In painted caves, ancient human DNA clings to the walls
News Anthropology In painted caves, ancient human DNA clings to the walls The traces could someday help link prehistoric paintings to the people who made them A researcher obtains samples from a prehistoric cave painting. The search took place at caves throughout Spain and Portugal known for prehistoric paintings, including Spain’s famed Cave of Altamira. The DNA recovered from cave paintings and nearby walls is at least 2,000 years old and probably much older, researchers report June 23 in Nature Communications.
- ▪News Anthropology In painted caves, ancient human DNA clings to the walls The traces could someday help link prehistoric paintings to the people who made them A researcher obtains samples from a prehistoric cave painting.
- ▪The search took place at caves throughout Spain and Portugal known for prehistoric paintings, including Spain’s famed Cave of Altamira.
- ▪The DNA recovered from cave paintings and nearby walls is at least 2,000 years old and probably much older, researchers report June 23 in Nature Communications.
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| Original publisher | Science News |
| Canonical URL | https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-human-dna-cave-walls |
| Publication time | Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-20T13:09:46.922Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-20T13:09:55.571Z |
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| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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News Anthropology In painted caves, ancient human DNA clings to the walls The traces could someday help link prehistoric paintings to the people who made them A researcher obtains samples from a prehistoric cave painting. Alberto Martínez Villa, A. Bossoms Mesa et al/Nature Communications 2026 By Libby Riddle 38 seconds ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print For the first time, scientists have recovered ancient human DNA from cave walls. The search took place at caves throughout Spain and Portugal known for prehistoric paintings, including Spain’s famed Cave of Altamira.
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