It’s been an open question whether one of the things separating Neanderthals from us is that we created art, and they did not. Now cave paintings have been found in Spain, and charcoal found by the paintings has been carbon dated to around 43,000 years ago. Neanderthals are thought to have been the sole humanoids occupying the Iberian peninsula until several thousand years later, so if the paintings date from that period, then they’d be evidence that cave paintings are not exclusive to us. What remains is the more difficult work of dating the pigments, which will be the final say in the age of the paintings, though that will take a couple of years. →