Having developed through a Eurocentric lens, the history of art barely acknowledges any contribution from Africa despite evidence of parallel origins of artistic expression. Viewed as primitive and having little influence on European art, African art was typically omitted from the canons. Looking at history anthropologically, however, a very different story unfolds in which African art may have evolved from the work of mathematicians and intellectuals. In reality, cave paintings have been found wherever Indigenous populations were seen worldwide. These first peoples documented their existence from Brazil to Indonesia, India, Romania, Australia, and Africa. While recent evidence points to discoveries in Indonesia that are now said to be the oldest, previous research reserved that title for cave paintings found on the African continent.

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