Cro-Magnons: The First Painters Cro-magnons were the first species of the Homo Sapiens Sapiens. They lived in Europe during the period before the emergence of Indo-Europeans, from 40,000 to 8,000 BCE.
Magdalenian Civilization The Magdalenian civilization of cro-magnons, which populated Spain and France, were responsible for the cave paintings found in Lascaux, France dating about 17,000 years ago and Altamira, Spain dating about 12,000 years ago. In addition to being skilled painters, they were advanced toolmakers, making tools such as sewing needles and fat burning lamps. Carnebill points Spear heads Tooth necklace
General themes of cave paintings There are three general themes that tend to appear in cave paintings. 1) Humans 2) Animals 3) Signs All of the images found on the cave walls fall into one of these categories. There are never any representations of the climate of the geographical area outside of the caves.
Animals The most abundant animal depictions are those of horses. A quarter of all the animal images painted in caves in Western Europe are horses. Images of Bison are also very common. The animals tend to be painted larger than the other images.
Humans Close up on the image of the dead human figure. Humans are rarely depicted in caves. When they are shown, they are drawn as a cartoon-like silhouette. This is the only representation of a human in the cave of Lascaux, France. It is the image of a dead man, and is located in an area of the cave referred to as “The Shaft of the Dead Man”.
Signs Signs are abstract symbols that are difficult to interpret because of their ambiguity. Signs are commonly associated with hunting equipment and the female form. These are examples of signs that have been identified as the profiles of females.
Anthromorphs A symbol that can often be found on cave walls is an anthromorph. An anthromorph is a representation of a mythical creature that appears to be a human but shares animal body parts. One theory about what anthromorphs represent is that they are drawings of humans dressed in animals skins, probably to perform a religious ceremony. This anthromorth has horse, owl, and reindeer features, along with male sexual organs. This combination is belived to be symbolic of male attributes.
Bibliography http://www.humanities-interactive.org/ancient/iceage/ex038_09a.html This website has lots of information about ice age cave art and how the art relates to human evolution, as well as good images. http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/99-00/9608559r/project/html/palaeolithicart.html This site has information about the cave art of the Palaelolithic period. It specifically discusses gender archeology. http://vm.kemsu.ru/en/palaeolith/cavepaint.html This is a comprehensive site on ancient art that has information on a number of various caves. http://www.mcdougallittell.com/whist/netact/U1/U1main.htm My favorite of all my sources. Lots of information on early humans, early civilizations, and specific caves. http://www.mcdougallittell.com/whist/netact/U1/U1main.htm Picture source only. http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/paleoexhibit/laugerie.htm Picture source only. www.hominids.com/donsmaps/ tools.html Picture source only. http://www.culture.gouv.fr:80/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/ Site specifically about the Lascaux cave. http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/Prehistory/Altamira.html This site has information about lots of different ancient civilizations. I used its information on the Altamira cave. http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/ Official website for the Chauvet- Point d’Arc cave. http://www.hominids.com/donsmaps/indexpaintings.html Detailed information about specific caves/locations. I used its information on the Norway rock art. http://www.alta.museum.no/English/rock_art.htmhttp://www.alta.museum.no/English/rock_art.htm Official museum website for the Alta, Norway rock art.