Anthropologists Discover 38,000-Year-Old Engraved Art

An international team of anthropologists, led by New York University's Randall White, discovered a 38,000-year-old piece of engraved art from a site in France’s Vézère Valley, the university announced Friday.

“The discovery sheds new light on regional patterning of art and ornamentation across Europe at a time when the first modern humans to enter Europe dispersed westward and northward across the continent,” White said in a press release.

The piece, pictured above, was discovered in a rock shelter at the excavation site, marking "some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period."

Quaternary International published the findings. The discovery comes from a time of Aurignacian culture, that of humans who existed between 43,000 and 33,000 years ago.

The piece was first uncovered in 2012.

Abri Blanchard, the site where the discovery was made, was originally excavated in the previous century. White's team began examining the site again 2011.

Hundreds of archaeological finds have been made at the site and a similar one nearby, including teeth, beads, paintings, and engravings.

White argues that the recent finding gives important clues to understanding the way ancient people expressed themselves.

"Following their arrival from Africa, groups of modern humans settled into western and Central Europe, showing a broad commonality in graphic expression against which more regionalized characteristics stand out," he said. "This pattern fits well with social geography models that see art and personal ornamentation as markers of social identity at regional, group, and individual levels."

Image credit: Musée national de Préhistoire collections - photo MNP - Ph. Jugie