(A History of Cave Painting) Cave Art (A History of Cave Painting)

What are we talking about? Parietal Art Mobiliary Art Any prehistoric art found on cave walls or large rock slabs Engraved and/or painted Portable prehistoric art Jewelry, statuettes, carved spear throwers Bones, antlers, stones, seashells, eggshells Hard to date

How old is this stuff? Is it art? Bhimbetka petroglyphs quartzite caves in India context dating >290,000 BCE La Ferrassie Cave cupules Neanderthal burial slab 60,000 BCE El Castillo red ochre disk Uranium / Thorium dating >39,000 BCE Sulawesi hand stencil >37,900 BCE Gibraltar’s tiny engravings Neanderthal site AMS dating 37,000 BCE

How old is this stuff? And where’s Waldo? El Castillo hand stencils Uranium / Thorium dating >35,300 BCE Fumane Cave paintings figurative carbon and stratigraphic dating 35,000 BCE Abri Castanet (France) vulva petroglyphs adjacent debris dating Altamira Cave claviforms >34,000 BCE Sulawesi babirusa >33,400 BCE

Chauvet Cave 30,000 BCE over 300 paintings and engravings grouped in murals and panels black or red monochrome rhinos, mammoths, lions, horses, bison, reindeer, muskoxen, large cats, cave bears, an owl geometric symbols, hand stencils, and handprints cave was not used for regular habitation

Chauvet Cave

Lascaux Cave 17,000 BCE 240 meters in length 900 images of animals and over 1,000 geometric symbols many polychromatic images rare painting of a human bulls, horses, bison, aurochs, rhino, birds, stags, lions spray painting technique used throughout the cave “sockets” for scaffolding that provided access to the ceiling

Lascaux Cave

Pigments Minerals for pigments were mined from as far as 25 miles away. Minerals were ground, then mixed with water or urine for fluidity and with vegetable oil, animal fat, blood, or bone marrow as a binding agent. Less permanent pigments (from plant and animal sources) were used for cave and body painting. Color Source White calcite; kaolin Yellow ochre limonite; goethite Red ochre hematite Umber mixture of iron and manganese Black charred bones, burnt wood, manganese

Application Spray paint. Artists spat paints either directly onto the surface or through hollow reeds or bones. Crayons. Pigments were formed into a thick paste and then molded into crayon shape. Brushes, etc. Artists applied paint using moss, wads of animal fur, and brushes made from horsehair. Engravers. Artists incised outlines and details using chiseled flints, often after the paint was applied to the cave wall.

Why? To kill time. To tell stories. To draw maps. To convey ownership. For ritual and ceremonial use.

The End. Need more? http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric-art.htm