WHO MADE IT? DNA ANALYSIS FROM CAVE PAINTINGS:

Location of test sample from Escoural Cave, Portugal. Image from Mesa et al., 2026, Figure 2, page 3 (image sharpened with chatGPT). This sample held the human DNA.

Back on 17 August 2024, I wrote a column here on RockArtBlog titled ‘DNA Analysis From Cave Paintings,’ in which I expanded upon the recent news that DNA had been discovered in the sediments of anciently inhabited caves. At that time I wrote “for some time now it has been possible for scientists to extract DNA from the sediments in caves, including human and hominin DNA. This leads me to speculate that perhaps we may also be able to detect DNA from manually applied cave paintings such as positive handprints and get an analysis of the artists themselves. Considering that the human body sheds cells constantly it would seem logical that any paint on a cave wall that was applied by hand might contain detectable DNA in human skin cells shed during the application of that paint. And with the advances in DNA analysis this might be a way to personal data such as skin color, eye color, gender, and other data that would allow us to generate a detailed picture of the artist.” (Faris 2024) This speculation seems completely logical to me. Never  bet against scientific advance.

Location of test sample from Covaron Cave, Spain. Image from Mesa et al., 2026, Figure 2, page 3 (image sharpened with chatGPT).

Now we have a report of a study that attempted to do just that – find DNA in the cave art. The team tested 24 rock art panels and located human DNA in a sample from one panel, admittedly only a partial success, but a step in the right direction. “With ancient human DNA obtained from only one of 24 rock art panels sampled, despite generally favorable preservation conditions at many rock art sites, our findings suggest that pigmented surfaces themselves rarely retain enough DNA to remain detectable after thousands of years. The absence of ancient DNA in the Altamira airbrush further supports this notion.We also detected no faunal or other non-human DNA that could be clearly linked to the use of organic binders. Nevertheless, given the diversity of rock art techniques and contexts, it remains possible that rock art from other sites, periods, or styles could more consistently yield ancient DNA. For example, it would be desirable to test DNA preservation in additional samples from figurative rock art, or in hand stencils from sites with better DNA preservation than Maltravieso. As demonstrated here, systematic sampling of both the artwork and adjacent surfaces, along with sensitive methods for faunal DNA detection, should be incorporated into future research to help distinguish DNA related to art production from that introduced by other processes. It should also be investigated whether DNA extraction protocols can be improved specifically for cave wall surfaces.” (Mesa et al. 2026:7) This is really just the beginning of the process.

Location of test sample from Les Pedroses Cave, Spain. Image from Mesa et al., 2026, Figure 2, page 3 (image sharpened with chatGPT).

When you remember how many scientific advances begin as failures – how many tests did Edison have to make before he found a usable light bulb filament? “Despite favorable conditions for ancient DNA preservation at many sites, ancient DNA was detected in only one of the 24 rock art panels examined, and two additional locations adjacent fo other rock art panels. This rarity suggests that pigment surfaces rarely retain enough DNA to survive for thousands of years, particularly if they are not protected by mineral crusts or sealed environments. ‘The preservation of human KNA on cave walls is highly variable’, says Bossoms Mesa. ‘But when it does survive, it tells a powerful story. And while these first results are promising, I think our priority now should be to refine the methods and to understand under what conditions we can expect a higher success rate’.” (Max-Planck-Gesellshaft) And, as these conditions are learned future studies can focus on sites with a higher chance of success.

Location of test sample from the wall of Blombos Cave, South Africa. Image from Mesa et al., 2026, Figure 2, page 3.

Matthias Meyer, a member of the team that did this study, expresses optimism about the potential of such a project. “’This is just the beginning’, adds Meyer. ‘We now know that cave walls are genetic archlves of past human presence. The next step is to test more sites, art styles and techniques, especially hand stencils and figurative art in caves with good molecular preservation, as far as minimally invasive sampling allows’. With further work, it may become possible to reveal the makers of at least some pieces of cave art – and to put faces, or at least genetic identities, to the artists who created them.” (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) As the ability to detect and analyze DNA improves we can expect result to get better as well.

Heretofore DNA studies and analysis seem to have developed following to Moore’s law. Originally postulated in regards to integrated circuits, Moore’s law stated that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every two years. Admittedly it is a stretch to apply that to DNA studies in rock art, but look at the development of DNA analysis in the short time since its beginnings. This may not be too far from the truth. And, I would still like to know the color of the eyes of the artist who painted Lascaux, and I think it is coming.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2024, DNA Analysis From Cave Paintings, RockArtBlog, 17 August 2024, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/4193206136611181049

Mesa, Alba Bossoms et al., 2026, Investigating ancient human DNA preservation on cave walls and in rock art, Nature Communications (online), 23 June 2026, pp. 1-12, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74234-2. Accessed online 5 July 2026.

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (online), 2026, Ancient DNA Found on Cave Walls, 24 June 2026, https://www.mpg.de/26841305/ancient-dna-found-on-cave-walls. Accessed online 5 July 2026.

BLOMBOS OCHER CROSSHATCHING, A NEW SUGGESTION OF PURPOSE:

Engraved ocher, Blombos Cave, South Africa. Image from Don Hitchcock, donsmaps.com.

A few years back (2018) I did a column about the engraved ocher fragments from Blombos Cave (see references below). The column was ostensibly about these markings being, at that time, considered possibly the oldest petroglyphs known, but in it I suggested that possibly the grooves were to improve the grip like the checkering on a rifle stock. Sylvia Stein (2025, 2026) has proposed that the engraving on the piece of ocher is actually a picture of a fishnet.

Pierced shell beads, Blombos Cave, South Africa. Internet image, public domain.

“The invention of string, thus, is the essential tool in the fishing net with shell weights (100,000 kya to 74,000 kya), preceding the invention of the bow and arrow (60,000 kya).The use-wear studies of the punctured Blombos Nassarius shells have clearly established that the shells were strung either loosely or knotted, perhaps for quick horizontally stringed shells replacement on nets for mass fishing, before the invention of the bow and arrow hunting a single prey. Thus, essential, is that use-wear studies indicate that the dull Nassarius perforated shells were strung not in a curve or loop for functions as a bracelet, or necklace, though horizontally as a string of shell weights to be affixed to the bottom of a fishing net. Our argument then heavily relies on these use-wear studies of shells horizontally on a string, essential to making fishing nets, preceding bow and arrow in brain evolution.” (Stein and Pacheco 2025:33) So, in this thesis the pierced shells found in Blombos Cave are not for ornamental use as in a necklace or a bracelet, but are pierced to be tied on to the bottom of the net as net weights.

Blombos ocher with engravings enhanced. Image from Stein and Pacheco.

Stein, Chukhman and Makhin (2026) revisit that thesis with complicated analysis and statistical studies. In the end their conclusion is that “the implications are the occupants of the MSA BBC not only had intellectual capacities to design, record, make and re-use string based nets, they had developed superior finger dexterity with refined engineering net construction capacities.” Possible, but what would statistics have to do with this question.

Stein's fishnet reproduction. Image by Sylvia Stein, ResearchGate.

Now, I suppose that this could represent the design of a fishnet, however, if I was diagramming a fishnet I believe I would have done it in larger scale – feet instead of inches. Additionally, I do not see any representations of weights at the bottom junctions of the supposed net engraving.

An online page at 'Wikipedia-Nassarius' discusses "several 75,000-year-old Nassarius kraussianus beads which were found at Blombos Cave, South Africa (including some colored with red ocher). These beads have previously been thought to be the oldest examples of jewelry." (Wikipedia) The jewelry theory has certainly been the most common interpretation of these pierced shells for quite some time.

Nassarius shells come from a species of marine snail and have a coiled shell like other snails. It seems inevitable with the coiled structure of a snail shell some air will be trapped inside when thrown into the water, thus possibly causing it to float which would not make a great net weight. Now I certainly cannot say for certain, but I must go with being a skeptic on the Stein, Chukhman and Mahkin’s theory.

But, back to the ocher itself – checkering for a better grip, or just decoration seem to be the most satisfying conclusion.

NOTE: Some images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2018, Oldest Petroglyphs So Far?, 25 August 2018, RockArtBlog, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2018/08/oldest-petroglyphs-so-far.html.

Stein, Silvia F., Morris Chukhman and Sergii Makhin,2026, Establishing a Functional Use for the MSA Engraved Blombos Ochre Through Image-Based Vectorization, Use-Wear Constraints, and Experimental Reconstruction, Paper from 2026 CAA Conference. Accessed online through Academia on 22 April 2026.

Stein, Silvia and Susana Pacheco, 2025, Did fishing nets with calculated shell weights precede the bow and arrow? Applied Mathematics and Sciences: An International Journal (MathSJ), Vol. 12, no. 2. Accessed online through ResearchGate on 22 April 2026.

Wikipedia, Nassarius, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassarius. Accessed online 26 April 2026.

ANOTHER CANDIDATE FOR ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES OF ROCK ART:

 

Silcrete fragment with red ocher

marks, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. www.newsweek.com,

Public domain.

The ever fruitful Blombos Cave in South Africa has produced another candidate for the earliest drawing ever.

"Archaeologists who excavated a seaside cave in South Africa have discovered what they say is the world's oldest drawing. It is an abstract pattern, a crosshatch of red lines, like a hashtag, on a rock flake. The scientists who found it determined that the pattern is about 73,000 years old. This mark is about 30,000 years older than Paleolithic animal figures and hand stencils scrawled on cavern walls in Europe and Indonesia." (Guarino 2018)

"Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blomboschfontein Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a late Stone Age sequesce dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP. The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing." (Wikipedia/Blombos)

Previous art-related discoveries at Blombos have included the ocher crayons, and seashells with traces of ocher in them, apparently used as containers for mixing liquid paint. (See https://rockartblog.blogspot.com - Oldest Petroglyphs So Far?, August 25, 2018, and A PaleolithicArtist's Tool Kit in Blombos Cave, South Africa, February 10, 2012)

"University of the Witwatersrand archaeologist Luca Pollarolo, was cleaning fragments of rock from Blombos Cave when he found perpendicular lines scrawled on a flake of silcrete rock. The study authors determined that he medium was ocher, and iron-rich rock that can be as soft as lipstick." (Guarino 2018)

The fact that the inhabitants of Blombos Cave were working with silcrete as a tool rock 73,000 years ago, suggests two types of technology had been developed. They not only had the technology to flake stone tools, but they also had learned to heat treat the stone to make it easier to work.

"Silcrete is an indurated soil duricrust formed when surface sand and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. Tools made out of silcrete which has not been heat treated are difficult to make with flintknapping techniques. In South Africa at Pinnacle Point researchers have determined that two types of silcrete tools were developed between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago and used the heat treatment technique." (Wikipedia/Silcrete)

"After Pollarolo identified the hashtag, the authors of the new study attempted to re-create this pattern. They used stone flakes and pieces of ocher from Blombos to draw on rock. "There was absolutely no doube that these were drawn with an ocher pencil or an ocher crayon," Henshilwood said. "We could even tell the direction that the ocher pencil was drawn across the surface." The crayon made stroke marks, the way a paintbrush does across a wall. The hashtag piece is a fragment of a larger drawing, the authors determined."  (Guarino 2018)

"The scientists "used a battery of impressive techniques to demonstrate crayon stroke direction, the method of ocher application" as well as the ocher's chemical composition, said archaeologist Lyn Wadley, from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, who was not involved with this research. It is "perfectly feasible," she added, that the Blombos inhabitants could make pattern drawings. This would indeed be the oldest set of such lines that is made with an ocher 'crayon' rather than a sharp instrument, and constitute the oldest evidence of drawing with a crayon," George Washington University paleoanthropologist Alison Brooks said." (Guarino 2018)

The existence of this marked flake of rock not only indicates that the people knew two types of technology; flintknapping, and heat treating, but they had also achieved symbolic thought illustrated by the use of ocher in making marks on the rocks. While it is not possible to determine a purpose for the marks, we can say with confidence that there was a purpose to them. The fact of their existence illustrates that someone purposely created them.

NOTE: The image in this posting was retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If this image was not intended to be public domain, I apologize for its misuse. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCE:

Guarino, Ben

2018 Archaeologists Just Found the Oldest Drawing. It's a 70,000-Year-Old Hashtag, 13 September 2018, Baltimore Sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silcrete

www.newsweek.com

OLDEST PETROGLYPHS SO FAR?

100,000-year-old engraved

ocher, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. sciencemag.org.

Public domain.

What might indeed be the oldest date for a petroglyph so far has been found on a block of ocher dated to approximately 100,000 years BP. This discovery came from Blombos Cave in South Africa. Other ocher blocks in Blombos have been given dates of 77,000 years of age. These discoveries consist of pieces of ocher that have engraved lines or cross-hatching on them and they have engendered considerable debate on the origins of symbols and their meaning.

77,000-year-old engraved

ocher, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. smithsonian.org.

Public domain.

All students of this question seem to share the assumption that the ocher was ground to make a pigment powder that can be mixed into paint for other use. What the current debate seems to be about is whether the designs on the ocher have any symbolic significance or whether they were perhaps only doodles.

100,000-year-old engraved

ocher, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. sciencemag.org.

Public domain.

"About 100,000 years ago, ancient humans started etching lines and hashtag patterns onto red rocks in a South African cave. Such handiwork has been cited as the first sign our species could make symbols—distinct marks that stand for some meaning—and thus evidence of a sophisticated mind. But a new study, reported here this week at Evolang, a biannual conference on the evolution of language, finds that these markings and others like them lack key characteristics of symbols. Instead, they may have been more for decoration or enjoyment." (Erard 2018)

Checkered gunstock,

www.cs.uwyo.edu,

Public domain.

While either of these explanations is equally good, and probably equally unprovable, they do not cover all of the possibilities. Were I tasked with grinding a quantity of powdered pigment from small pieces of ocher, I imagine that one of my concerns would involve having a secure grip. In many other applications that involve manipulating a small object that secure grip is achieved by modifying the surface with knurling or checkering. What if these patterns of lines incised into the surface of the ocher represent checkering and have no symbolic or decorative  significance at all? Or, to phrase that in another way, instead of having symbolic or decorative significance, perhaps they just represent an engineering solution to the problem of securely holding a small object. Now, I will admit that they look like decoration to me, but that does not mean that they are not also meant to assist with a secure grip. The checkering on the wooden stock of a rifle is meant to be decorative as well as help provide a secure grip. Possibly they represent the first example of knurling or checkering, the first known manifestation of engineering - not art, and that, in its own way, is just as exciting.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this report you should read the original at the site listed below.

REFERENCES:

Erard, Michael

2018 Is This 100,000-Year-Old Hashtag the First Humanmade Symbol - or Just a Pretty Decoration?, April 20, 2018, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/100000-year-old-hashtag-first-human-symbol-or-just-

pretty-decoration

A PALEOLITHIC ARTIST’S TOOL KIT IN BLOMBOS CAVE, SOUTH AFRICA:

An article in Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 1, January/February 2012, written by David Herbert describes the discovery of a Paleolithic toolkit used by artists.

Abalone shell paint cup, p.20, Archaeology,

Vol. 65, No. 1, Jan-Feb 2012

Herbert wrote “A cave in southwestern South Africa was used as a paint production workshop, where ancient artists made a liquid ochre pigment. The toolkit of shells, stone, and bone from Blombos Cave suggests Middle Stone Age humans were capable planners.

Similar paint-making workshops have been found, such as the one at Lascaux Cave in France, but, at 100,000 years old, the Blombos toolkit is now the oldest one uncovered. ““A Middle Stone Age painter has left all his tools for us,”” says Francesco d’Errico, a University of Bordeaux archaeologist involved in the excavation, noting the kit’s complete and preserved state.

 Artifacts from Blombos cave.

Chenshilwood at en.wikipedia.

Two abalone shells were found with ochre and mineral residue in them, along with tools resembling mortars and pestles made of stone and bone from a variety of animals. The shells used for storing the powder are caked with both yellow and red pigments, implying repeated use. The variety of tools suggests their owner returned to the cave repeatedly to grind ochre from clay found nearby, using and discarding tools as needed.”

This is not the first discovery of apparent artist’s supplies at Blombos Cave. Earlier finds include blocks of ochre that could be intended for making paint, although some of them bear engraved line decorations making their intended use more difficult to interpret. In addition to that we have bone tools that may have been intended for applying the paint like an ink pen. Now, adding to those the abalone shells used for mixing and storing the paint and tools used to grind the pigments, and we have a complete artist’s kit.

Unfortunately the article does not describe any evidence of paint usage in Blombos cave. There is no indication that the ochre was used to create pictographs on the cave walls but it did point out  that much of the cave has a layer of calcite on the walls which might be obscuring original painted imagery. Additionally d’Errico speculated that the ochre paint might have been created for body decoration. In any case this represents the earliest known artist’s tool kit and pushes the horizon of the dawn of human art much earlier in our history.

Reference:

http://www.archaeology.org/1201/trenches/blombos_cave_ochre_middle_stone_age.html