How Anthropologists Interpret Cave Art

Thinking of life back almost 40,000 years ago can be a challenge to wrap the mind around. To learn about the human species’ past, we must decipher the clues left behind of how humans used to live.

In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

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.

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).

There were many social and economic changes that took place in human development from the Paleolithic through Neolithic periods. First, humans invented agriculture to use in their day to day lives. Next, roles of men and women began to shift. Finally, another change between these two periods had to do with living quarters. Art was affected in all of these changes made during the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic eras.

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 study is focus on the 11th Unnamed Cave in Tennessee. This cave was the first of its kind because this cave is the only one that was found to contain pictograph, petroglyph, and mud glyph all in one site. The article explain that the site is significant because there are evidence to showed that the site underwent a series of diverse but interrelated uses. The first out of all the cave sites to contain all three different form of rock art. Also, because the site was found in the eighteenth century which had some form of documentations on the uses of the cave. The authors believes that since the cave showed many different kind of activities, it is possible that the activities reflect a complex behaviors more elaborated and sacred than

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.

The history of archaeology plays an important role in the controversial issues surrounding the science. Archaeology has only recently become a concrete science. Although mankind has always had an interest in the past, the root of archaeology is believed to have started in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During this time period, artifacts were mainly sought after for collecting. The upper class of the Renaissance period collected artifacts from places such as Rome and Greece to display in their homes as art. As time went on, the lure of historical art and artifacts increased. “Classical archaeology” is the direct result of this curiosity. The “classical archaeologists” were mainly wealthy men that collected artifacts for their homes and studied where they

The Paintings of motifs in Lascaux and Altamira cave are most design of animals; deer, horses, cow and bulls, bison. Lascaux and Altamira are famous for its painting and modeling clay. Lascaux’s painting has been carefully designed to convey some kind of story. Lascaux has so many designs of animals more often than the example of human figures. Most design of animals is Bulls, because it chamber is called as “Hall of the Bulls.” Lascaux has some 2000 images as about 900 of animals. It is sometime referred as “The Sistine Chapel of Prehistory” Those artworks are believed has been discovery around 12,500

The Cave. A lonely, dark place. Prisoners are shackled to the walls of the cave in which they are not able to move any body part. They have been there since childhood, not knowing the real world outside the cave. Not being able to experience life and to be shackled in a cave for my whole years would be complete torture.

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.