LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Archaeologists were surprised to discover that the paintings were thousands of years older than previously thought. "Neanderthals, of course, have had this bad press for a long time," Joao Zilhao, a member of the research team says. "But the research developments over the last decade have shown that this is probably not deserved."

The latest discovery is all part of an "ongoing program" to date hundreds of European cave paintings more accurately. University of Bristol's Alistair Pike, lead author of a paper published in the journal Science says that it's still too early to say conclusively whether Neanderthals were behind at least some of the artistry.

Pike says he is confident that the earliest paintings go back at least 40,800 years, which matches up with the earliest evidence of anatomically modern humans in Europe.

Zilhao says that based on carbon dating, it's also thousands of years earlier than the previously accepted maximum age.

"We were not expecting these results," Zilhao said. "When we put this project together, the idea was to improve the chronology of rock art, and particularly in the case of Spain."

"The basic findings are the sorts of things you could take to the bank," Penn State archaeologist Dean Snow, who wasn't part of the research team, says. Snow acknowledged that the latest findings produce "three or four new problems that we didn't have before."

"Now, with these older dates, we have to entertain the possibility that there might have been some Neanderthal involvement in some of these paintings," Snow said. "We've never really seriously considered that before."

Tests were conducted on 50 Paleolithic paintings in 11 Spanish caves, including the famous pictures of horses and human hands at the Altamira and El Castillo caves. The paintings had previously been dated using radiocarbon tests. Pike's team used a different technique that analyzed the proportions of uranium, thorium and related elements in the calcite deposits that formed above and below the paintings.

The scientists are confident that the age they get will be the minimum age for the artwork. In some cases, the scientists could sample flowstone deposits beneath the layer of paint to get a maximum age as well.

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