成人快手

Ice Age hunter-gatherers in Europe used cave drawings to record detailed information about the lives of animals around them, a new study claims.

Markings found on paintings dating back at least 20,000 years have long been suspected as having meaning but had not been decoded until now.

The initial discovery that the markings related to animal life-cycles was made by furniture conservator Ben Bacon. Mr Bacon, from London, spent countless hours of his free time looking at examples of cave paintings and analysing data to decipher what the markings meant.

He then teamed up with professors from two universities to write their paper.

Newshour's James Menendez has been speaking to one of those professors, Paul Pettitt, from Durham University here in the UK.

(Photo shows: A pair of wild horses, hand stencils and other marks created on a rock surface in Pech-Merle Cave (Lot, France) around 30,000 years ago. Credit: Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann/Durham University/PA Wire)