Explorers in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey have discovered a spectacular gallery of Paleolithic rock art deep within a newly accessible cavern system. The murals, executed in red and black ochre, depict a series of 'shamanic dance' scenes featuring human figures wearing bird-like masks and carrying ceremonial staffs, interspersed with images of extinct aurochs and ibex.
Radiocarbon dating of organic binders in the pigment places the creation of the art at approximately 28,000 to 30,000 years ago, making it some of the oldest figurative art in the Eastern Mediterranean. The scale and complexity of the processions suggest that the cave served as a significant regional ritual center for Ice Age hunter-gatherers, centuries before the transition to sedentary lifestyles in the Near East.