Because of strong overall stylistic similarities, prehistoric cave paintings in El Castillo, Spain and others in Altamira, Spain, were thought to date from the same period  Recent pigment analyses, however, established the Altamira paintings as by far the older and as about the same age as a third group of paintings done in a different overall style
Nevertheless, this case does not prove that stylistic similarities cannot be a reliable indicator of closeness in age, since
There are experts who maintain that the results of the recent pigment analyses leave the striking stylistic similarities between the El Castillo paintings and the Altamira paintings unexplained