![[Lascaux_painting.jpg]] *Aurochs, horses, and deer painted about 20,000 years ago at Lascaux in southern France.* Some of the descendants of these survivors left Africa between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago and spread across the planet. They reached the remotest accessible places such as Australia between 65,000 and 45,000 years ago. When they arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, these _Homo sapiens_ met and mixed with Neanderthals about 55,000 years ago. After about 15,000 years of living side by side in Europe, Neanderthals began to disappear. They became extinct about 40,000 years ago, although they contributed some important genes to modern humans. One of the important achievements of prehistoric humans in addition to developing increasingly complex stone-working techniques is the creation of art. While we can’t say for sure that cousins such as Neanderthals did not share this interest and ability to create and to think symbolically, what we do know is that by 35,000 to 20,000 years ago, people were [painting the walls of caves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting) in places like France, Spain, Italy, Indonesia, and Africa. In addition, [bone flutes ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_flute)dating from 35,000 to possibly 60,000 years old have been found in France, Germany, and Slovenia. This does not mean that only ancient Europeans developed music; it’s more likely that flutes were found in Europe because of the huge number of archaeological digs done there. One of the interesting questions that has puzzled scholars though, is if the Slovenian flute turns out to be 60,000 years old (as some researchers have claimed), is it possible it was made by Neanderthals? ![[Divje_Babe_flute_(Late_Pleistocene_flute).jpg]] *The [Divje Babe Flute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divje_Babe_flute), discovered in Slovenia in 1995 and linked by some scholars with Neanderthals.* ---- Next: [[1.7 - Glacial Maximum]] Back: [[1.5.- Ice Ages]]