Art Smart March 2013/Cave Paintings ...A Picture Represents A Thousand Words!
Intro:
In the beginning, there were no words, no alphabet, no
books. Yet, early cave men found a way to communicate their
hopes, their dreams and their victories. How do you think
they did this? They told stories using art.
History:
The very first cave paintings were discovered in 1896 in the
Altamira Cave in Santander, Spain. These paintings dated
back to 14,000 BC and showed bison over 8′ long!
Later, archeologists discovered the paintings in the Hall of Bulls Cave in Lascaux, France. What
was so interesting about this find was that it showed so many different kinds of animals.
Question: Why do you think this is so?
Answer: They were painted at different times.
Question: Why do you think there are so many different animals?
Answer: They are from different times. Each group of animals likely represents a hunt that was
performed at a different time. It would seem as though they used this cave over and over again
for artwork, with many different artists taking turns.
Like many discoveries, the existence of cave paintings was discovered accidentally. For
example, the caves in Lascaux, France were found around 1940, during World War II, by kids!
They stumbled across the entrance to a cave that had been hidden by the roots of a tree. Once
people knew these paintings existed, people went looking for more such caves, and found
them. There are probably more caves with cave paintings yet to be found...
The Artists:
In Prehistoric years, when cave men were alive, only a few very special people were allowed to
create art. They were called Shaman or hunter-magicians. Early cave men believed that if they
drew an animal on a wall, they would capture its spirit and the Shaman would be able to
control the success of the hunt.
Question: If a Shaman drew bison on a wall, what animal do you think the Shaman was trying to
control with his art?
Answer: He was trying to control bison.
Materials:
When early cave men artists or Shaman first created art, there was no such thing as paint or
brushes or canvas. They had to work with what they could find.
Tools: They used the cave walls instead of paper or canvas, twigs or leaves as brushes and
different types of dirt and berries for paint. Think about specific animals and which natural tools
would work best for different effects... For spikes, a thin, pointy twig will create sharp spikes or
horns. To copy a furry animal, soft leaves will produce a fluffier texture.
Paint: Prehistoric paint was created by mixing dirt, ground up rocks and animal fat. Sometimes,
bits of burned wood were ground up, mixed with animal fat and used for painting as well.
Colors: Early man used natural colors. You may have heard that they used charcoal to create
these paintings. Actually, most art was not made with charcoal, but rather with mineral
pigments, such as iron oxide (red ochre) or black manganese, along with the juice of crushed
berries.
The Subjects:
The Prehistoric artists drew stick figures for people, but the animals were well drawn, and
usually filled in with natural colors, to give them even more shape and substance.
Question: Why were some subjects (animals) portrayed larger and with more detail than others
(people)?
Answer: Animals were considered more powerful than man and represented man's survival,
i.e. food, so they appear larger and the detail represents the importance the animals played in
Prehistoric life.
The other thing found in cave paintings, besides stick figures of people and well drawn animals,
are stencils of hands.
It would appear that Cro-Magnon man, after crawling on his belly and creating his addition to
these cave walls of art, then put his hand against the cave wall, and outlined it with charcoal or
paint.
What were they saying? (I was here? I made this?) Was this a way to sign their art? Or to prove
they had achieved their ... mission? It's not easy to figure out because not all paintings include a
stenciled handprint.
Since early cave men did not have words or an alphabet or language, these works of art are
their very first expression of identity or how they wrote their signature next to their artwork.
Some believe that these first handprints may have inspired the development of written
language at a later date.
Where???
No one knows why Cro-Magnon man painted marvelous and astonishing paintings on rock walls,
deep within caves. Paintings were added, until a cave might have hundreds of different
paintings, by many different painters. Most cave paintings focused on hunters and animals.
Many of us think of caves as large, high places, but this was not the case in the Prehistoric eras.
In order to reach the places where cave paintings have been found, Cro-Magnon man had to
crawl on his belly, through mazes of narrow, dark tunnels, by the light of a flicking torch or a
spoon-like oil lamp (which had to be hand carried and balanced carefully to hold the burning oil
in the rounded part of the spoon - while crawling along on your belly), along with the paints he
had carefully prepared, with no idea if he might run into along the way ... a cave lion or a bear!
Cave Kids:
Archaeologists have discovered 13,000-year-old cave paintings that suggest prehistoric children
were taught to draw by their parents. Archaeologists first realized that children were creating
the art in 2006, by matching the pictures of mammoths, horses and other animals to individual
children based on the size of the markings.
Line decorations, created by a technique called finger fluting, also appear throughout the fivemile cavern network in Rouffignac, France, a famous spot for Prehistoric art.
Some of the flutings appear high up on the walls and ceilings, suggesting the children sat on
their parents' shoulders as they drew. In fact, one archaeologist said: "Flutings made by
children appear in every chamber throughout the caves - even those that are a good 45minutes' walk from the entrance. So far, we haven't found anywhere that adults fluted without
children." (Talk about taking the kids to work...!).
In addition to the simple meandering lines, there are flutings of animals and shapes that appear
to be very crude outlines of faces, almost cartoon-like in appearance. Most of this art was
created by children between the ages of three and seven, with many paintings believed to be
the work of a five-year-old girl. According to experts, researchers can work out the age of the
child from the width of the fluting and the gender based on finger length.
Unsure why the markings were made, experts believe they were for initiation rituals, for
training of some kind, or simply something to do on a rainy day! One cavern is so rich in flutings
made by children that it suggests it was a special space for them, but whether for play or ritual
is impossible to tell.
Why?
Why did early man seek out these caves, to add their paintings to the many others that had
been painted in the cave before them? And why such dark, secret, hidden places? It might have
been one of Cro-Magnon man's recreational activities. It might have had something to do with
their religion or their rites of manhood. Nobody knows! It's a fascinating mystery.