Early Humans Cave Art

The oldest cave art dates back 32,000 years.

Early human cave art has been a subject of fascination for centuries, attracting thousands of tourists every year to museums and historical sites. What these paintings reveal, however, is more than simple, primitive sketches. Paleolithic period paintings at sites like Grotte Chauvet, Altamira and Lascaux reveal the first glimpses into human abstract thought and artistic techniques.

Commonalities Among Cave Art

Though cave art was made in places other than Western Europe, that is where it was most abundant. More than 150 sites there exhibit ancient cave art, and most are in locations difficult to reach or find. This suggests the sites may have been used for sacred, or otherwise particular, purposes. Interestingly, most also have great acoustics, indicating music may have been played there.

The vast majority of images in these caves are realistic renditions of animals--many pregnant or wounded herd animals. Some predators are represented and. occasionally, a human figure, geometric shapes or hand prints.

Significance of Cave Art

Ancient cave art is significant for what it reveals about human culture at the time of its creation. These paintings are the first large-scale, tangible representations of abstract human experiences--thought, feelings, perhaps even religion. They also demonstrate artistic techniques that were seemingly forgotten in Europe and only rediscovered in the 15th century.

Grotte Chauvet

Grotte Chauvet, located near the Ardeche River in southern France, is believed to be the oldest cave site, displaying art at 32,000 years old. The well preserved paintings demonstrate use of color, shading and perspective through representations of horses, owl, rhinoceri, bears, lions and possibly hand prints. Grotte Chauvet is one of the most significant cave art sites because it forced anthropologists to credit humans as developing these artistic techniques thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Altamira

Altamira is a series of caves (passages and chambers) approximately 900 feet long in Spain. Discovered by an amateur archaeologist, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, and his young daughter in 1879, Altamira was inhabited during two separate time periods: 20,500 years ago and from 18,500 years ago to 16,000 years ago. Earlier art displays horses, goats and hand prints. Later art exhibits bison, horses, a large doe, abstract shapes and an impressive multi-colored ceiling. The images showed use of color, shading and topographical features to suggest three-dimensional shapes, but no techniques to create perspective.

Lascaux

Lascaux is one of the most famous cave art sites, though not the oldest. Located in southwestern France and discovered in 1940 by a group of teenagers, the art in Lascaux is 16,000 years old. This network of caves was nearly destroyed by 1,200 visitors per year until the site was closed to the public in 1963 and the images restored.

Lascaux displays nearly 2,000 images, most of which are large animals such as horses, stags, cattle, bison, felines, a bird, a bear and a rhinoceros. One human figurine has also been found. Lascaux is particularly significant because of the skill its artists displayed, able to draw images in motion and in perspective. Many of Lascaux's rooms are named and include the Great Hall of Bulls, the Nave, the Painted Gallery and the Chamber of Engravings.

References

• Bellarmine University: New Light on the Oldest Art
• Palomar College: Anthropology Department: Early Modern Human Culture
• Heritage Key: Upper Paleolithic