") drew pictures of the animals they hunted. They were the first people to paint using paints, although they probably painted their bodies long before that with a crushed type of red, the so-called ocher.
Apparently, the Cro-Magnons used these drawings for cult purposes. They believed that the drawings would protect against evil forces and help during the hunt, on the success of which their very existence depended. So far, no drawings made by more ancient people have been found. Perhaps they drew or scratched with something sharp on pieces of wood that had long since rotted away.
Cro-Magnons painted horses, bison and deer. Often in the drawings there are also images of copies, which, according to the artist’s plan, was supposed to bring good luck during a real hunt.
One of the Cro-Magnon artists placed his palm on the rock and then sprayed paint around it through a reed. Images of people or plants are extremely rare in early drawings.
In front of you is an image of a woolly mammoth carved on the cave wall, in which its long, shaggy fur is clearly visible. Rock art often shows us what prehistoric animals looked like.
Cro-Magnons carved figures of very fat or pregnant women into stone. They also sculpted figurines from clay, after which they burned them on fire. Probably, primitive people believed that such figurines would bring them good luck.
Cave drawings
Take up rock painting
You will need plaster of paris, a box like a large matchbox, twine, duct tape and paints.
Take a 6cm piece of twine and fold it in half to make a loop. Attach this loop with duct tape to the bottom of the box from the inside.
Mix the plaster with so that you get a thin solution, and pour it into the box, there should be a layer about 3 cm thick. Let the plaster harden, then tear the box away from it.
Copy one of the rock paintings on this page onto this piece of plaster. Then color it using the same colors as Caveman: red, yellow, brown and black.
You can also reproduce a carved image of an animal. Transfer the outline of the mammoth shown on this page onto a piece of plaster. Then use an old fork to press lines into the plaster along the entire contour.
Which drawing is the oldest? Probably it should be drawn on an old, worn-out piece of papyrus, which is now kept in some museum under certain temperature conditions. But time will not be kind to such a drawing even under the most optimal storage conditions - after several thousand years it will inevitably turn into dust. But destroying rock, even over several tens of thousands of years, is a difficult task even for all-consuming time. Perhaps, in those distant times, when man had just begun to live on Earth and huddled not in houses built with his own hands, but in caves and grottoes created by nature, he found time not only to get food for himself and keep the fire going, but also to create?
Really, cave drawings, dating back to several tens of thousands of years BC can be found in some caves scattered across different parts of the planet. There, in a dark and cold confined space, the paint retains its properties for a long time. Interestingly, the first cave paintings were found in 1879 - relatively recently by historical standards - when archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, walking with his daughter, wandered into the cave and saw numerous drawings decorating its roof. Scientists around the world didn't believe the amazing discovery at first, but studies of other caves around the world confirmed that some of them actually served as shelters for ancient man and contain traces of his presence, including drawings.
To determine their age, archaeologists radiocarbon date the particles of paint that were used to paint the images. After analyzing hundreds of drawings, experts saw that rock art existed ten, twenty, and thirty thousand years ago.
This is interesting: “arranging” the found drawings into chronological order, experts saw how rock art changed over time. Starting with simple two-dimensional images, artists of the distant past improved their skills, first adding more detail to their creations, and then shadows and volume.
But the most interesting thing, of course, is the age of the rock paintings. The use of modern scanners when exploring caves reveals to us even those rock paintings that are already indistinguishable to the human eye. The record of the antiquity of the found image is constantly updated. How deeply we were able to penetrate into the past by exploring the cold stone walls caves and grottoes? To date, the cave boasts the oldest rock paintings El Castillo, located in Spain. It is believed that the most ancient rock paintings were discovered in this cave. One of them, the depiction of a human palm by spraying paint onto a hand leaning against a wall, is of particular interest.
Most ancient drawing today, age ~ 40,800 years. El Castillo Cave, Spain. Since traditional radiocarbon dating would provide too much variation in the readings, to more accurately determine the age of the images, scientists used the method of radioactive decay of uranium, measuring the amount of decay products in the stalactites formed over thousands of years on top of the picture. It turned out that the age of the rock paintings is about 40,800 years, which makes them the oldest on Earth among those discovered on this moment. It is quite possible that they were not even drawn by homo sapience, but by a Neanderthal.
But El Castillo Cave has a worthy competitor: caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. To determine the age of the local drawings, scientists examined the age of the calcium deposits that formed on top of them. It turned out that calcium deposits appeared no less 40,000 years ago, which means that the rock paintings cannot be younger. Unfortunately, it is more accurate to determine the age of creations ancient artist does not seem possible. But we know one thing for sure: in the future, humanity will face even more ancient and amazing discoveries.
Illustration: Image of a bison in a cave in Altamira, Spain. About 20,000 years old
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Prehistoric rock art is the most abundant evidence available of humanity's first steps in the fields of art, knowledge and culture. It is found in most countries of the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, and in a wide variety of places - from deep caves to mountain heights.
Several tens of millions of rock paintings have already been discovered and artistic motives, and every year more and more of them are discovered. This solid, enduring, cumulative monument of the past is clear evidence that our distant ancestors developed complex social systems.
Some common false claims about the origins of art had to be rejected at their very beginning. Art, as such, did not arise suddenly; it developed gradually with the enrichment of human experience. By the time the famous cave art appeared in France and Spain, it is believed that artistic traditions were already fairly developed, at least in South Africa, Lebanon, Eastern Europe, India and Australia, and no doubt in many other regions that have yet to be adequately explored.
When did people first decide to generalize reality? This is a question of interest to art historians and archaeologists, but it is also of wide interest given that the idea of cultural primacy has an influence on the formation of ideas about racial, ethnic and national value, even on fantasy. For example, the claim that art originated in the caves of Western Europe encourages the creation of myths about European cultural superiority. Secondly, the origins of art should be considered closely related to the emergence of other purely human qualities: the ability to create abstract ideas and symbols, communicate at the highest level, develop self-image. Apart from prehistoric art, we have no real evidence from which to conclude the existence of such abilities.
BEGINNINGS OF ART
Artistic creativity was considered an example of “impractical” behavior, that is, behavior that seemed to have no practical purpose. The oldest visual archaeological evidence of this is the use of ocher or red iron ore (hematite), a red mineral dye removed and used by people several hundred thousand years ago. These ancient people also collected crystals and patterned fossils, colorful and unusual shape gravel. They began to distinguish between ordinary, everyday objects and unusual, exotic ones. Apparently they developed ideas about a world in which objects could be classified into different classes. Evidence first appears in South Africa, then in Asia and finally in Europe.
The oldest known cave painting was made in India two or three hundred thousand years ago. It consists of bowl-shaped depressions and a sinuous line, chiseled into the sandstone of the cave. Around the same time, simple linear signs were made on various kinds of portable objects (bone, teeth, tusks and stones) found at sites of primitive man. Sets of clustered carved lines first appear in the central and Eastern Europe, they acquire a certain improvement, which makes it possible to recognize individual motifs: scribbles, crosses, arcs and sets of parallel lines.
This period, which archaeologists call the Middle Paleolithic (somewhere between 35,000 and 150,000 years ago), was decisive for the development of human mental and cognitive abilities. This was also the time when people acquired seafaring skills and groups of colonists could make journeys of up to 180 km. Regular sea navigation obviously required improvement of the communication system, that is, language.
People of this era also mined ocher and flint in several world regions. They began to build large communal houses from the bones and put stone walls inside the caves. And most importantly, they created art. In Australia, some examples of rock art were born 60,000 years ago, that is, during the era of human settlement of the continent. In hundreds of places there are objects believed to be of older origin than the art of Western Europe. But during this era, rock art also appeared in Europe. The oldest example of it that is known to us is a system of nineteen cup-like signs in a cave in France, carved on a stone rock slab, covering the site of a child’s burial.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this era is the cultural unanimity that reigned in the world at that time in all regions of settlement. Despite the differences in tools, undoubtedly due to differences in environment, cultural behavior was surprisingly resilient. The use of ocher and an expressively monotonous set of geometric marks indicate the existence of a universal artistic language between archaic homo sapiens, including European Neanderthals and others that we know about from fossil remains.
Figured images (sculptures) arranged in a circle first appeared in Israel (about 250-300 thousand years ago), in the form of modified natural forms, then in Siberia and central Europe (about 30-35 thousand years ago), and only then in Western Europe. Around 30,000 years ago, rock art became richer in intricate finger marks made into the soft surfaces of caves in Australia and Europe, and stenciled images of palms in France. Two-dimensional images of objects began to appear. The oldest examples, created approximately 32,000 years ago, come from France, followed by South African paintings (Namibia).
About 20,000 years ago (very recently in terms of human history) significant differences begin to form between cultures. Late Paleolithic people in Western Europe began graceful traditions, both in sculpture and graphic arts ritual and decorative consumption. Somewhere around 15,000 years ago, this tradition led to the appearance of such famous masterpieces, such as painting in the caves of Altamira (Spain) and Lescaut (France), as well as the appearance of thousands of elaborately carved figurines from stone, tusks, bone, clay and other materials. This was the time of the finest multicolored works of cave art, drawn or embossed by a certain hand of master craftsmen. However, the development of graphic traditions in other regions was not easy.
In Asia, forms of geometric art, developing, formed very perfect systems, some reminiscent of official records, others - mnemonic emblems, original texts designed to refresh the memory.
Starting from about the end ice age, about 10,000 years ago, rock art gradually expanded beyond the caves. This was not dictated by the search for new best places, as (there is almost no doubt here) the survival of rock art through selection. Rock art is well preserved in the permanent conditions of deep limestone caves, but not on rock surfaces, which are more open to destruction. Thus, the unquestioned spread of rock art at the end of the Ice Age does not indicate an increase in artistic production, but rather the crossing of the threshold of what ensured good preservation.
On every continent beyond Antarctica, rock art now shows diversity artistic styles and cultures, the progressive growth of the ethnic diversity of humanity on all continents, as well as the development of major religions. Even the last historical stage in the development of mass migrations, colonization and religious expansion is thoroughly reflected in rock art.
DATING
There are two main forms of rock art, petroglyphs (carving) and pictors (painting). Petroglyphic motifs were created by carving, gouging, chasing or grinding rock surfaces. In pictographs, additional substances, usually paint, were applied to the rock surface. This difference is very important; it determines approaches to dating.
The methodology for scientific dating of rock art has only been developed within the last fifteen years. Therefore, it is still in its “infancy” stage, and the dating of almost all of the world’s rock art remains in poor condition. This, however, does not mean that we have no idea about his age: there are often all kinds of landmarks that allow us to determine the approximate or at least probable age. Sometimes you are lucky enough to determine the age of a rock painting quite accurately, especially when the paint contains organic substances or microscopic inclusions that allow dating due to the radioactive carbon isotope present in them. Careful evaluation of the results of such an analysis can determine the date quite accurately. On the other hand, dating petroglyphs remains extremely difficult.
Modern methods rely on determining the age of mineral deposits that may have been deposited on rock art. But they only allow you to determine the minimum age. One way is to analyze the microscopic organic matter embedded in such mineral deposits; laser technology can be successfully used here. Today, only one method is suitable for determining the age of the petroglyphs themselves. It is based on the fact that the mineral crystals, chipped when gouging out petroglyphs, initially had sharp edges, which became blunt and rounded over time. By determining the rate of such processes on nearby surfaces whose age is known, the age of the petroglyphs can be calculated.
Several archaeological methods can also help the dating matter a little. If, for example, the rock surface is covered with archaeological layers of mud whose age can be determined, they can be used to determine the minimum age of petroglyphs. Often resort to comparison of style manners to determine chronological framework rock art, although not very successfully.
Much more reliable are the methods of studying rock art, which often resemble the methods of forensic science. For example, the components of paint can tell how it was made, what tools and admixtures were used, where the dyes were taken from, and the like. Human blood, used as a bonding agent during the Ice Age, has been found in Australian rock art. Australian researchers also discovered up to forty layers of paint superimposed on each other in different places, indicating constant redrawing of the same surface over a long period of time. Like the pages of a book, these layers convey to us the history of the use of surfaces by artists of many generations. The study of such layers is just beginning and can lead to a real revolution in views.
Pollen found on brush fibers in the paint of cave paintings indicates what crops were grown by the ancient artists' contemporaries. In some French caves, characteristic paint recipes were determined from their chemical composition. Using charcoal dyes, often used for drawings, even the type of wood burned into charcoal was determined.
The study of rock art has become a separate scientific discipline, and is already used by many other disciplines, from geology to semiotics, from ethnology to cybernetics. His methodology involves expressiveness using electronic images of colors of very damaged, almost completely faded drawings; a wide range of specialized description methods; microscopic studies of traces left by tools and scanty sediments.
VULNERABLE MONUMENTS
Methods for preserving prehistoric monuments are also being developed and increasingly used. Copies of rock art are made (fragments of an object or even the entire object) to prevent damage to the originals. Yet many of the world's prehistoric sites are in constant danger. Acid rain dissolves the protective mineral layers that cover many petroglyphs. All turbulent streams tourists, urban sprawl, industrial and mining development, even unskilled research contribute to the dirty work of shortening the age of invaluable artistic treasures.
Rock painting - images in caves made by people of the Paleolithic era, one of the types primitive art. Most of these objects were found in Europe, since it was there that ancient people were forced to live in caves and grottoes to escape the cold. But there are also such caves in Asia, for example, Niah Caves in Malaysia.
Long years modern civilization had no idea about any objects ancient painting, however, in 1879, the Spanish amateur archaeologist Marcelino-Sans de Sautuola, together with his 9-year-old daughter, during a walk, accidentally came across the Altamira cave, the vaults of which were decorated with many drawings of ancient people - an unprecedented find extremely shocked the researcher and inspired him for her close examination. A year later, Sautuola, together with his friend Juan Vilanova y Pierre from the University of Madrid, published the results of their research, which dated the execution of the drawings to the Paleolithic era. Many scientists perceived this message extremely ambiguously; Sautuola was accused of falsifying the finds, but later similar caves were discovered in many other parts of the planet.
Rock art has been the object of great interest among scientists around the world since its discovery in the 19th century. The first discoveries were made in Spain, but later cave paintings were discovered in different corners world, from Europe and Africa to Malaysia and Australia, as well as in North and South America.
Rock paintings are a source of valuable information for many scientific disciplines, related to the study of antiquity - from anthropology to zoology.
It is customary to distinguish between single-color, or monochrome, and multi-color, or polychrome images. Developing over time, by the 12th millennium BC. e. Cave painting began to be carried out taking into account volume, perspective, color and proportion of figures, and took into account movement. Later, cave painting became more stylized.
To create the designs, dyes of various origins were used: mineral (hematite, clay, manganese oxide), animal, vegetable (charcoal). Dyes were mixed, if necessary, with binders such as tree resin or animal fat, and applied directly to the surface with the fingers; Tools were also used, such as hollow tubes through which dyes were applied, as well as reeds and primitive brushes. Sometimes, to achieve greater clarity of the contours, scraping or cutting out the contours of figures on the walls was used.
Since the caves in which most of the rock paintings are located are practically not penetrated sunlight, when creating drawings, torches and primitive lamps were used for lighting.
Cave painting of the Paleolithic era consisted of lines and was dedicated mainly to animals. Over time, cave painting evolved as primitive communities developed; In the painting of the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, there are both animals and handprints and images of people, their interactions with animals and with each other, as well as the deities of primitive cults and their rituals. A significant proportion of Neolithic paintings are depictions of ungulates, such as bison, deer, elk and horses, as well as mammoths; a large share also make up handprints. Animals were often depicted as wounded, with arrows sticking out of them. Later rock paintings also depict domesticated animals and other subjects contemporary to the authors. There are known images of the ships of the seafarers of ancient Phenicia, noticed by the more primitive communities of the Iberian Peninsula.
Cave painting was widely practiced primitive societies who hunted and gathered and found shelter in caves or lived next to them. The lifestyle of primitive people changed little over thousands of years, and therefore both the dyes and the subjects of rock paintings practically did not change and were common to populations of people living thousands of kilometers from each other.
However, the differences between cave painting different time periods and regions exist. Thus, the caves of Europe mainly depict animals, while African cave paintings pay equal attention to both humans and fauna. The technique of creating drawings also underwent certain changes; later painting is often less crude and shows more high level cultural development.
On December 18, 1994, the famous French speleologist Jean Marie Chauvet discovered a cave gallerycancient images of animals. The discovery was named in honor of its discoverer — Chauvet cave. We decided to talk about the most beautiful caves with rock paintings.
Chauvet Cave
The discovery of the Chauvet Cave in the south of France near the town of Pont d'Arc became a scientific sensation that forced us to reconsider the existing understanding of the art of ancient people: previously it was believed that primitive painting developed in stages. At first, the images were very primitive, and more than one thousand years had to pass for the drawings on the walls of the caves to reach their perfection. Chauvet's find suggests the opposite: the age of some images is 30-33 thousand years, which means that our ancestors learned to draw even before moving to Europe. The discovered rock art represents one of the oldest examples of cave art in the world, in particular, the drawing of black rhinoceroses from Chauvet is still considered the most ancient. The south of France is rich in such caves, but none of them can compare with the Chauvet Cave either in size, or in the preservation and skill of the drawings. Mostly animals are depicted on the walls of the cave: panthers, horses, deer, as well as woolly rhinoceros, tarpan, cave lion and other animals of the Ice Age. In total, 13 images were found in the cave. various types animals.
Now the cave is closed to tourists, as changes in air humidity can damage the images. Archaeologists can only work in a cave for a few hours a day. Today the Chauvet Cave is national treasure France.
Caves of Nerja
The Caves of Nerja are an amazingly beautiful series of huge caves near the city of Nerja in Andalusia, Spain. They received the nickname "Prehistoric Cathedral". They were discovered by accident in 1959. They are one of the main attractions of Spain. Some of their galleries are open to the public, and one of them, which forms a natural amphitheater and has excellent acoustics, even hosts concerts. In addition to the world's largest stalagmite, several mysterious drawings were discovered in the cave. Experts believe that seals or fur seals are depicted on the walls. Fragments of charcoal were found near the drawings, the radiocarbon dating of which gave an age between 43,500 and 42,300 years. If experts prove that the images were made with this charcoal, the seals of the Nerja Cave will turn out to be significantly older than the cave paintings from the Chauvet Cave. This will once again confirm the assumption that Neanderthals had the ability for creative imagination no less than that of Homo sapiens.
Kapova Cave (Shulgan-Tash)
This karst cave was found in Bashkiria, on the Belaya River, in the area of which the Shulgan-Tash nature reserve is now located. This is one of the longest caves in the Urals. Cave paintings of ancient people from the Late Paleolithic era, the likes of which can only be found in very limited places in Europe, were discovered in Kapova Cave in 1959. Images of mammoths, horses and other animals are made mainly with ocher, a natural pigment based on animal fat, their age is about 18 thousand years. There are several charcoal drawings. In addition to animals, there are images of triangles, stairs, and oblique lines. The most ancient drawings, dating back to the early Paleolithic, are in the upper tier. On the lower tier of the Kapova Cave there are later images of the Ice Age. The drawings are also notable for the fact that human figures are shown without the realism inherent in the animals depicted. Researchers suggest that the images were made in order to appease the “gods of the hunt.” In addition, cave paintings are designed to be perceived not from one specific point, but from several angles. To preserve the drawings, the cave was closed to the public in 2012, but an interactive kiosk was installed in the museum on the territory of the reserve for everyone to look at the drawings virtually.
Cueva de las Manos cave
Cueva de las Manos (“Cave of Many Hands”) is located in Argentina, in the province of Santa Cruz. Cueva de las Manos became world famous in 1964 thanks to the research of archeology professor Carlos Gradin, who discovered many wall paintings and human handprints in the cave, the oldest of which date back to the 9th millennium BC. e. More than 800 prints, overlapping each other, form a multi-colored mosaic. Until scientists came to unanimous opinion about the meaning of the images of hands, from which the cave got its name. Mostly left hands were captured: out of 829 prints, only 36 were right hands. Moreover, according to some researchers, the hands belong to teenage boys. Most likely, drawing an image of one’s hand was part of the initiation rite. In addition, scientists have built a theory about how such clear and clear palm prints were obtained: apparently, a special composition was taken into the mouth and forcefully blown through a tube onto a hand attached to the wall. In addition to handprints, on the walls of the cave there are depictions of people, rhea ostriches, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, hunting processes (the pictures show the use of bolas - traditional throwing weapons of the Indians South America) and observations of the sun. In 1999 the cave was included in the list World Heritage UNESCO.