The oldest representation of a man interacting with an animal dates back to 23,000 BC.
This animal is none other than a bull.
This image is found in Dordogne (France) on the walls of the Villars cave.
The prehistoric man is facing the bull. He holds an object in his hands. A decoy or perhaps a weapon. Could this first “encounter” be a bullfighting representation?
This is the interpretation proposed by the prehistorian Leroi-Gourhan, the historian Georges Charrière and André Viard, president of the ONCT.
This “first contact” can be completed by two other images, similar in time and space. In the caves of Roc de Sers (19000 BC) and in Lascaux (17000 BC).
« A man charged by a buffalo » at Villars
« The man chased by a buffalo » at the Roc de Sers
« The man gored by a buffalo » at Lascaux.
Sources :
Le n° 50 d’avril 2014, de la revue « TERRES TAURINES »
Site de l’ONCT : http://www.culturestaurines.com/tauromachies%20pari%C3%A9tales
Georges Charrière, en 1968 dans “La revue de l’histoire des religions” n°174-1, publiée par le Collège de France