6/5/2002: Oldest known images of faces

[Undertoad]

As reported by the BBC, these may be the oldest drawings of people's faces in existence. They were found in a cave at La Marche in France, and it's thought they date back 15,000 years.

The cave drawings were etched into slabs that sat on the floor. They were first found 50 years ago, but at the time, they were dismissed as fakes.

The Lascaux cave drawings were of animals... didn't include human faces. But now they think the faces might have been on the floor of that cave too, which makes some archaeologists wonder whether they overlooked cave floors all along... basically destroying them so they could walk around while looking at the walls.

When you think about it, as we become more and more sophisticated, archaeology changes too -- and it becomes more and more likely that past archaeologists inadvertently corrupted or destroyed evidence that could be useful. But who knows today what tomorrows archaeologiss would find valuable? Who would have known, two decades ago, that DNA would be so important to forensics today?