In 2018, researchers used uranium-thorium dating to estimate the age of the thin crusts of minerals that have formed on top of the paintings.[45] The paintings turned out to be at least 65,000 years old—making them the earliest known examples of cave art anywhere in the world. This was 10,000 years before the first indication that Homo sapiens lived in western Europe, meaning that these Paleolithic doodles must have been made by Neanderthals.[46]
