Nonsense.

Cave paintings were all that people had for TV and cinema way back when. The drawings were a way to pass the time, to create art for art’s sake, and to tell stories. They were a way to convey news, instructions, propaganda, jokes, and even porn. Cave walls were the Internet to Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.

This early form of mass media has been dated back 100,000 years, and is probably a lot older than that. Erosion has done a number on most of the outside productions, and even in the relatively safe inner cave environments, time has ravaged the art.

Some of this art rivals today’s sophistication in style and technique. Try to shake the stereotype of a grunting caveman and picture a sensitive portrait artist pacing nervously before the unveiling of his latest work. This guy was a celebrity, no doubt. He faced fans and critics, and maybe had a wife and six kids to support from the ticket sales (or proceeds in some form).

Maybe a young woman showed enough artistic talent to be commissioned to tag along on the village’s big hunts to chronicle the adventures for her friends and family. Perhaps a veteran cave painter would earn a few extra meals painting advertisements for the local craftsmen.

Elaborate stories have been “translated” from these paintings by experts, who invariably tell us that these drawings depict specific, important events. I think it is just as likely that we are seeing the contemporary fiction and musings of early Man.