ARCHAEOLOGY: Paintings in Italian Cave May Be Oldest Yet

摘要: Stone slabs bearing images of an animal and a half-human, half-beast figure were uncovered during excavations by Italian team at the Fumane Cave northwest Verona. The are believed to be least as ancient some found in Grotte Chauvet southern France--the current record holder 32,000 years--and possibly even older. More important, cave art experts say, new paintings bolster other evidence that humans engaged sophisticated symbolic expression much earlier than once thought.