10,000 BC were found in this Japanese cave. They seem schematically to depict women wearing skirts.
# Kamikuroiwa, Images
4 101 x The sheltered conditions in caves and rockshelters have allowed the paintings and engravings of Palaeolithic people to survive. Occasional finds of open-air engravings, however, indicate that originally art was by no means confined to caves but was also widely executed in the outside world. One such site is Mazouco.
# Mazouco, Horse engraving
9 102 N In 1879 Marcelino de Sautuola was excavating in the cave of Altamira when his daughter noticed bison painted on the ceiling. De Sautuola recognized these were the work of the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the cave, but the world was sceptical and highly critical. Only after his death did the authenticity of Palaeolithic cave art come to be accepted.
# Altamira
8 102 A As in France and Spain, the early inhabitants of Australia and Tasmania made their personal mark by stencilling prints of their hands on cave walls. In the dark interior of Wargata Mina Cave powdered paint, probably mixed with water, was sprayed over the hand to make handprints.
