STONE-AGE BOMBSHELL

It was clear from the start that the cave that park ranger Jean-Marie Chauvet stumbled upon in the south of France last year was a major archaeological find. Like the famous Lascaux cave nearby, the limestone cavern was covered with spectacular paintings from the depths of prehistory. This one seemed much older, though -- maybe 20,000 years, compared to 17,000 for Lascaux -- and it contained much more artwork, including images of animals, such as owls, panthers and hyenas, that had rarely if ever been seen on cave walls.

But as electrifying as the discovery was, the news just announced by the French Ministry of Culture is equally astonishing. Radiocarbon dating showed that the images aren't 20,000 years old, or even 27,000 (the age of what had been believed to be the earliest cave painting, at Cosquer cave near Marseilles), but 30,000 years or more -- making these the oldest cave paintings ever found. The dating is based on eight paint samples tested at three laboratories. If it holds up, says New York University anthropologist Randall White, an expert on prehistoric art, "it's a pretty big shock."

It's the quality of the paintings, however, as much as their great antiquity, that makes them so surprising. The artwork in the Cosquer cave is nothing more than the crude outline of a human hand. The Chauvet cave drawings, made 30 centuries earlier, are exquisitely rendered likenesses that use the caverns' natural contours to heighten a sense of perspective. The contrast suggests that the art of early man did not mature steadily in any simple linear fashion. Says Patrice Baghain, a regional director of the French Culture Ministry: "It throws the entire notion of progressive artistic development into question."

The cave-rich Ardeche region may not be finished yielding treasures. Some 200 painted caves have already been found in the area. As the Chauvet cave has shown -- twice so far -- it is premature to conclude that there are no big surprises left.

--By Michael D. Lemonick. Reported by David Bjerklie/New York and Bruce Crumley/Paris