While we can debate all day about who invented the meme and why, art itself appears to be as old as humans themselves. Some researchers believe that the absolutely oldest drawings (as opposed to sculptures, monuments, and applied art) date back at least 30,000 years. In other words, on top of searching for shelter, food, and avoiding predators, our ancient ancestors still had a compulsion to create. 

Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be a one-off case of a stone-age-Michelangelo, archeologists have found evidence of ancient art all over the world, from what is now South Africa, to the usual suspect, when it comes to human development, Egypt. 

In a pre-writing world, who is to say that these paintings didn’t serve as a type of meme? Yes, many memes these days do feature text or captions, but they don’t necessarily have to. Researchers do believe that ancient art mostly had some ritual or aesthetic importance and may have, perhaps, been created by shamans. 

Given the tools and materials available, most ancient art was not drawn on a flat surface but carved out of whatever was available. This is likely less a preference and more the fact that this was just what was actually possible. Now that creative “tools” from literal paintbrushes to meme generators are freely available, it’s easy enough to see just how much art we, as a species, are capable of creating.