The oldest art in the world

Abstract

Despite the fact that nearly all the rock art of the worId remains undated, and that not even an approximate estimation of antiquity has been established for many major corpora of rock art, claims to have located or dated the oldest rock art in the worId have been made in respect of every continent except North America and Antarctica. Admittedly, the notion that northeast Brazilian paintings may date from before 32,000 years BP (GUIDON and DELIBRIAS 1986) has never been prometed with much vigour, and I have even viewed the lesser minimum dating claim of 17,000 BP for Pedra Furada's rock paintings with some scepticism (BEDNARIK 1989a). Laminar exfoliation processes in that sandstone shelter, disturbed sediments and the preservation conditions in the site's waterlogged strata render the postulated early art unproven. At Toca do Baixao do Perna I, another site en the same region, paintings are clearly about 10,000 years oid (BEDNARIK 1989a; BAHN 1991 A). Older rock art may well exist in South America, but it has not been convincingly dated.

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