On a September afternoon in 1940, four teenage boys made their way through the woods on a hill overlooking Montignac in south-western France. They had come to explore a dark, deep hole said to be an underground passage to the nearby Lascaux manor (庄园). Squeezing through the entrance one by one, they soon saw wonderfully lifelike paintings of running horses, swimming deer, wounded wild oxen, and other beings—works of art that may be up to 20,000 years old.

The collection of paintings in Lascaux is among some 150 prehistoric sites dating from the Palaeolithic period (旧石器时代)that have been documented in France’s Vezere Valley. This corner of south-western Europe seems to have been a hot spot for figurative art. The biggest discovery since Lascaux occurred in December 1994, when three cave explorers laid eyes on artworks that had not been seen since a rockslide 22,000 years ago closed off a large deep cave in southern France. Here, by unsteadily shining firelight, prehistoric artists drew outlines of cave lions, herds of rhinos (犀牛) and magnificent wild oxen, horses, cave bears. In all, the artists drew 442 animals over perhaps thousands of years, using nearly 400,000 square feet of cave surface as their canvas. The site, now known as the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave, is sometimes considered the Sistine Chapel of prehistory.

For decades scholars had theorized that art had advanced in slow stages from ancient scratches to lively, naturalistic interpretation. Surely the delicate shading and elegant lines of Chauvet’s masterworks placed them at the top of that progression. Then carbon dates came in, and prehistorians felt shocked. At some 36,000 years old—nearly twice as old as those in Lascaux—Chauvet’s images represented not the peak of prehistoric art but its earliest known beginnings.

The search for the world’s oldest cave paintings continues. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, for example, scientists found a large room of paintings of part-human, part-animal beings that are estimated to be 44,000 years old, older than any figurative art seen in Europe.

Scholars don’t know if art was invented many times over or if it was a skill developed early in our evolution. What we do know is that artistic expression runs deep in our ancestry.

Shaping, drying, glazing and firing... in less than 5 minutes, a mini vase only millimeters in size starts to take shape as viewers watch on. As the founder of a miniature ceramics (微型陶瓷) studio, Wang Wenhua never expected that his works would surprise viewers in China, let alone those abroad, and that his short videos would earn over 45 million views and 4.2 million likes on a video application.

Having worked in China’s “Porcelain Capital (瓷都)” Jingdezhen in East China’s Jiangxi Province for 14 years, Wang said he had once seen the world’s biggest ceramic here but he had never seen the smallest, so he decided one day to try something different—making micro porcelain.

Things were not easy in the beginning, and many people doubted him. “They called me crazy and mocked me when I went to factories and asked them to help make miniature tools for me to create micro pottery. Even my wife did not support me,” Wang said.

However, Wang did not give up and after about half a year of experimentation, Wang finally made miniature tools on his own and was able to complete his first miniature porcelain—a vase.

According to Wang, the key to making a miniature ceramic work is concentration and a pair of steady hands. After numerous attempts, Wang found that the smallest works he could get were about 2 millimeters in size. “It would probably miss my original intention if I made micro pottery using a microscope, so I have focused more attention on making the smaller pieces more beautiful and complex,” said Wang.

The smallest vase that Wang has made is a bowl only 2 millimeters tall, 3 millimeters wide and 1 millimeter thick. Wang says he plans to apply for the Guinness World Records for the world’s smallest pottery work.

Tens of thousands of ancient pictures carved into the rocks at one of France’s most important tourist sites are being gradually destroyed. Scientists and researchers fear that the 36,000 drawings on rocks in Mont Bego in the French Alps are being damaged so rapidly that they will not survive for future generations.

The mountain believed to have once been a site for prayer is scattered with 4000-year-old drawings cut into bare rock. But as the popularity of the site increases, the pictures are being ruined by thoughtless graffiti.

Jean Clottes is the chairman of the International Committee on Rock Art. He says “People think that because the pictures have been there so long they will always continue to be there. But if the damage continues at this rate there will be nothing left in 50 years.”

He describes seeing tourists stamping on the drawings, wearing away the rock and clearness of the artwork as they do so. Some visitors he says even cut off parts to take home as souvenirs. Other researchers describe how people arrive carrying long sticks with sharp ends to scratch their own drawings, or even their names in the rocks.

But experts are divided over the best way to preserve the drawings. Henry de Lumley, director of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, believes that the only way to save the site is to turn the whole mountain into a “no-go” area, preventing the public from going there except on guided tours.

Clottes disagrees. “The measure suggested by Henry de Lumley is the most severe, and while it is the most effective, it is also certain to bring about protests from people who live there” he said. “The site was classified as a historic monument years ago by the Ministry of Culture and we must do as much as possible to save what is there.”

Annie Echassoux who also worked on researching the site is alarmed that as the mountain becomes easier to reach — tourists can now avoid the three-and-a-half-hour walk by hiring vehicles — the damage will increase rapidly. She thinks that the only solution is to rope off the area and provide guides. “You can’t say the plan can’t go ahead because there is no money ” she said. “That is not good enough. Money must be provided because the Ministry of Culture has classified this area as a historic site. If we don’t take steps, we will be responsible for losing the drawings for the next generation.”