An ancient animal painting from the Lascaux caves in France

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New research suggests humans had a sophisticated knowledge of the stars as long as 40,000 years ago. They also appear to have kept track of time by watching how stars slowly change their position in the night sky. The phenomenon, known as precession of the equinoxes, is caused by the gradual shift of Earth's rotational axis.

Historical 14th century cave and its mystical carvings at risk

Its discovery was previously credited to the ancient Greeks thousands of years later.

The cave artists looked to the stars to mark major events such as comet strikes, according to the researchers.

Study leader Dr Martin Sweatman, from the University of Edinburgh, said: "Early cave art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky within the last ice age. Intellectually, they were hardly any different to us today."

Teams from the universities of Edinburgh and Kent studied details of Palaeolithic and Neolithic cave art sites in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany.

Animal symbol pictures daubed on the walls of the caves were aged by chemically dating the paints used.

Computer software was then employed to predict the positions of stars when the paintings were made.

The results showed that what looked like abstract depictions of animals could be interpreted as zodiac signs based on constellations as they appeared at the time.

At every site, the cave artists practised a method of time keeping based on astronomy, the scientists claimed.

This was despite the fact that the paintings were separated in time by tens of thousands of years.