Essay on Cave Paintings

The prehistoric men painted in caves than 10 000 40 000 BC. AD The colors used were: black, red and ocher (yellow-orange). They painted scenes of life, animals ... by using their hands to their mouths. Prehistory begins with the appearance of hominids there are about 2.6 million years ago in East Africa. It is divided into major periods that correspond to the major stages in the evolution of men. The Paleolithic includes the development of tools, development of graves and first artistic manifestations. The Neolithic is the settlement of human groups, to beginnings of agriculture, livestock, and arts of fire (ceramics and metallurgy). Prehistory ends with the birth of writing, which appears at different times in various parts of the world and opens the story time. There are many works of art that could help demonstrate the way or methods that were used to create or make them. However we would be focusing on the “TOMB INTERIOR WITH CORBELING AND ENGRAVED STONES”. Newgrange is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Ireland, located in County Meath, north of Dublin. It is a mound 85 meters in diameter, within

The animals ranged from horses to rhinos, and even cave lions. The drawings were detailed enough to allow scientists to decipher the paintings and learn what they were witnessing at that period of time. Along with the paintings of the animals, bones were found in the cave and that also revealed more about the life in the cave other than just the cavemen and women. Using all of this information given to them, the scientists were able to learn not only how the cavemen and women lived but how animals lived during this time. The drawings in the cave in Southern France seemed to be quite anatomically correct to the animals roaming Earth today. The drawings are so detailed that there is not much hesitation on what type of animal they could have been drawing, it is obvious what their intent was. A surprise regarding the animal paintings was the lack of anything other than mammals. Throughout the cave there were a handful of paintings depicting insects such as butterflies and the one sole drawing of a human, but besides that they animals were mammals.

The last article talks about the 59th Unnamed Cave, in Florida. This cave is located in the eastern part of the Florida Panhandle. From the dates of the artifacts and the dates of the glyph, the site was occupied in the Late Woodland period. The cave was discover in 2007 when a group of cave explorer saw fine engravings on the wall. This site was the first cave art site that was found in Florida and it is the second rock art site that was found in the states. Rock art is very rare in Florida, but now with the site found there is a wider perspective on the importance of rock art. The site did not only include the petroglyph drawing of the past, but it included some artifacts that was use to help date the time that the cave was occupied.

In class and watching this movie we find out that Chauvet Cave was discovered in December of 1994 when Christian Hillaire, Eliette Brunel-Deschamps and Jean-Marie accidently found it, because they had felt a draft. In the introduction to the movie we find out that the cave sits next to this beautiful river named Pont d’Arc. We later find out that it might be this river that feeds into the cave that brings some bones into it, such as golden eagle bones. I also find out that the entrance that these hikers had found was actually not the true entrance. We find out that the actual entrance was covered when the cave had collapsed in earlier times. I was really surprised that they were able to find the actual entrance. I thought since the cave had collapsed that it would have damaged or destroyed the original entrance.

Cave paintings are seen now in our society is a snapshot of just what they people during that time cherished when it comes to prehistoric art. The Lascaux brought about many things and showed historians what the appreciated most during that time. In this cave, there were many depicted cows, bulls, and dear along the natural ledges of the rock, where the smooth white limestone of the ceiling and upper wall meets a rougher surface below. All of this is a great example of what the humans during that time saw and thought of importance, the many animals that they came across and what they looked like, I think it paved the way for other people to see just how dangerous they can be large. The Altamira was another example of many animists that the humans came across overall, the many details of the animal 's legs and also a depiction of humans and their interactions with the animals. Now there are many theories out there that go into detail about the originals, meaning, and purpose of these cave paintings, I will now share a couple that I think is significant. The first one had to do with how the cave paintings might be products, both of rites to strengthen clan bonds and ceremonies to enhance the fertility if animals used for food. The second one is hoof prints, patterns of animal feces, and hide colorings were recorded and

Lascaux Cave, known in France as the Grotte de Lascaux, is a cave in France which houses prehistoric works of art. Lascaux Cave is broken off into sections which include the Axial Gallery, the famous Hall of the Bulls, the Chamber of Felines, the Nave,

The author Joy McCorriston, was a student at the Institute of Archaeology in London and found out about the chance to visit the Lascaux cave from a radio show contest. Although she didn’t “win” she was lucky enough to join the tour. She listens to stories from Monsieur Jaceues Marshal, a discoverer of the cave and the cave’s guard as she gets to tour the cave. Lascaux Cave’s discovery had come about because four local boys found a hiding place to tease and abandon an outsider, a Jewish boy sent south to flee Occupation in the north. (An alternative story of a lost dog negated the real and non-politically correct truth of the cave’s discovery).

Lascaux is a complex cave with several areas (Hall of the Bulls, Passage gallery), it had been opened for the public after the world war two, and it closed to the public in 1963, it contains about 600 paintings and 1,500 engravings (ART HISTORY, VOLUME 1, PAGE 10). Lascaux became too popular in France because the visitors brought heat, humidity, exhaled carbon dioxide , and some other contaminants. The Lascaux painters had been drawn cows, bulls, horses, and deers. Along the rock one scene was discovered in a remote settings on a wall at the bottom on a stone lamp and spears. This scene is actually weird because it is telling a story which is the human who is suppose to be the hunter,was greatly simplified in form but recongnizably male with a head of bird or wearing a mask of a bird’s head had been lying on the ground, and the painting was also showing that there were a big bison appears above him. The bison has been emboweled and dead. As well as on the left side there was a rhinoceros running off (ART HISTORY, VOLUME 1, PAGE

This article was talking about the uniqueness of the 11th Unnamed Cave and it tries to theorized on how the site was used. The article did a good job of explaining the why there are so many mud balls on the ceilings. The authors tries to show both supporting and disproving that the mud balls were there is because they were used to hunt bats. They also use radio carbon dating to try to get close to the dates that the sites were occupied. The articles showed many hypothesize and they were able to make claims to help them prove their points base of off the evidence that was found at the cites. While there were some good parts of the article there were some that I was questioning. Like how did they see some of the images from the petroglyph because I tried looking it from multiple angle and I was not able to see the images that they were talking about. Also, the there were a conflict between the radio carbon dating dates and the artifacts that was found dates. For example, the carbon dating material said that the time that the cave was used is around the Mississippian period. However, some of the artifacts that was found indicate that there were traces of Early to Middle Woodland people are there. Human behaviors varies and it is very hard to pin-point what something

This article talks about the study of the Dunbar Cave in Montgomery County, Tennessee to learn more about the varied ways that the cave was used by people. Many of the artifacts that was in the cave linked its usage time to be from the Late Paleo-Indian to the Mississippian period. The article define dark-zone cave art as “the decorations in the areas of the caves that is beyond the reach of external lights”. Mug Glyph Cave art was found in the 12th Unnamed Cave in Tennessee and since then sixty-nine other caves that had dark-zone cave art were found. The artifacts and chronological data from these sites indicates that the tradition of cave art began 6000 years ago.

The Chauvet Cave, which is located in the southern part of modern day France, is full of Palaeolithic (Paleolithic) paintings created about thirty to thirty-three thousand years ago. The last Ice Age period was estimated to be around one-hundred-and-ten to twelve-thousand years ago, and places this within it. However, it was only discovered about twenty-two years ago in 1994 by a group of “cavers” led by the man himself, Jean-Marie Chauvet. Today, the cave is compelling to many observers as it is described to be loaded with “skillfully executed” charcoal and carved creations including animals such as horses/stallions, deer-like figures, lions, hyenas, owls, panthers, and rhinos.

Historically, it is always argued that the cave paintings during the Paleolithic period are one of the oldest recorded pieces of art. These include the hand imprints and spotted horses cave painting in Peche-Merle, France, the Halls of Bulls wall painting in Lascaux, France and the animal paintings in the Chauvet cave. While they are located in different locations, there are some common traits in these paintings. First, the cave paintings estimated to be between 13,000 and 15,000 years old, which means

A ground breaking discovery of cave art in Africa, just found. I'm Amelia Moorehead, and I found a beautiful piece of cave art from about 20,000 years ago. It had a hand, a spear and some sort of animal antler. It told me some things about hunting. They must have cut of the antler from the animal with a spear. In the back round there is hands hitting rocks with spears. I came to the conclusion that they where flaking. I wonder if this painting is made by the persons from the paleolithic era who created flaking. It also made hints of people working together. There are hands on it and some are different.

The first evidence of cave art appeared in Western Europe (Berenguer 67). Early cave paintings were characteristic of Western art. They were supported by an acute vision,

"A picture can paint a thousand words." I found the one picture in my mind that does paint a thousand words and more. It was a couple of weeks ago when I saw this picture in the writing center; the writing center is part of State College. The beautiful colors caught my eye. I was so enchanted by the painting, I lost the group I was with. When I heard about the observation essay, where we have to write about a person or thing in the city that catches your eye. I knew right away that I wanted to write about the painting. I don’t know why, but I felt that the painting was describing the way I felt at that moment.