Interesting

Prehistoric cave paintings ANIMATED under flicker of torchlight

Includes a video of the superimposed drawings as animated. (Thanks to Bill for sharing that one on Facebook).

Also...

Harvard professor identifies scrap of papyrus suggesting some early Christians believed Jesus was married

A Harvard professor has identified what appears to be a scrap of fourth century Egyptian papyrus that contains the first known explicit reference to Jesus as married, a discovery that could fuel the millennia-old debate about priestly celibacy in the Catholic church.

The fragment, which has been preliminarily authenticated but still must undergo further testing, portrays Jesus as referring to a woman as his legitimate disciple -- most likely his wife, whom the text’s author probably believed to be Mary Magdalene.

The text is not evidence Jesus was married, said the professor, Karen L. King, a historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, who is scheduled to discuss her discovery at an international gathering of Coptic scholars in Rome on Tuesday. But she said it may cast new light on the history of early Christianity, including the formation of Christian views of celibacy and whether women were members of Jesus’s inner circle, issues still intensely relevant to the Catholic church, which allows only celibate men to be priests.

Interesting

WERE NEANDERTHALS EUROPE'S FIRST CAVE ARTISTS?: Paintings on cave walls in Spain are far older than previously thought.

A series of cave paintings in Spain are thousands of years older than scientists realized, raising speculation — but no proof — that Neanderthals could have been the earliest wall artists in Europe.

The oldest image, a large red disk on the wall of El Castillo cave in northern Spain, is more than 40,800 years old, according to an advanced method that uses natural deposits on the surfaces of the paintings to date their creation. The new findings, detailed in the June 15 issue of the journal Science, make the paintings the oldest reliably dated wall paintings ever.

Another mystery cracked with genetics

Cave Painters Were Realists, DNA Study Finds

Scientists have wondered for years how much imagination went into animal drawings etched in caves around Europe, for example with depictions of spotted horses experts didn't think actually existed. Now, after DNA analysis from the fossilized bones of prehistoric horses, they found a genetic mutation that gives rise to a spotted coat.

Spotted Horses in Cave Art Weren’t Just a Figment, DNA Shows

Roughly 25,000 years ago in what is now southwestern France, human beings walked deep into a cave and left their enduring marks. Using materials like sticks, charcoal and iron oxides, they painted images of animals on the cave walls and ceilings — lions and mammoths and spotted horses, walking and grazing and congregating in herds.

Cool

Carving found in Gower cave could be oldest rock art

Wall carving in Gower cave The location of the wall carving is being kept secret for the time being.

The faint scratchings of a speared reindeer are believed to have been carved by a hunter-gatherer in the Ice Age more than 14,000 years ago.

Ancient artwork may be oldest in world, depicting a long-extinct flightless bird

Australian Aboriginal Rock Art May Depict Giant Bird Extinct for 40,000 Years

An Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. The red ochre drawing was first discovered two years ago, but archaeologists were only able to confirm the finding two weeks ago, when they first visited the remote site on the Arnhem Land plateau in north Australia.

That would be older than the cave paintings in Europe, for example, making this the oldest ever discovered, if radiocarbon dating supports the indicated age.