By KiddieDaily Editors · 2026-06-29 · 3 min read · 2 sources

In a Scientific First, Researchers Recovered Ancient DNA That Humans Left Behind on Rock Art and Cave Walls

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Scientists have long been fascinated by prehistoric cave art, which offers a rare glimpse into the creative minds of our ancestors.

Now, they might finally be able to “meet” some of the artists who created these masterpieces thousands of years ago. Traces of ancient DNA from humans can survive for millennia on cave walls and in rock art, scientists report in a new paper published in June in the journal Nature Communications. In the past, scientists have extracted ancient DNA from cave dirt, chewing “gum” and a 20,000-year-old pendant.

But no one had recovered it from rock art, until now. “It’s the start of a new era,” study co-author Genevieve von Petzinger, a paleoanthropologist at University of the Witwatersrand, tells NewScientist’s Alison George. “This gives us the potential to meet the actual artists, the individuals who did this art.

It’s extraordinary.” Researchers think prehistoric artists primarily created cave art by applying red ochre paint with their hands or spitting it from their mouths, meaning traces of their skin or spit may have ended up in the final piece. Scientists visited 11 caves that contain rock art in Spain and Portugal between 2022 and 2025. They collected samples from areas in and around 24 rock art panels, either taking thin shavings of red ochre paint or the calcite crusts that hardened on top of them over time.

For comparison, they also collected samples from parts of the cave walls with no art. When they analyzed these samples, they found traces of ancient DNA from humans in a pigmented calcite crust from the Escoural Cave in Portugal. Based on the results, they think the DNA was deposited in the Escoural Cave directly through human saliva, sweat or other bodily fluids rather than indirectly, such as via sediment transfer or water movement.

If the human DNA had been deposited indirectly, scientists would have expected the samples to contain traces of animal DNA, too. But, in this case, the human DNA was “unaccompanied by faunal DNA,” they write in the paper. Scientists couldn’t pinpoint the exact age of the DNA because there wasn’t enough of it.

However, they say the DNA is at least 2,000 years old—and probably older. Escoural Cave was closed off to the outside world starting around 4,000 or 5,000 years ago, so it likely predates that period, per NewScientist. They also can’t prove the DNA was left behind by the artist who created the cave art.

It’s possible the DNA came from someone else—perhaps an individual who visited the cave later and simply touched or sneezed on the art, for instance.

How 🔬 Discover Magazine Covers It

Learn how ancient DNA preserved on and near cave art in Spain and Portugal could open new ways to study prehistoric people. Anastasia Scott is an Assistant Editor at Discover Magazine. Her work focuses on bringing clarity and creativity to scientific ideas.

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