page_title: Earliest findings for hominid art
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Earliest findings for hominid art / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Claimed Oldest Known Drawing by Human Hands Discovered in South African Cave
context_page_description: Earliest findings for Hominid art refers to archaeological findings that might be evidence of an artistic awareness and artistic-like activities from early ancestors of modern Homo sapiens.
  There is no known evidence to indicate artistic activity in hominids of the Middle Stone Age. Artistic activity is defined as decorative production and production of either images or objects such as statues.
  Locating the earliest art work depends upon the suitability of the thing proposed as art with respect to a consensually agreed definition, as to those necessary factors characteristic of something fulfilling the purpose of artistic creation.
context_section_description: The earliest human artistic representations are thought by modern anthropologists to be African rock art made from red ochre around 100,000 B.C. in South Africa. The cave where the ochre mix was found, the Blombos Cave, also contained snail shell jewellery and engraved stones dating from 75,000 years ago.
  In September 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the earliest known drawing by Homo sapiens, which is estimated to be 73,000 years old, much earlier than the 43,000 years old artifacts understood to be the earliest known modern human drawings found previously.
caption: Ochre markings found in Blombos Cave
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