For all those who love ancient cave paintings, it took around 20,000 years to complete the prehistoric cave paintings, claim the European scientists. 

Prior to this, it was believed that it took over generations to complete the paintings, which had been discovered across Europe. But a team led by the University of Bristol has discovered that it took thousands of years for these paintings to be completed, with the help of uranium series dating, a technique which has been developed by geologists to date rock formations. 

The team was led Dr Alistair Pike, who informed, “We have found that most of these caves were not painted in one go, but the paintings spanned up to 20,000 years. This goes against what the archaeologists, who excavated in the caves and found archaeology for just one period. It is probably the case that people did not live in the caves they painted. It seems the caves they lived in were elsewhere and there was something special about the painted caves.” 

The researchers, with the aim to determine the age of a series of Palaeolithic paintings in Altamira cave in northern Spain, did the comparison of a ratio of uranium to thorium in the thin layers on top of the cave art. This helped them to reach to a conclusion for their study. 

The discovery is most vital in the sense as it will open doors for information as to how early human culture originated and transformed since the first humans took their fist steps in Europe nearly 40,000 years ago.