36000 BP

by Stephen Alvarez|October 9, 2026October 14, 2026|36000 BP, Chauvet, Europe, France, news

Very few people will ever stand inside Chauvet Cave. The French government controls access, the public is not allowed in, and even the scientists who study it work under strict limits. That makes NOVA's new film, Stone Age Masterpiece, a rare thing: nearly an hour inside one of the most important art sites on Earth. The episode (Season 53, Episode 11) premiered September 30 on PBS and is streaming free on pbs.org through October 29, 2026. Watch it while you can. Watch NOVA: Stone Age Masterpiece on PBS What the film covers Chauvet was sealed by a rockfall more than 20,000 years ago and rediscovered in December 1994 by Éliette Brunel, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet. Radiocarbon dates from charcoal put the drawings at more than 37,000 years old, nearly twice the age of Lascaux. NOVA follows the research team as they rebuild the cave's whole history, starting with the...

Dating Rock Art, How Old Is It?

by Joshua Alvarez|January 14, 2022February 8, 2022|36000 BP, age, Altamira, cave art, Chauvet, Europe, France, How Old Is It?, pictograph, Rock Art, Spain

paintings in El Castillo in Spain are more than 40,000 years old, much older than previously suspected

Chauvet Cave the discovery of 36,000-year-old art

by Gregory Crouch|March 14, 2021May 6, 2024|36000 BP, age, Aurignacian, cave art, Chauvet, Europe, France, Painting, Paleolithic, petroglyph, pictograph, Rock Art

almost 30 years ago explorers forced their way into Chauvet cave in France, what they found astounded the world.

Limited Edition Chauvet Portfolio to support the Ancient Art Archive

by Stephen Alvarez|September 2, 2017May 6, 2024|36000 BP, cave art, Chauvet, Europe, France, Rock Art

I have selected 12 images from Chauvet Pont d'Arc Cave for a portfolio of prints to help support the Ancient Art Archive. Each image is limited to 12 prints each. Once they are sold there will be no more. The images are approximately 21" x 33" on 2 x 4-foot paper. Go here to see all the images and purchase. I'll be showing six of these prints in Oxford next month as part of a lecture at the Saïd Oxford Business School on September 13. The talk is free but registration is required. Go here for details. -Stephen Alvarez

Dating the cave paintings of Spain

by Stephen Alvarez|March 11, 2017February 9, 2022|36000 BP, cave art, Europe, pictograph, Rock Art, Spain

Alistair Pike discusses the work he has done with Dirk Hoffmann in dating the cave paintings of Northern Spain in this short video that I shot for National Geographic. The open question that Pike is trying to answer in his research is are all the cave paintings of Europe Human or are some of them Neanderthal? Its an interesting question. Neanderthals certainly could have produced some art, but there is not overwhelming evidence that they did. Refined dating techniques have pushed the age of the first paintings in Europe back. The oldest paintings are now known to be older than 40,000 years. But by the same token refinements in tracing migration by looking at the human genome indicate that homo sapiens sapiens first entered Europe 55,000 years ago. So the current oldest painting in El Castillo in Spain is well within the date range that modern humans occupied Europe. Proving that...