The oldest date given to an animal cave painting is now a depiction of several human figures hunting pigs in the caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, dated to be over 43,900 years old. The earliest known European figurative cave paintings are those of Chauvet Cave in France.
Explanation:
Cavemen painted for the same reason all humans make art: They wanted to communicate: I was here. I saw this. Documentaries on the cave paintings often assert that the cave art was made for shamanistic purposes, that is, by βcapturingβ the animal on the cave wall they hoped to magically capture it outside and eat it. Paleolithic cave paintings dated at up to 40,000 years old in Europe, Australia, and Indonesia depict humans and animals painted with ochres, calcite, charcoal, hematite, and manganese oxide. Primitive painters applied paint by brushing; smearing; dabbing; and blowing it through hollow bones, like an airbrush