Prehistoric Cave Paintings
An Exploration of the Discovery at
Lascaux, and Themes of Paleolithic
Era Cave Paintings
Cave Paintings: The Prehistoric Novel
• As you may already know,
before man had a written
language, stories and
history were passed down
in other ways. We will
explore cave paintings
today as the prehistoric
way of recording
important events.
The Discovery at Lascaux
•
On September 12, 1940, four
teenagers stumbled upon a
major discovery. When an old
pine tree fell down, it showed a
hole in the ground under its
roots. The teenagers discovered
the hole, went down inside of it,
and found the historic cave
paintings at Lascaux. It was
thought that these paintings had
been done originally more than
17,000 years ago.
The Exploration Continues
• Over the next days and weeks,
months and years, the caves
were explored, and several
separate themes and caves were
found. They are The Great Hall
of the Bulls, The Painted
Gallery, The Lateral Passage,
The Chamber of Engravings,
The Main Gallery, The
Chamber of Felines, and the
Shaft of the Dead Man.
A Painting From the Hall of the Bulls at
Lascaux
An Image From the Painted Gallery at Lascaux
The Closing of the Cave
•
In 1955, mold and plant life was noticed
growing on the cave walls, which was
dangerous for the cave paintings. In 1963,
after several studies were done, it was
decided that the cave would be closed to
visitors. Once the visits to the cave had
been cancelled, the causes of the changes
were eliminated, and the original climate
was restored. The Lascaux cave art
returned to the state it was in on the day of
its discovery. A life sized model, Lascaux
II was to be opened, so visitors could still
experience the cave. It remains open
today.
Interpreting Cave Paintings
Cave Painting Themes
• Most cave paintings
have these major
themes:
– Animals
– Human representations
– signs
What Do You See in This Picture?
•
•
•
•
People
Animals
Spears/Weapons
What do you think this
picture might
represent?
What Story Do
You See in This
Painting?
Other Cave Painting at Lascaux
More Images From Lascaux
Cave Paintings
Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc
Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in the South of France is the newest cave painting to be
discovered.
Jean-Marie Chauvet, Christian Hillaire and Heliette Brunel-Deschamps
discovered the cave on December 18, 1994.
There is a menagerie of animals on the walls of these caves. Many of the animals like the
ones in Lascaux were painted over each other.
The oldest were probably painted around 30,000 BC, making them about
32,000 years old.
The cave was probably occupied for nearly 10,000 years. It is thought
that a violent collapse blocked the natural entrance.
Methods of Painting
Prehistoric people would have used natural objects to paint the walls of the
caves.
To etch into the rock, they could have used sharp tools or a spear.
The paint or color that they probably used was from berries, clay, soot, or
charcoal.
The tools used to apply the paint could have been made by attaching straw,
leaves, moss, or hair to sticks. They might have used hollow bones or reeds
to spray the color on, similar to an airbrush technique.
Now it is your turn to create your own cave art. Follow the directions in the next slide.
Instructions for creating
a cave painting:
1.First crumple a brown paper . This will create a rock like look.
2.Draw animals, figures, symbols, etc.... very lightly at first, then
pressed hard intermittently in the outline of the creatures.
3.Use earth tone colors to blend colors, add shading to their
creatures. You can use black & white, but also red/brown in
some cases.