Blake F. answered • 06/04/19
Rising senior in the USC Honors College
Some examples of prehistoric art include the recently discovered drawing in the Blombos Cave in South Africa or Aboriginal rock art in Australia.
The Blombos Cave artifact is still up for debate, I believe, but here's a good article explaining it: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/science/oldest-drawing-ever-found.html. Here's the original study (although you'll have to pay to read the whole thing: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0514-3.
This article from the Smithsonian explains the Aboriginal Australian rock art, which dates back to around 50,000 years ago but has remained in continuous practice into modernity: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/australia-northern-territory-ancient-aboriginal-rock-art-sites-cultural-outdoor-travel-180962576/. This practice is highly religious and has deeply spiritual/cultural implications.
This article (also Smithsonian) explains the Shanidar Cave burials in Iraq, which provided evidence for intentional Neanderthal funerals: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-skeletons-of-shanidar-cave-7028477/. This New York Times article explains the debate around other forms of Neanderthal art, including pierced and painted shells that may have been used as jewelry: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/science/neanderthals-cave-paintings-europe.html?module=inline. This research article goes over evidence for Neanderthal cave paintings in Spain: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6378/912.
Hope this helps (or at least gives you a decent jumping-off point)!
