Palaeolithic - GoKawiil

Archaeologists find 26,000-year-old engravings in Spain's Cova de la Font Major

Researchers Josep Maria Vergès Bosch and Míriam Salas-Altès of IPHES-CERCA identified 280 Palaeolithic art motifs, including 55 animal depictions, hidden among modern graffiti in the Cova de la Font Major cave in Catalonia. Vergès spotted the ancient engravings during a 2019 excavation in the cave, which has been a public tourist site for about 70 years. The findings were published in the journal Antiquity on November 5.

nature.com · 2026-11-06

Ancient proteins confirm Denisovan teeth found in Yunnan's Bianfu Cave

Researchers analyzed proteins from two fossilized teeth—a fourth premolar and a second molar—recovered from Bianfu Cave in southwestern China's Yunnan Province, dated to roughly 140,000 years ago. The proteomic evidence confirms these remains belong to Denisovans, adding to the small but growing collection of physical evidence for this elusive archaic human population. The cave, one of the oldest Palaeolithic sites in western Yunnan, also yielded thousands of stone tools and animal fossils alongside four hominin teeth.

nature.com · 2026-09-09