Researchers have pulled ancient human DNA from the walls of a cave in Portugal, offering rare genetic evidence tied to some of the oldest known art on Earth.
The discovery, led by Alba Bossoms Mesa of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, marks one of the first times scientists have recovered ancient human DNA directly from a painted cave surface. The study appears in the journal Nature Communications.
The team studied 24 rock art panels across 11 caves in Spain and Portugal. They collected samples from painted surfaces, including hand stencils, simple marks, and the famous paintings at Altamira Cave in Spain. They also tested nearby unpainted wall areas for comparison.
Escoural cave yields ancient human DNA free of animal traces
Most samples showed no trace of ancient DNA. But one sample stood out. It came from a pigmented mineral crust at Escoural Cave in Portugal. That sample contained genetic material from ancient modern humans. It showed no signs of animal DNA at all.
Researchers say these points direct human contact, such as touching or contact with bodily fluids, rather than DNA carried in by sediment or water.
A second sample from an unpainted area of the same cave told a similar story. It also contained human DNA without animal DNA mixed in. Bossoms Mesa and her colleagues say this rules out art-making as the only possible source of the genetic traces. People may have left DNA on cave walls simply by touching them, whether or not they were creating art.
Other samples told a different story. Two unpainted samples from Covarón Cave in northern Spain held human DNA mixed with DNA from animals such as wild cats, rabbits, and large herbivores.
Researchers believe this mixture likely came from sediment carried on people’s hands or feet as they moved through the cave. Genetic testing linked this DNA to ancient Western hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe thousands of years ago.
Altamira pigment tool test comes up empty, researchers caution
The team also tested a bird bone from Altamira that may have served as a tool for blowing pigment onto cave walls. No ancient DNA was found there.
Researchers caution that finding DNA in painted areas does not prove a direct link to the artists themselves. The DNA and the pigment could have settled on the wall at different times, possibly thousands of years apart.
Still, the study opens a new path for science. It suggests that cave walls, much like bones and sediment, can hold onto traces of the people who once stood inside them.
Researchers say future work should test more cave art sites and refine methods for separating DNA tied to art from DNA left behind through ordinary human presence.
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