Painting, at its core, involves the application of pigment to a surface using a range of tools.The resulting object, as well as the technique or the act itself, is referred to as painting. The origins of what we now call painting emerged in the prehistoric caves of the Upper Paleolithic era, roughly between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, when human civilization began to produce artistic works such as cave paintings, petroglyphs, carvings, and engravings. Cave paintings like those discovered in Lascaux and the Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche Valley in France attest to early prototypes of painting. Since then, while the basic tenet of painting has remained the same, the pigments, surfaces, and tools used to apply paint have evolved. Painted surfaces have included walls, paper, wood, cloth, and, ultimately, the modern-day canvas. Pigments have progressed from plant extracts to ground minerals to synthetic colors. In the history of modern art, oil paint has held a significant place since its development during the Renaissance in Europe. Other painting mediums include water-based and acrylic-based paints applied to various surfaces. Indigenous painting techniques have included natural pigments and tools ranging from single haired paintbrushes, sticks and carved blocks to sweeps of the painter's bare hands.