Red stripes declared U.K.’s oldest art after being dismissed as a natural phenomenon

Dismissed as a natural phenomenon for more than a century, red stripes on a rock in Wales have been found to be the oldest known prehistoric art in Britain.

LONDON — Dismissed as a natural phenomenon for more than a century, red stripes on a rock in Wales have been found to be the oldest known prehistoric art in Britain and northwestern Europe — created by human fingers 17,100 years ago, according to new research.

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An international team of scientists revisited Bacon Hole, a cave near Mumbles in South Wales, to re-examine the series of red-pigmented horizontal stripes on a panel first discovered there in 1912.

The markings were initially identified as prehistoric art in 1912 by Professor William Sollas and Henri Breuil but were later dismissed as a natural phenomenon caused by mineral deposits seeping through the rock, the study said.