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Cave Paintings Essay

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Creating art is one of the single defining factors that set humans apart from animal species. Through art, humans are able to express their innermost ideas and feelings, without having the difficulty of trying to find the correct words to accurately describe their thought processes. Works of art can help us to understand the people who have come before us. This is evidenced by the knowledge humans have discovered of prehistoric men and their symbolic cave paintings. The expression, style, and meaning vary and archaeologists put in much effort to uncover these works. 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, …show more content…

It is often found to be extremely animalistic. The animals most commonly depicted are horses, deer, reindeer, bison, ipex, aurochs, woolly rhinoceroses, and mammoths. Sometimes lions and bears are also created, but rarely fish or birds. Humans were also commonly represented (Berenguer 73). Prehistoric men also created abstract designs that have proven hard to identify. They are referred to as signs and a special nomenclature has been developed to better understand their meaning. Tectiforms are generally quadrangular shapes, with crossing vertical lines inside forming a trellis or mesh design. Tectiforms often appear near naturalistic figures of animals. Scutiforms have been thought to represent the female vulva. They are formed by red patches, often in the form of a comma or a key. Other types of signs are penniforms, ramiforms, and claviforms. The exact meanings of most of these signs remain unknown (Berenguer 82). The French scholar Leroi-Gourhan formed a theory regarding the animalistic and abstract art representations. He believed all depictions revolved around the law of sex, noting that the philosophy of the prehistoric men concentrated all explanations on sex and sexual relations. Cave art depictions of animals are divided into male and female. The male animals are horses, she-goats, and deer. Bison, bovidae, and mammoths are female. The signs are also divided into gender categories. Triangles, rectangles, ramiforms, tectiforms, and scutiforms are

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