Cave Paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e A cave is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter Stone Age Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, Early human migrations "Paleolithic" The earliest known European cave paintings date to 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the cave paintings is not known, and may never be. The evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they have been found do not have signs of ongoing habitation. Also, they are often in areas of caves that aren't easily accessed. Some theories hold that they may have been a way of transmitting information, while other theories ascribe them a religious or ceremonial purpose.
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Europe
When Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola first encountered the Magdalenian paintings of the Altamira cave, Cantabria, Spain in 1879, the academics of the time considered them hoaxes. Cave paintings are Paintings on Cave walls and ceilings and the term is used especially for those dating to Prehistoric times Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola or Marcelino de Sautuola (1831-1888 Spanish jurist and amateur Archaeologist, who owned the land where the Altamira cave was found The Magdalenian, also spelled Magdalénien refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe. Cantabria is a Spanish province and Autonomous community with Santander as its capital city Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Recent reappraisals and increasing numbers of discoveries have illustrated their authenticity and have indicated high levels of artistry of Upper Palaeolithic humans who used only basic tools. Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe Africa Cave paintings can also give valuable clues as to the culture and beliefs of that era. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic
Locations
Well known cave paintings include those of:
- Lascaux, France
- La Marche, near Lussac-les-Chateaux, France
- Chauvet Cave, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France
- Altamira, near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain
- Cosquer Cave, with an entrance below sea level near Marseille, France
- Font de Gaume, in the Dordogne Valley in France
Other sites include Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire, England. Lascaux is the setting of a complex of Caves in southwestern France famous for its prehistoric Cave paintings The original caves are located near The Chauvet Cave or Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave is located at N 44° 21' and E 4° 29' 24" near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, in the Ardèche département in southern Vallon-Pont-d'Arc is a commune in the Ardèche department in southeastern France. Santillana del Mar is a historic town situated in Cantabria, Spain. Cantabria is a Spanish province and Autonomous community with Santander as its capital city The Cosquer cave is located in the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille, France, not very far from Cap Morgiou Mean sea level (MSL is the average (mean height of the Sea, with reference to a suitable reference surface Marseille, ( English alt Marseilles mɑrˈseɪ — French: maʁsɛj locally — Provençal Occitan: Marselha maʀˈsijɔ Font de Gaume is a Cave in southwestern France near Les Eyzies. Dordogne (Dordonha is a department in central France named after the Dordogne River. Creswell Crags is a Limestone Gorge in North East Derbyshire, England near the villages of Creswell, Whitwell and Nottinghamshire (abbreviated Notts) is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland (Cave etchings and bas-reliefs discovered in 2003), and Magura [1], Belogradchik, Bulgaria. A bas-relief (baʁəljɛf in French; French for "low relief" derived from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a Sculpture The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian
Rock painting was also performed on cliff faces, but fewer of those have survived because of erosion. Erosion is the carrying away or displacement of solids ( Sediment, Soil, rock and other particles usually by the agents of currents such as wind One well-known example is the rock paintings of Astuvansalmi in the Saimaa area of Finland. Astuvansalmi rock paintings (Astuvansalmen kalliomaalaukset are located in Finland at the shores of the lake Yövesi, which is a part of the large lake Saimaa Saimaa ( IPA:) or Saimen in Swedish, is a lake in southeastern Finland. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe.
Age
Nearly 350 caves have now been discovered in France and Spain that contain art from prehistoric times. The age of the paintings in many sites has been a contentious issue, since methods like radiocarbon dating can be easily misled by contaminated samples of older or newer material, and caves and rocky overhangs (parietal art) are typically littered with debris from many time periods. Radiocarbon dating is a Radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring Radioisotope Carbon-14 (14C to determine the age of Recent advances make it possible to date the paintings by sampling the pigment itself. [2]
The choice of subject matter can also indicate date such as the reindeer at the Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas which imply the art is from the last Ice Age. "Last glacial" redirects here For the period of maximum glacier extent during this time see Last Glacial Maximum The last glacial period The oldest cave is that of Chauvet, and is 32,000 years old. The Chauvet Cave or Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave is located at N 44° 21' and E 4° 29' 24" near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, in the Ardèche département in southern [3] Other examples may date as late as the Early Bronze Age, but the well known prolific and sophisticated style from Lascaux and Altamira died out about 10,000 years ago, coinciding with the advent of the Mesolithic period.
Themes and patterns
The most common themes in cave paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns, called finger flutings. This is an article about an animal For other uses see Bison (disambiguation. The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. The aurochs or urus ( Bos taurus primigenius) was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its Extinction in 1627 A deer is a Ruminant Mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. The hands ( med / lat: manus pl manūs are the two intricate prehensile multi- Fingered body parts normally located at the end of each arm of a Drawings of humans are rare and are usually schematic rather than the more naturalistic animal subjects. Cave art may have begun in the Aurignacian period (Hohle Fels, Germany), but reached its apogee in the late Magdalenian (Lascaux, France). Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia. The Magdalenian, also spelled Magdalénien refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe.
The paintings were drawn with red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal. Ochre or Ocher (pronounced /'əʊkə(r/ from the Greek ὠχρός yellow is a Color, usually described as golden - Yellow Hematite, also spelt hæmatite, is the Mineral form of Iron(III oxide (Fe2O3 one of several Iron oxides Charcoal' is the blackish residue consisting of impure Carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from Animal and Vegetation Sometimes the silhouette of the animal was incised in the rock first.
Theories and interpretations
Henri Breuil interpreted the paintings as being hunting magic, meant to increase the number of animals. Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil ( February 28, 1877, Mortain, Manche, Normandy – August 14, 1961, L'Isle-Adam As there are some clay sculptures that seem to have been the targets of spears, this may partly be true, but does not explain the pictures of predators such as the lion or the bear. The lion ( Panthera leo) is a member of the family Felidae and one of four Big cats in the Genus Panthera.
An alternative theory, developed by David Lewis-Williams and broadly based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings were made by Cro-Magnon shamans. James David Lewis-Williams (born 1934 is a South African scholar A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting Cro-Magnon ( French) is one of the main types of Homo sapiens of the European Upper Paleolithic, living approximately 40000 to 10000 years The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the caves, enter into a trance state and then paint images of their visions, perhaps with some notion of drawing power out of the cave walls themselves. This goes some way toward explaining the remoteness of some of the paintings (which often occur in deep or small caves) and the variety of subject matter (from prey animals to predators and human hand-prints).
R. Dale Guthrie[1] has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings but also a variety of lower quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women in the Venus figurines) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males, who made a big part of the human population at the time. Venus figurines is an Umbrella term for a number of prehistoric Statuettes of women sharing common attributes (many depicted as apparently Obese Historical demography is a Quantitative study of History of Human population, developed and popularized in 20th century by French historian Louis Henry
Africa
At Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa, now thought to be some 3,000 years old, the paintings by the San people who settled in the area some 8,000 years ago depict animals and humans, and are thought to represent religious beliefs. The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe are indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa
Recently, an archeological team discovered the Laas Gaa'l cave paintings outside Hargeisa in Somaliland. Laas Geel ( Laas Geel) is a complex of caves and rock shelters in Somalia famous for its recent discovery of Cave paintings. History Prehistoric inhabitants The city is home to Neolithic Cave paintings recently discovered named Laas Geel. They show the ancient inhabitants of the area worshipping cattle and performing religious ceremonies. Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated Ungulates a member of the Subfamily Bovinae of the family
Cave paintings found at the "Apollo 11 caves"in Namibia may be among the earliest cave art. The estimated age of the images date from approximately 23,000 - 25,000 B. C.
Cave paintings are found in the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in southeast Algeria also in the Akakus, Mesak Settafet and Tadrart in Libya and other Sahara regions including: Ayr mountains, Niger and Tibesti, Chad. Tassili n'Ajjer ( Tamazight, "Plateau of the Rivers" is a Mountain range in the Sahara Desert in southeast Algeria, Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's Tadrart Acacus (تدرارت أكاكوس is a desert area in western Libya and is part of the Sahara Mesak Settafet is a region in Libya known for extensive Prehistoric Rock art. Tadrart Acacus (تدرارت أكاكوس is a desert area in western Libya and is part of the Sahara
Australia
Significant early cave paintings have also been found in Kakadu National Park in Australia. Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km south-east of Darwin. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.
The park has a large collection of ochre paintings. Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km south-east of Darwin. Ochre or Ocher (pronounced /'əʊkə(r/ from the Greek ὠχρός yellow is a Color, usually described as golden - Yellow Ochre is a not an organic material, so carbon dating of these pictures is impossible. Organic matter (or organic material) is Matter that has come from a once-living Organism; is capable of Radiocarbon dating is a Radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring Radioisotope Carbon-14 (14C to determine the age of Sometimes the approximate date, or at least, an epoch, can be guessed from the content.
Southeast Asia
There are rock paintings in caves in India,[2] Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Bhimbetka rock shelters compose an archaeological site and World Heritage Site located in Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex In Thailand, caves and scarps along the Thai-Burmese border, in the Petchabun Range of Central Thailand, and overlooking the Mekong River in Nakorn Sawan Province, all contain galleries of rock paintings. In Malaysia the oldest paintings are at Gua Tambun in Perak, dated at 2000 years, and those in the Painted Cave at Niah Caves National Park are 1200 years old. Niah Caves is located within the district of Miri in Sarawak, Malaysia. See prehistoric Malaysia. Prehistoric Malaysia may be traced back as far as 60000 years ago from stone tools found at Kota Tampan, an archaeological site in Lenggong Perak In Indonesia the caves at Maros in Sulawesi are famous for their hand prints, also found in caves in the Sangkulirang area of Kalimantan.
Gallery
 A male hunter or warrior. |
 A wallaby (and some other things). A wallaby is any of about thirty species of Macropod (Family Macropodidae |
 An elaborate turtle. |
 Fishes -- an X-ray style painting -- with some internal organs shown in detail. X-radiation (composed of X-rays) is a form of Electromagnetic radiation. |
 Hunters and elephant. Macropods are Marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, which includes Kangaroos wallabies, Tree-kangaroos Pademelons A kangaroo is a Marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods meaning 'large foot' In Biology, the skeleton is a strong and often a rigid framework that supports the body of an animal holding it upright and giving it shape and strength (Also skeletal |
See also
References
- ^ R. Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence Rock art is a term in Archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone Parietal art is artwork done on Cave walls or large blocks of stone Petroglyphs are Images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising pecking carving and abrading --> In the history of art prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory beginning somewhere in very late geological history Dale Guthrie, The Nature of Paleolithic Art. University Of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-226-31126-5. Preface.
- ^ Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka. World Heritage Site. Retrieved on 2007-02-15. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 590 - Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia 1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor
Further reading
- Thomas Heyd and John Clegg, eds. Aesthetics and Rock Art. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, England and Burlington, VT, USA. 2005. ISBN 0-7546-3924-X
- Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4
External links
- Bradshaw Foundation The recording of cave paintings around the world
- EuroPreArt database of European Prehistoric Art
- Malaysian Caves
- Cave paintings in Castell de Castells Spain
- American Rock Art Research Association