<P> Monumental open - air art in Europe from this period includes the rock - art at Côa Valley and Mazouco in Portugal, Domingo García and Siega Verde in Spain, and Rocher gravé de Fornols (fr) in France . </P> <P> A cave at Turobong in South Korea containing human remains has been found to contain carved deer bones and depictions of deer that may be as much as 40,000 years old . Petroglyphs of deer or reindeer found at Sokchang - ri may also date to the Upper Paleolithic . Potsherds in a style reminiscent of early Japanese work have been found at Kosan - ri on Jeju island, which, due to lower sea levels at the time, would have been accessible from Japan . </P> <P> The oldest petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Mesolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago . The earliest undisputed African rock art dates back about 10,000 years . The first naturalistic paintings of humans found in Africa date back about 8,000 years apparently originating in the Nile River valley, spread as far west as Mali about 10,000 years ago . Noted sites containing early art include Tassili n'Ajjer in southern Algeria, Tadrart Acacus in Libya (A Unesco World Heritage site), and the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad . Rock carvings at the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa have been dated to this age . Contentious dates as far back as 29,000 years have been obtained at a site in Tanzania . A site at the Apollo 11 Cave complex in Namibia has been dated to 27,000 years . </P> <P> Göbekli Tepe in Turkey has circles of massive T - shaped stone pillars dating back to the 10th--8th millennium BCE; the world's oldest known megaliths . Many of the pillars are decorated with abstract, enigmatic pictograms and carved animal reliefs . </P>

The first works of art ca. 77 000 bce were used to