No self portraits among cave paintings?

I was wondering why ancient cave painters, who drew and painted wonderful depictions of animals some so life-like, why did they not do portraits of themselves or others?  I've seen the simple stick figures, but given how artistic some people were why not create a likeness of oneself, or tribal member?

Interesting observation. These human depictions in the Magura Cave in Bulgaria were made 8-10,000 years ago:

This depiction from the New York Times proves your point:

Interestingly, some of the older cave paintings (> 45,000 years ago) may have been done by Neanderthals (and not early modern humans). Studies of the red ochre (a mixture of soil and water) used on paintings in Spain date to 65,000 years ago, 20,000 years before the arrival of modern humans.

https://wamu.org/story/18/02/22/cave-art-may-have-been-handiwork-of-neanderthals/

6 hours ago, Crispina said:

given how artistic some people were

Maybe craftspeople but probably unlike modern aesthetic or representational artists. The ancient mind seems to have been about 98% concerned about mythology and supernatural religion if my anthropology studies were correct. It was so disappointing when I studied precontact west Africa and meso America and found few insights applicable to real life; I so expected to find useful alternative mindsets. But their world was one of dealing with uncertainty and powerlessness, and I think the few representational depictions they made were aimed at superstitious concerns.

I love a cartoon that showed "vegetarian" cavemen drawing big luscious carrots! And I have beat to death the theme of how wonderful realistic Roman sculpture is, often with meditative "warts and all" realism instead of vainglory. Human representational sculpture can be hard to find in very ancient worlds. Semi-representational stuff can be so weird that must have some other function other than "art". The "archaic" phase of Greek sculpture seems even more stereotyped than Egyptian, but I guess the Hellenistic phase gave over the top expressive art.

The closest to a self portrait was the habit of blowing paint around a hand pressed against the cave wall, a sort of 'I was here' motif.

Narmer Palette (c. 3200-3000 BCE)

Early Egyptian art that celebrated the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer (c. 3150 BCE).

Somewhere art began to depict more life-like images of humans. It is quite a jump from stick figures and hand prints.

Hand stencil, Cosquer Cave, France c. 27,000 years ago.

Gwion Gwion rock paintings from Australia 12,000 years ago

I don't remember ever seeing clothing depicted so well in a cave or rock painting. And they're wearing pants! at least it looks like some type of leggings.