Spanish cave paintings, oldest in the world? Let's give us some credit
Following further studies into cave art, these paintings of hands in El Castillo, Spain are revealed to be older than 40,000 years. Instead of the typical radio-carbon dating, scientists have studies the decay of uranium atoms at the site. Therefore, this makes the C14 dating out by 10,000years. This is incredibly important in the case of this site, sparking debate whether early Homo Sapiens did indeed paint this artwork or was it done by Neaderthals.
Now, early Homo Sapiens were in fact around at this time in Europe, along with Neaderthals. However, I do not believe Neaderthals painting this cave, even by looking at discoveries in Blombos Cave (roughly around 150,000 ya), early Homo Sapiens were already showing symbolic behaviour in carving rocks and using red ochre. There is no evidence of symbolic behaviour in Neaderthals. At this time, 40,000ya, Neaderthals were already making their way south, away from cave paintings.
Let's just face the fact, that we were more intelligent that we first thought and let's give our ancestors credit.