The First Paintings

• 1What do you think was the very first painting ever made? Who made it?
• 2Where do you think early humans found color?
• 3What do you think they painted with — did they even have brushes?
• 4What do you think they painted on, and why there?

The oldest deliberate mark ever found is about 73,000 years old — an abstract cross-hatched pattern scratched into red ochre stone at Blombos Cave, South Africa. More a drawing than a painting.

The oldest confirmed painting is much newer news: in January 2026, researchers dated a hand stencil in Liang Metanduno cave on Sulawesi, Indonesia, to at least 67,800 years old — the current record holder. Around 64,800 years ago, similar marks appeared in Spanish caves, made by Neanderthals, before modern humans reached Europe.

Pigment alone won't stick — it was mixed with water, animal fat, blood, or saliva as a binder, then applied with fingers, chewed-stick brushes, or blown through a hollow bone like an airbrush.

Almost everything early humans painted was a wild animal. Pick one and sketch it below, the way they had to work:

• •Line — one continuous stroke, don't lift your finger/mouse.
• •Shape — big basic shapes only, skip the details.
• •No erasing — commit to the mark, like they had to.