From names carved in desks to  graffiti on bathroom walls,   there are a lot of ways we like  to make our mark on the world.

But that instinct to draw on our  surroundings isn’t new. Humans have   been making art on cave walls for tens of  thousands of years.

And anthropologists can   study these ancient drawings to learn  a ton of cool stuff about the past. Of course, some cave art turns out to  be more important than others. Some   of these doodles have changed  what we know about ourselves.

So let’s go spelunking and explore five of the  coolest cave drawing sites we’ve ever discovered. [♪ INTRO] Back in 1940, four teenagers found the entrance  to a cave in southwestern France that would   become one of the most significant  sites for studying humans in Europe. While the exact story of how they found this  cave is a bit unclear, their curiosity led them   to a cavern deep underground, decorated  with hundreds of spectacular paintings. The Lascaux Cave is considered one of the most  important cave sites in the world, with some of   the best-known art from the Upper Paleolithic  period, between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Although it’s a fairly small  cave, its walls are covered with   hundreds of prehistoric paintings,  as well as around 1,400 engravings. The paintings were made in a variety of  ways, from drawing, painting with brushes,   and even using stencils and  blowing pigment onto the wall. A lot of these paintings and carvings depict  animals, and they’re detailed enough that   around 70% of them can be identified.

There are  horses, bulls, deer, bears, big cats, and more. They even painted several aurochs,   a now extinct species that’s thought to  be the ancestor of our domesticated cows. Using carbon dating, researchers have determined   that these paintings were  made around 18,000 years ago.

Aurochs were more common at this time  but began to peter out in the Holocene,   roughly 7,000 years later. So these  depictions give us insight into the   enigmatic species’s twilight days, so to speak. Given that deep caves tend to be, well, dark,  this cave also revealed how these paleolithic   painters got their work done despite the lack of  sunlight.

Researchers discovered evidence that   deeper areas of the cave were lit with lamps,  which were likely fueled by wood or animal fat. Sadly, this cave gives us a lesson  in site conservation, too. As word   spread about the incredible artworks,  tourists flocked to the region in droves.

All those extra bodies produced a ton of  carbon dioxide, not to mention water vapor,   which fueled the growth of fungi and algae.  And sadly, all that led to some major damage   to these paintings, which is why it’s  been closed to the public for decades. Fortunately for the curious, there  are excellent images of the paintings,   and even a recreation located  right next door to the original. So the closure of this magnificent cave  doesn’t have to leave us in the dark.

While Lascaux Cave had extinct cows,   it’s not the only cave that can teach us  about domestic animals’ wild relatives. Sulawesi is a large island of Indonesia with a  history of hominin inhabitants that goes way back. As in, it’s possible that another human ancestor  got there before our own species did.

There’s   archaeological evidence dated to well over  a hundred thousand years ago, which is way   earlier than modern humans hit the scene. How  much earlier? We don’t actually know for sure.

But thanks to more than 300 caves and shelters  on the island that have some stellar art,   researchers have gotten closer to finding out  how long humans have called Sulawesi home. In 2021, researchers published their analysis  of two recently discovered cave sites,   and estimated that the art in at least  one location is at least 45,500 years old. But later work pushed that estimate ever further  back, all the way to over 50,000 years ago,   making them some of the oldest  cave drawings we’ve ever found.

And maybe the best part of all of  this is that these super old works   are paintings of pigs. Which is more  interesting than it sounds, I promise! These cave paintings depict multiple  individual pigs interacting with each other,   meaning that the art is depicting a scene  and implies narrative, not just an image.

Specifically we can tell these  were probably Celebes warty pigs,   also known as the Sulawesi warty pigs. The researchers could tell these pigs  were of the warty variety because,   well, the artists painted in those warts. Aside from Eurasian wild boars, warty pigs are  possible the only other pig species to have been   domesticated, as far as we know.

And what’s even  wilder, these warty pigs might stand alongside   wolves as the only animals that were domesticated  before humans figured out agriculture! These cave paintings tell us that our species  has spent a lot of time interacting with these   warty pigs, and gives us an insight into the  relationship before their possible domestication. So there’s a lot to love about  these pigs, warts and all.

But before we get into our next  masterpiece, here’s a quick word   from today’s sponsor. This SciShow video is supported by Brilliant:  an interactive online learning platform. There are a lot of ways to learn these days.  And they all work differently.

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You’ll  also get 20% off an annual premium subscription. Part of what made the Sulawesi paintings  special was the way that the composition   suggested a story, which tells us a lot about  the cognition of the people who painted them.   And if that sounds impressive, wait until  you hear what these next artists were up to. The Chauvet Cave was discovered by  spelunkers in 1994 in the south of France,   and is one of the best-preserved  paleolithic cave art sites known.

The art in these caves dates  to more than 30,000 years ago. The paintings depict several species of animals,  in all sorts of expressive, complex scenes. There are dozens of animals in these scenes,  some of which were done in multiple sessions,   with artists returning back  to add more to the image.

But there’s one other thing that sets these images apart. The paintings just might be our  species’s first attempt at animation. It’s been argued that the superimposed animal  outlines were deliberately drawn so the animals   would appear to move in flickering flame  light, and the evidence is pretty compelling.

For example, in one of the paintings an  eight-legged bison looks to be actually   demonstrating a four-legged animal,  just in two different stages of running. So as the firelight would dance along  the walls, it’s thought that different   parts of the image would be emphasized,  creating the appearance of a moving image. To be clear, it’s pretty challenging to confirm   the intentions of artists from  tens of thousands of years ago,   given that we can’t ask them.

But whether  intentional or not, the effect is jaw-dropping. It’s nice to imagine a bunch of early  humans gathered around the fire,   watching their favorite re-run. I  wonder what their go-to movie snack was?

Our next cave masterpiece takes  us down under to Australia. The rock formation known as Anbangbang  Gallery in Kakadu National Park is one   of the most visited Aboriginal  heritage sites in Australia. Hi, Savannah from later in production here.  We learned that the Australian government   has some restrictions for showing images of  the Anbangbang Gallery in external media.   That is honestly a good thing overall,  because it protects the interests of   the First Nations people of Australia.

But,  unfortunately, because we were not able to   get in touch with anybody from Kakadu  by the time we published this video,   we were not able to include any images in the  video. If you’d like to see the art itself,   there are images available elsewhere online. We’ve  linked to some in the description of this video.

Rock art isn’t a rare sight in Kakadu,   with thousands of rock art sites  found within the park boundaries. But unlike the other examples we’ve  covered so far, in the case of Anbangbang,   we’re not left to wonder exactly what  the creators were thinking about when   they made these artworks. We can ask  traditional knowledge keepers about the   meanings behind the pieces, because  some of them are still alive today!

Some of the most famous works of rock art in the  area were painted as recently as 1963 or 1964. But that doesn’t mean the rock art of Kakadu  is all modern. Some of the oldest surviving   art in the region is likely more than 12,000  years old, and might be as old as 30,000!

Because a lot of the newer art was painted  over older images, it’s hard to know exactly   when some of the earliest pieces were made.  But it does appear that art was being created   at this location for at least the last  four thousand years, and likely longer. Which is why some people call this the  world’s longest continuing art tradition. It’s not common to have discussions with  people in a tradition like that firsthand,   so it's pretty neat that this is  actually possible in the case of Kakadu.

And through asking those who were alive  during these periods of rock art creation,   it’s understood that creating rock  art was not only a part of daily life,   but a collaborative effort too. The area surrounding Anbangbang Gallery  within Kakadu Park was an important area   for many clans in the region. They’d meet  here to share their knowledge, stories,   and even pass down their painting  techniques to the younger generation.

Many pieces were collaboratively made,   which also suggests that earlier pieces  would have been group efforts, too. Being able to talk to modern practitioners of  such an ancient tradition can help us understand   more of the thoughts and intentions  behind these pieces of ancient art. So when you marvel at these iconic cave paintings,   remember to think about the artist  or artists behind them, too.

Our final work of art in this  collection is some of the newest   of the bunch, but its subject is  the oldest by 200 million years. Located in South Africa, the art itself is young,   dating to about 200 years  ago, between 1821 and 1835. This particular art was painted by the San people,   hunter-gatherers who occupied a huge area of  southern Africa until the mid-19th century,   when they were almost entirely displaced,  enslaved, or killed by White colonizers.

While this site is called the Brakfontein Cave,   we have to admit it isn’t technically  a cave, more like an overhang. At this site, there are paintings  of a wide range of animals,   including antelope and aardvark, and  even depictions of some battle scenes. But one particular image has  gotten a lot of attention.

The animal depicted is strange, and doesn’t really  look like anything we’d see in that area today. The detail in the painting is impressive,  a long animal covered in dotted skin,   with what look like two long tusks on the face. Most of the San art depictions are based on  real animals from their environments, but this   one doesn’t appear to match anything that would  have been living at the same time as the San.

It turns out, that’s because it might be  their interpretation of an extinct animal. This particular area is home to a lot of fossils,  so it’s very reasonable to assume they had been   coming across them from time to time, when erosion  or some other process brought them to the surface. There’s evidence that the San would collect these  fossils, transporting them over long distances.

And one fossil that shows up a lot in this area  is a dicynodont, a group of tusked, herbivorous   mammal relatives that lived from about 270 million  years ago until roughly 200 million years ago. With this fossil connection in mind,  the spotted body of the animal painting   resembles the dicynodonts’ bumpy skin  texture that is visible in some fossils. Plus, in all other San imagery, any  tusks depicted are turned upwards,   like in warthogs and bushpigs which they  also painted and would have encountered   themselves.

So the downward tusk shape also  lined up with those of the fossilized animal. The authors of this paper even noted that the  shape of the animal in the painting is remarkably   similar to a so-called death pose, which is the  way that some animals’ bodies curl backwards after   they die. If the inspiration for the artwork was  a fossil, that would explain the unusual pose.

The painting was done at least a decade  before scientists had even formally   defined or identified this dicynodont  species, leading some researchers to   say that it’s the earliest depiction  of this particular fossilized animal. And this image isn’t the only  compelling evidence of early   paleontological interests of the San in Africa. In Mokhali cave in Lesotho, early San artists  painted a footprint from a type of dinosaur   called an ornithopod, and a few depictions of the  animals themselves, standing upright on two legs.

What’s wild about the footprint image is that,  if it’s as old as the researchers suspect,   it would be the first depiction of a fossilized  dinosaur footprint, by any human, ever. And those standing figures of the  dinosaurs show that the San may   have been better at reconstructing their  behaviors than early European researchers. A later reconstruction of ornithopods that was  on display at the Crystal Palace in London showed   their subjects as quadrupeds, not bipeds as  the San painted them.

But we now think that   the vast majority of all ornithopod species were  bipedal, which means that the San got it right. It’s possible that the San’s experience as expert   trackers of living animals helped them  interpret fossil evidence of dead ones. Sadly, the paintings themselves are  in bad condition, as their position   near the mouth of the cave has resulted  in a fair bit of damage over the years.

But between these two sites, it’s fair to say   that the San people have been doing  paleo art since before it was cool. So all of these early artists had something  really cool to share about their world,   and the way that they understood it. From warty pigs and beefy  bovines to literal fossils,   there’s a lot to unpack from these works of art.

And who knows? Maybe that doodle you made on   the bathroom wall might tell future  anthropologists all about you, too. [♪ OUTRO]