8 October 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Oldest found human traces on Roof of the World, Is it art?

Dr. David Zhang and his team’s investigations of Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau in 2018 and 2020 sparked controversy, along with the discovery of potential parietal art.

Dr. David Zhang first found hand and footprints near the hot spring bath in 1988 at the active Quesang Hot Spring near Quesang Village, about 80 km northwest of Lhasa, Tibet. Recent research conducted between 2018 and 2020 resulted in the finding of the possible parietal art.

According to Zhang’s team, whose findings were published in Science Bulletin, the tracks are between 169,000 and 226,000 years old, dating back to the Earth’s last ice age.

The use of hands as molds in cave paintings dates back to about 40,000 years ago in Sulawesi (Indonesia) and El Castillo (Spain).

Researchers believe the impressions may have been made by children aged 7 and 12. The traces were not imprinted during normal locomotion or by the use of hands to stabilize. As a result, researchers argue that deliberate track-making was an early parietal art act.



📣 Our WhatsApp channel is now LIVE! Stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates, just click here to follow us on WhatsApp and never miss a thing!!



As these results researchers point out, what constitutes art is a controversial issue. Even if the traces are not considered art, it is the oldest evidence of the existence of hominins on the Tibetan Plateau, which is called the “Roof of the World”.

Colour rendered 3D model of the parietal art-panel.
Colour rendered 3D model of the parietal art panel.

The team that made the discovery debated whether the find could be a work of art in a joint article they published on ScienceDirect.

The scientists who evaluated the human hand and footprints and the article revealed by Zhang and his team shared the following.

 It is still up for debate whether the impressions on the rock can qualify as the world’s oldest parietal art.

Paul Taçon, a professor of anthropology and archaeology at Griffith University in Australia, believes it might be “a stretch” to call the impressions art.

“The ‘impressions’ reported from Tibet could have resulted from a range of activity and we simply cannot state emphatically that they were made as a purposeful artistic creation,” Taçon told Time.

University of Oxford Professor Nick Barton questioned, “I agree from their patterning that the footprints don’t look like straight-forward tracks but could they be the kinds of traces left behind by kids at play?”

But for Zhang, the debate all boils down to context and the conception of what art is. “When you use stone tools to dig something in the present day, we cannot say that that is technology. But if ancient people use that, that’s technology,” stated Zhang.

Related Articles

A mosaic made by the freed slave to thank God was found in the church excavation

10 January 2022

10 January 2022

During the season excavation of the 6th-century Holy Apostles Church, located in an orange grove in the Arsuz district of...

7,000 years ago the earliest evidence for the cultivation of a fruit tree came from the Jordan valley

17 June 2022

17 June 2022

Tel Aviv University and Jerusalem’s Hebrew University researchers have unraveled the earliest evidence for the domestication of a fruit tree....

Discovery Shedding Light on Ancient Maritime Trade: 1,500-Year-Old Trade Shipwreck Found off Türkiye’s Ayvalık

21 December 2024

21 December 2024

‘Turkish Sunken-Ships Project: Blue Heritage’, a 1500-year-old trade shipwreck was found off the coast of Ayvalık district of Balıkesir. Under...

Academics Uncover Ancient Roman Physicians Galen’s Pharmacy Legacy in İzmir

27 February 2024

27 February 2024

As a part of research on medicinal plants in Bergama, İzmir’s historic district where Galen (129 AD -200 AD) once...

Anatolia’s Trade Secrets: The Unveiling of a Rare Neolithic Obsidian Mirror Manufacturing Hub

25 February 2025

25 February 2025

A recent study has applied a techno-functional approach to investigate the production and use of obsidian mirrors found at Tepecik...

Tanzania’s mysterious footprints were made by early humans, not bears

6 December 2021

6 December 2021

The prehistoric footprints discovered by archaeologists caused confusion because scientists looked at them again to determine whether they were left...

2-Meter-Long Stone Block Found at 12,000-Year-Old Boncuklu Tarla Site in Southeastern Türkiye

18 December 2024

18 December 2024

A remarkable 2-meter by 20-centimeter processed stone block was discovered during the archaeological excavations at Boncuklu Tarla (Beaded Field), which...

Scientists unlock the ‘Cosmos’ on the Antikythera Mechanism

13 March 2021

13 March 2021

Scientists may have finally made a complete digital model of the 2000-year-old Cosmos panel of a mechanical device called the...

Maya city Tikal put today’s urban gardens to shame

26 June 2021

26 June 2021

The Maya civilization was known for its achievements in art, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, and calendar systems. Tikal, the ancient Maya...

Archaeologists discover secondary gate of old Bazira city in Pakistan

26 March 2022

26 March 2022

Archaeologists claimed to have discovered the secondary gate of the city of Bazira during new excavations at Barikot in Pakistan’s...

Ceremonial meals may have been served in the 4500-year-old structure unearthed in the Yumuktepe Höyük in Southern Turkey

3 November 2021

3 November 2021

A 4,500-year-old structure containing a jar, many pots, and food fossils has been unearthed at the Yumuktepe Höyük (mound) in...

Unique Iron & Viking-Age Mortuary Houses Found in Norway

28 August 2024

28 August 2024

While building a road in the village of Vinjeøra in central Norway, three ancient mortuary houses dating back to the...

The Lord’s Prayer Carved in Stone with Scandinavian Runes and a Picture of a Boat Discovered in Ontario, Canada

17 June 2025

17 June 2025

Hidden deep in the northern Ontario wilderness, an extraordinary archeological discovery has puzzled researchers and captured the imagination of history...

An Erotic Frescoes Decorated ‘Tiny House’ Has Been Discovered in Pompeii

26 October 2024

26 October 2024

During investigations at the construction site of the Insula dei Casti Amanti along Via dell’Abbondanza in the central area of...

Kashmir’s Forgotten Temple? Shivlings and Ancient Idols Found Beneath Sacred Spring

4 August 2025

4 August 2025

A routine restoration of the Karkoot Nag spring in the Salia area of Aishmuqam, Anantnag district, Jammu & Kashmir, has...