Bruniquel Cave's broken-stalagmite structures are dated to about how many years ago?

Bruniquel Cave’s broken-stalagmite structures are dated to about 176,500 years ago.

The structures lie roughly 336 metres from the cave entrance in southwestern France. They consist of two large ring-like arrangements, several stacks, and hundreds of deliberately broken stalagmite pieces. Uranium-series dating places them at about 176,500 years old, with an uncertainty of roughly 2,100 years.

The date is important because it falls in the Middle Pleistocene, long before modern humans became established in western Europe. Early Neanderthals were the only humans known in the region at that time, so researchers attribute the construction to them. The builders also worked deep underground, apparently using fire for illumination.

A common mix-up is confusing the structures’ age with the age of the cave or with the much later Upper Paleolithic cave-art tradition. The rings are not paintings; they are engineered arrangements of broken stalagmites, and their purpose—ritual, practical, or symbolic—remains unknown.