Editing Cave (section)

==Archaeological and cultural importance==
[[File:SantaCruz-CuevaManos-P2210651b.jpg|thumb|[[Cueva de las Manos]], [[Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz|Perito Moreno]], [[Argentina]]. The art in the cave is dated between 7,300 BC and 700 AD;{{Efn|The UNESCO dates the art to 13,000–9,000 [[Before Present|BP]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=World Heritage Sites: a Complete Guide to 1007 UNESCO World Heritage Sites |date=2014 |publisher=[[UNESCO Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-77085-640-0 |edition=6th |page=607 |oclc=910986576}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |title=Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/936/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-04-07 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |language=en |archive-date=2021-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414171517/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/936}}</ref>|name=UNESCO}} stenciled, mostly left hands are shown.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/865298990 |title=Art & Place: Site-Specific Art of the Americas. |date=2013 |publisher=[[Phaidon Press]] |editor-last1=Renshaw |editor-first1=Amanda |isbn=978-0-7148-6551-5 |pages=354–355 |oclc=865298990 |access-date=2021-03-27 |archive-date=2021-10-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029010905/https://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/org.oclc.lac.ui.ajax.ServiceServlet?serviceCommand=getAllItemReviews&source=goodReads&maxrecords=3&startrecord=1&isbn=9780714865515%25200714865516&oclcNum=865298990 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":92">{{cite book |last1=Podestá |first1=María Mercedes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NuG-pvgnd6IC&dq=%22Cueva+de+las+Manos%22+left+hand&pg=PA11 |title=El arte rupestre de Argentina indígena: Patagonia |last2=Raffino |first2=Rodolfo A. |last3=Paunero |first3=Rafael Sebastián |last4=Rolandi |first4=Diana S. |publisher=Grupo Abierto Communicaciones |year=2005 |isbn=978-987-1121-16-8 |language=es |access-date=2021-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029010950/https://www.google.co.uk/gen_204?s=web&t=aft&atyp=csi&ei=10l7Ye-DE4K60PEP6uey8A8&rt=wsrt.491,aft.4960,prt.2585&imn=26&ima=10&imad=9&aftp=18869&bl=TGeo |archive-date=2021-10-29 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]
[[File:Taino petroglyph in cave.jpg|thumb|[[Taíno people|Taíno]] [[petroglyph]]s in a cave in Puerto Rico]]

People have made use of caves throughout history. The earliest human [[fossil]]s found in caves come from a series of caves near Krugersdorp and Mokopane in South Africa. The cave sites of [[Sterkfontein]], [[Swartkrans]], [[Kromdraai]] B, [[Drimolen]], [[Malapa]], Cooper's D, Gladysvale, Gondolin and Makapansgat have yielded a range of early human species dating back to between three and one million years ago, including ''[[Australopithecus africanus]]'', ''[[Australopithecus sediba]]'' and ''[[Paranthropus robustus]]''. However, it is not generally thought that these early humans were living in the caves, but that they were brought into the caves by carnivores that had killed them.

The first early hominid ever found in Africa, the [[Taung Child]] in 1924, was also thought for many years to come from a cave, where it had been deposited after being predated on by an eagle. However, this is now debated (Hopley et al., 2013; Am. J. Phys. Anthrop.). Caves do form in the dolomite of the Ghaap Plateau, including the Early, Middle and Later Stone Age site of [[Wonderwerk Cave]]; however, the caves that form along the escarpment's edge, like that hypothesised for the Taung Child, are formed within a secondary limestone deposit called [[tufa]]. There is numerous evidence for other early human species inhabiting caves from at least one million years ago in different parts of the world, including ''[[Homo erectus]]'' in China at [[Zhoukoudian]], ''[[Homo rhodesiensis]]'' in South Africa at the Cave of Hearths ([[Makapansgat]]), ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'' and ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' in Europe at [[Archaeological Site of Atapuerca]], ''[[Homo floresiensis]]'' in Indonesia, and the [[Denisovans]] in southern Siberia.

In southern Africa, early modern humans regularly used sea caves as shelter starting about 180,000 years ago when they learned to exploit the sea for the first time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marean |first1=Curtis W. |last2=Bar-Matthews |first2=Miryam |last3=Bernatchez |first3=Jocelyn |first4=Erich |last4=Fisher |first5=Paul |last5=Goldberg |first6=Andy I. R. |last6=Herries |first7=Zenobia |last7=Jacobs |first8=Antonieta |last8=Jerardino |first9=Panagiotis |last9=Karkanas |first10=Tom |last10=Minichillo |first11=Peter J. |last11=Nilssen |first12=Erin |last12=Thompson |first13=Ian |last13=Watts |first14=Hope M. |last14=Williams |date=2007 |title=Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=449 |issue=7164 |pages=905–908 |doi=10.1038/nature06204|pmid=17943129 |bibcode=2007Natur.449..905M |s2cid=4387442 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/15550/files/PAL_E2962.pdf }}</ref> The oldest known site is PP13B at [[Pinnacle Point]]. This may have allowed rapid expansion of humans out of Africa and colonization of areas of the world such as Australia by 60–50,000 years ago. Throughout southern Africa, Australia, and Europe, early modern humans used caves and rock shelters as sites for rock art, such as those at [[Giant's Castle]]. Among the known sacred caves are China's Cave of a Thousand Buddhas<ref>{{cite book|last=Olsen|first=Brad|title=Sacred Places Around the World: 108 Destinations|year=2004|publisher=CCC Publishing|isbn=9781888729160|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FS40w2nrqQC&q=sacred%20caves&pg=PA16}}</ref> and the [[sacred caves of Crete]].
[[File:Ghamari cave (2).jpg|thumb|Archaeological excavations in the Middle Paleolithic cave site of the Ghamari Cave, 2025]]
Paleolithic [[cave paintings]] have been found throughout the world dating from 64,800 years old for non-figurative art<ref name="Hoffmann2018">{{cite journal |author1=D. L. Hoffmann |author2=C. D. Standish |author3=M. García-Diez |author4=P. B. Pettitt |author5=J. A. Milton |author6=J. Zilhão |author7=J. J. Alcolea-González |author8=P. Cantalejo-Duarte |author9=H. Collado |author10=R. de Balbín |author11=M. Lorblanchet |author12=J. Ramos-Muñoz |author13=G.-Ch. Weniger |author14=A. W. G. Pike |year=2018 |title=U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art |journal=Science |volume=359 |issue=6378 |pages=912–915 |bibcode=2018Sci...359..912H |doi=10.1126/science.aap7778 |pmid=29472483 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=10498/21578}} "we present dating results for three sites in Spain that show that cave art emerged in Iberia substantially earlier than previously thought. Uranium-thorium (U-Th) dates on carbonate crusts overlying paintings provide minimum ages for a red linear motif in La Pasiega (Cantabria), a hand stencil in [[Cave of Maltravieso|Maltravieso (Extremadura)]], and red-painted speleothems in Ardales (Andalucía). Collectively, these results show that cave art in Iberia is older than 64.8 thousand years (ka). This cave art is the earliest dated so far and predates, by at least 20 ka, the arrival of modern humans in Europe, which implies Neandertal authorship."</ref> and 43,900 years old for figurative art.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aubert |first=M. |display-authors=et al. |date=11 December 2019 |title=Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art. |journal=Nature |volume=576 |issue=7787 |pages=442–445 |bibcode=2019Natur.576..442A |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1806-y |pmid=31827284 |s2cid=209311825}}</ref>