All over the world, speleologists in deep caves are finding confirmation of the existence of ancient people. Rock paintings have been perfectly preserved for many millennia. There are several types of masterpieces - pictograms, petroglyphs, geoglyphs. Important monuments of human history are regularly included in the register World Heritage.
Usually on the walls of caves there are common subjects, such as hunting, battle, images of the sun, animals, human hands. People in ancient times attached sacred meaning to paintings; they believed that they were helping themselves in the future.
Images were applied using various methods and materials. For artistic creativity animal blood, ocher, chalk and even bat guano were used. Special view paintings - hewn paintings, they were knocked out in stone using a special chisel.
Many caves have not been sufficiently studied and are limited in visiting, while others, on the contrary, are open to tourists. However, most of the precious cultural heritage disappears unattended, unable to find her researchers.
Below is a short excursion into the world of the most interesting caves with prehistoric rock paintings.
Ancient rock paintings.
Bulgaria is famous not only for the hospitality of its residents and the indescribable flavor of its resorts, but also for its caves. One of them, with the sonorous name Magura, is located north of Sofia, near the town of Belogradchik. The total length of the cave galleries is more than two kilometers. The halls of the cave are colossal in size, each of them is about 50 meters wide and 20 meters high. The pearl of the cave is a rock painting made directly on the surface covered with bat guano. The paintings are multi-layered; there are a number of paintings from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods. The drawings of ancient homo sapiens depict figures of dancing villagers, hunters, many strange animals, and constellations. The sun, plants, and tools are also represented. Here begins the story of the festivities of the ancient era and the solar calendar, scientists assure.
The cave with the poetic name Cueva de las Manos (from Spanish - “Cave of Many Hands”) is located in the province of Santa Cruz, exactly one hundred miles from the nearest settlement - the city of Perito Moreno. The rock painting art in the 24 meter long and 10 meter high hall dates back to the 13th to 9th millennia BC. Amazing picture on limestone it is a three-dimensional canvas decorated with traces of hands. Scientists have built a theory about how the amazingly clear and clear handprints turned out. Prehistoric people took a special composition, then put it in their mouths, and through a tube they blew it forcefully onto a hand attached to the wall. In addition, there are stylized images of humans, rheas, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, the process of hunting and observations of the sun.
Enchanting India offers tourists not only the delights of oriental palaces and charming dances. In north central India there are huge rock formations of weathered sandstone with many caves. Ancient people once lived in natural shelters. About 500 dwellings with traces of human habitation remain in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Indians named the rock dwellings Bhimbetka (after the hero of the Mahabharata epic). The art of the ancients here dates back to the Mesolithic era. Some of the paintings are insignificant, and some of the hundreds of images are very typical and striking. 15 rock masterpieces are available for contemplation by those who wish. Mainly, patterned ornaments and battle scenes are depicted here.
Both rare animals and venerable scientists find shelter in the Serra da Capivara National Park. And 50 thousand years ago, our distant ancestors found shelter here in caves. Presumably, this is the oldest community of hominids in South America. The park is located near the town of San Raimondo Nonato, in the central part of the state of Piaui. Experts have counted more than 300 archaeological sites here. The main surviving images date back to 25-22 millennium BC. The most amazing thing is that extinct bears and other paleofauna are painted on the rocks.
The Republic of Somaliland recently separated from Somalia in Africa. Archaeologists in this area are interested in the Laas Gaal cave complex. Here you can see rock paintings from the 8th-9th and 3rd millennium BC. On the granite walls of majestic natural shelters scenes of life and everyday life of the nomadic people of Africa are depicted: the process of grazing livestock, ceremonies, playing with dogs. The local population does not attach importance to the drawings of their ancestors, and uses the caves, as in the old days, for shelter during the rain. Many of the studies have not been properly studied. In particular, problems arise with the chronological reference of masterpieces of Arab-Ethiopian ancient rock paintings.
Not far from Somalia, in Libya, there are also rock paintings. They are much earlier, dating back almost to the 12th millennium BC. The last of them were applied after the birth of Christ, in the first century. It is interesting to observe, following the drawings, how the fauna and flora changed in this area of the Sahara. First we see elephants, rhinoceroses and fauna typical of a rather humid climate. Also interesting is the clearly visible change in the lifestyle of the population - from hunting to sedentary cattle breeding, then to nomadism. To reach Tadrart Akakus, you need to cross the desert east of the city of Ghat.
In 1994, while walking, by chance, Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the cave that later became famous. She was named after the speleologist. In the Chauvet Cave, in addition to traces of the life activity of ancient people, hundreds of wonderful frescoes were discovered. The most amazing and beautiful of them depict mammoths. In 1995, the cave became a state monument, and in 1997, 24-hour surveillance was introduced here to prevent damage to the magnificent heritage. Today, in order to take a look at the incomparable rock art of the Cro-Magnons, you need to obtain special permission. In addition to mammoths, there is something to admire; here on the walls there are handprints and fingerprints of representatives of the Aurignacian culture (34-32 thousand years BC)
In fact, the name of the Australian national park has nothing to do with the famous Cockatoo parrots. The Europeans simply mispronounced the name of the Gaagudju tribe. This nation is now extinct, and there is no one to correct the ignorant. The park is home to Aboriginal people who have not changed their way of life since the Stone Age. For thousands of years, Indigenous Australians have been involved in rock painting. Pictures were painted here already 40 thousand years ago. Besides religious scenes and hunting, here are stylized stories in drawings about useful skills (educational) and magic (entertaining). Among the animals depicted are the extinct marsupial tigers, catfish, and barramundi. All the wonders of the Arnhem Land plateau, Colpignac and the southern hills are located 171 km from the city of Darwin.
It turns out that the first homo sapiens reached Spain in the 35th millennium BC, it was the early Paleolithic. They left strange rock paintings in the Altamira cave. Artistic artifacts on the walls of the huge cave date back to both the 18th and 13th millennia. IN last period Interesting are the polychrome figures, the unique combination of engraving and painting, and the acquisition of realistic details. The famous bison, deer and horses, or rather, their beautiful images on the walls of Altamira, often end up in textbooks for middle school students. The Altamira Cave is located in the Cantabria region.
Lascaux is not just a cave, but a whole complex of small and large cave halls located in the south of France. Not far from the caves is the legendary village of Montignac. The paintings on the cave walls were painted 17 thousand years ago. And to this day they amaze with their amazing forms, akin to contemporary art graffiti. Scholars especially value the Hall of the Bulls and the Palace Hall of the Cats. It’s easy to guess what prehistoric creators left there. In 1998, the rock masterpieces were almost destroyed by mold caused by an improperly installed air conditioning system. And in 2008, Lascaux was closed to preserve more than 2,000 unique drawings.
PhotoTravelGuide
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 of ancient painting, however, in 1879, the Spanish amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, along 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 - the discovery, which had no analogues, extremely shocked the researcher and prompted him to study it closely. 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.
Cave drawings 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 by primitive hunter-gatherer societies who took refuge in or lived near caves. Lifestyle 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, differences exist between cave paintings from different time periods and regions. 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.
Rock paintings and engravings began tens of thousands of years before the birth of civilizations such as Greece and Mesopotamia. Although most of these works remain a mystery, they provide modern scholars with insight into daily life prehistoric people, understand their religious beliefs and culture. It is a real miracle that these ancient drawings survived for such a long time in the face of natural erosion, wars and destructive activities person.
1. El Castillo
Spain
Some of the oldest known cave paintings in the world, depicting horses, bison and warriors, are located in the El Castillo cave, in Cantabria in northern Spain. There is a hole leading into the cave, so narrow that you have to crawl through it. In the cave itself you can find many drawings that are at least 40,800 years old.
They were made shortly after people began migrating from Africa to Europe, where they met Neanderthals. In fact, the age of the cave paintings suggests the possibility that they were made by Neanderthals who lived in the region at the time, although the evidence for this is not at all conclusive.
2.Sulawesi
Indonesia
For a long time, El Castillo Cave was believed to contain the oldest known cave paintings. But in 2014, archaeologists made a stunning discovery. In seven caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, handprints and primitive drawings of local pigs were found on the walls.
These images were already known to local residents, but no one even knew how old they were. Scientists estimate the age of the rock paintings at 40,000 years. This discovery casts doubt on the long-held belief that human art first appeared in Europe.
3. Arnhem Land Plateau
Australia
Recent research has shown that some places in Australia may rival the world's oldest art in age. Rock art dating back 28,000 years has been found at the Nawarla Gabarnmang rock shelter in the north of the country. However, scientists believe that some of the drawings may be much older, as one of them depicts a giant bird that went extinct about 40,000 years ago.
Therefore, either the rock art is older than expected, or the bird lived longer than expected modern science. In Nawarla Gabarnmang you can also find drawings of fish, crocodiles, wallabies, lizards, turtles and other animals made tens of thousands of years ago.
4. Apollo 11
Namibia
This cave has received so much unusual name, because it was discovered by a German archaeologist in 1969, when the first spaceship(Apollo 11) landed on the moon. Drawings made with charcoal, ocher and white paint were found on the stone slabs of a cave in southwestern Namibia.
The images of creatures that resemble cats, zebras, ostriches and giraffes are between 26,000 and 28,000 years old and are the oldest fine arts, found in Africa.
5. Pech Merle Cave
France
Scientists believed that paintings of two spotted horses on the walls of the Pech-Merle cave in south-central France, which were made 25,000 years ago, were the figment of the imagination of an ancient artist. But recent DNA research has shown that similar spotted horses actually existed in the region at that time. Also in the cave you can find 5,000-year-old images of bison, mammoths, horses and other animals, painted with black manganese oxide and red ocher.
6. Tadrart-Akakus
Libya
Deep in the Sahara Desert in southwestern Libya, in the Tadrart-Akakus mountain range, thousands of paintings and rock carvings have been found that show that these arid lands once contained water and lush vegetation. Also on the territory of what is now the Sahara lived giraffes, rhinoceroses, and crocodiles. The oldest drawing here was made 12,000 years ago. But, after Tadrart-Akakus began to be swallowed up by the desert, people finally left this place around 100 AD.
7. Bhimbetka
India
There are about 600 caves and rock dwellings in Madhya Pradesh that contain rock paintings made between 1,000 and 12,000 years ago.
These prehistoric images are painted with red and white paint. In the paintings you can find scenes of hunting buffaloes, tigers, giraffes, moose, lions, leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses. Other drawings show the collection of fruits and honey and the domestication of animals. You can also find images of animals that have long been extinct in India.
8. Laas Gaal
Somalia
A complex of eight caves in Somaliland contains some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings in Africa. They are estimated to be between 5,000 and 11,000 years old and are painted in red, orange and cream colors of cows, people, dogs and giraffes. Almost nothing is known about the people who lived here at that time, but many local residents The caves are still considered sacred.
9. Cueva de las Manos
Argentina
This unusual cave in Patagonia is overflowing with 9,000-year-old red and black handprints on the walls. Since there are mainly images of the left hands of teenage boys, scientists have suggested that drawing an image of one’s hand was part of the initiation rite for young men. In addition, scenes of hunting guanacos and flightless rhea birds can also be found in the cave.
10. Cave of Swimmers
Egypt
In 1933, a cave with Neolithic rock paintings was found in the Libyan Desert. The images of people swimming (from which the cave gets its name), as well as the handprints that adorn the walls, were made between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago.
Man has always been drawn to art. Proof of this is the numerous cave paintings all over the planet, created by our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago. Primitive creativity is evidence that people lived everywhere - from the hot African savannah to the Arctic Circle. America, China, Russia, Europe, Australia – ancient artists left their marks everywhere. One should not think that primitive painting is completely primitive. Among the rock masterpieces, there are also very skillful works that surprise with their beauty and technique, painted with bright colors and carrying deep meaning.
Petroglyphs and rock paintings of ancient people
Cueva de las Manos cave
The cave is located in the south of Argentina. The ancestors of the Indians of Patagonia lived here for a long time. On the walls of the cave, drawings were found depicting a scene of hunting wild animals, as well as many negative images of the hands of teenage boys. Scientists have suggested that drawing the outline of a hand on the wall is part of an initiation rite. In 1999, the cave was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List
Serra da Capivara National Park
After the discovery of many rock art sites, the area, located in the Brazilian state of Piaui, was declared a national park. Even in the days of pre-Columbian America, the Serra da Capivara park was a densely populated area, concentrated here a large number of communities of the ancestors of modern Indians. The cave paintings, created using charcoal, red hematite and white gypsum, date back to the 12th-9th millennium BC. They belong to the Nordesti culture.
Lascaux Cave
A monument of the Late Paleolithic period, one of the best preserved in Europe. The cave is located in France in the Vézère river valley. In the middle of the 20th century, drawings created 18-15 thousand years ago were discovered in it. They belong to the ancient Solutrean culture. The images are located in several cave halls. The most impressive 5-meter drawings of animals resembling bison are in the “Hall of Bulls”.
Kakadu National Park
The area is located in northern Australia, approximately 170 km from the city of Darwin. Over the past 40 thousand years, Aboriginal people have lived in the territory of the current national park. They left interesting samples primitive painting. These are images of hunting scenes, shamanic rituals and scenes of the creation of the world, made using a special “X-ray” technique.
Nine Mile Canyon
A gorge in the USA in the east of Utah is almost 60 km long. It was even nicknamed the longest art gallery due to a series of rock petroglyphs. Some are created using natural dyes, others are carved directly into the rock. Most of the images were created by the Fremont Indians. In addition to the drawings, cave dwellings, well houses and ancient grain storage facilities are of interest.
Kapova Cave
An archaeological site located in Bashkortostan on the territory of the Shulgan-Tash nature reserve. The length of the cave is more than 3 km, the entrance in the form of an arch is 20 meters high and 40 meters wide. In the 1950s, in four halls of the grotto were discovered primitive drawings Paleolithic era - about 200 images of animals, anthropomorphic figures and abstract symbols. Most of them are created using red ocher.
Valley of Miracles
Mercantour National Park, which is called the "Valley of Miracles", is located near the Cote d'Azur. In addition to its natural beauty, tourists are attracted by Mount Bego, a real archaeological site where tens of thousands of ancient paintings from the Bronze Age have been discovered. This geometric figures of unknown purpose, religious symbols and other mysterious signs.
Altamira Cave
The cave is located in northern Spain in the autonomous community of Cantabria. She became famous for her rock paintings, which were made using polychrome technique using a variety of natural dyes: ocher, hematite, coal. The images belong to the Magdalenian culture, which existed 15-8 thousand years BC. Ancient artists were so skillful that they were able to give images of bison, horses and wild boars a three-dimensional appearance, using the natural irregularities of the wall.
Chauvet Cave
A historical monument of France, located in the Ardèche River valley. About 40 thousand years ago, the cave was inhabited by ancient people, who left behind more than 400 drawings. The oldest images are over 35 thousand years old. The paintings were perfectly preserved due to the fact that for a long time they could not reach Chauvet; they were discovered only in the 1990s. Unfortunately, tourist access to the cave is prohibited.
Tadrart-Akakus
Once upon a time, in the hot and practically barren Sahara there was a fertile and green area. There is a lot of evidence of this, including rock paintings discovered in Libya on the territory of the Tadrart-Akakus mountain range. Using these images, you can study the evolution of climate in this part of Africa, and trace the transformation of a flowering valley into a desert.
Wadi Methandush
Another masterpiece of rock art in Libya, located in the southwest of the country. The paintings of Wadi Methandush depict scenes with animals: elephants, cats, giraffes, crocodiles, bulls, antelopes. It is believed that the most ancient ones were created 12 thousand years ago. Most famous picture and the unofficial symbol of the area - two large cats locked in a duel.
Laas Gaal
A cave complex in the unrecognized state of Somaliland with perfectly preserved ancient drawings. These paintings are considered the best surviving of all on the African continent, they date back to 9-3 millennia BC. Basically, they are dedicated to the sacred cow - a cult animal that was worshiped in these places. The images were discovered in the early 2000s by a French expedition.
Bhimbetka cliff dwellings
Located in India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is believed that the immediate ancestors of Homo erectus lived in the Bhimbetka cave complex modern people. The drawings discovered by Indian archaeologists date back to the Mesolithic era. Interestingly, many of the rituals of the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are similar to the scenes depicted by ancient people. There are about 700 caves in Bhimbetka, of which more than 300 are well explored.
White Sea petroglyphs
The drawings of primitive people are located on the territory of the White Sea Petroglyphs archaeological complex, which includes several dozen sites of ancient people. The images are located in a place called Zalavruga on the shores of the White Sea. In total, the collection consists of 2,000 grouped illustrations depicting people, animals, battles, rituals, hunting scenes, and there is also an interesting picture of a man on skis.
Petroglyphs of Tassil-Adjer
A mountain plateau in Algeria, on the territory of which the largest drawings of ancient people discovered in northern Africa are located. Petroglyphs began to appear here from the 7th millennium BC. The main plot is hunting scenes and figures of animals of the African savannah. Illustrations made in different techniques, which indicates their belonging to different historical eras.
Tsodilo
The Tsodilo mountain range is located in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Here, over an area of more than 10 km², thousands of images created by ancient people were discovered. The researchers claim that they cover a time period of 100 thousand years. The most ancient creations are primitive contour images; later ones represent an attempt by artists to give the drawings a three-dimensional effect.
Tomsk pisanitsa
A natural museum-reserve in the Kemerovo region, created in the late 1980s with the aim of preserving rock art. On its territory there are about 300 images, many of them created approximately 4 thousand years ago. The earliest date back to the 10th century BC. Beyond creativity ancient man, tourists will be interested in seeing the ethnographic exhibition and museum collections, included in the Tomsk Pisanitsa.
Magura Cave
The natural site is located in northwestern Bulgaria near the city of Belogradchik. During archaeological excavations in the 1920s, the first evidence of the presence of ancient man was found here: tools, ceramics, jewelry. More than 700 examples of rock paintings, presumably created 100-40 thousand years ago, were also discovered. In addition to figures of animals and people, they depict stars and the sun.
Gobustan Nature Reserve
The protected area includes mud volcanoes and ancient rock art. More than 6 thousand images were created by people who lived on this land from primitive era and until the Middle Ages. The subjects are quite simple - scenes of hunting, religious rituals, figures of people and animals. Gobustan is located in Azerbaijan, approximately 50 km from Baku.
Onega petroglyphs
Petroglyphs were discovered on east coast Lake Onega in the Pudozh region of Karelia. Drawings dating back to 4-3 millennia BC are placed on the rocks of several capes. Some illustrations are quite impressive 4 meters in size. In addition to standard images of people and animals, there are also mystical symbols of unknown purpose, which always frightened the monks of the nearby Murom Holy Dormition Monastery.
Rock reliefs at Tanum
A group of petroglyphs discovered in the 1970s on the territory of the Swedish commune of Tanum. They are located along a 25-kilometer line that is believed to have been the shore of a fjord in the Bronze Age. In total, archaeologists discovered approximately 3 thousand drawings, collected in groups. Unfortunately, under the influence of unfavorable natural conditions petroglyphs are in danger of extinction. Gradually it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish their outlines.
Rock paintings in Alta
Primitive people lived not only in a comfortable warm climate, but also around Arctic Circle. In the 1970s, in northern Norway near the city of Alta, scientists discovered a large group prehistoric drawings, consisting of 5 thousand fragments. These paintings depict human life in harsh weather conditions. Some illustrations contain ornaments and signs that scientists have not been able to decipher.
Coa Valley Archaeological Park
An archaeological complex created at the site of the discovery of prehistoric paintings that date back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods (the so-called Solutrean culture). There are not only ancient images here, some elements were created in the Middle Ages. The drawings are located on rocks stretching for 17 km along the Koa River. There is also a Museum of Art and Archeology in the park, dedicated to the history of the area.
Newspaper Rock
Translated, the name of the archaeological site means “Newspaper Stone”. Indeed, the petroglyphs covering the rock resemble a characteristic typographical seal. The mountain is located in the American state of Utah. It has not been established for certain when these signs were created. It is believed that the Indians applied them to the cliff both before the European conquerors arrived on the continent and after that.
Edakkal Caves
One of the archaeological treasures of India and all humanity is the Edakkal caves in the state of Kerala. During the Neolithic era, prehistoric petroglyphs were painted on the walls of the grottoes. These characters have not yet been deciphered. The area is a popular tourist attraction; visiting the caves is only possible as part of an excursion. Self-entrance is prohibited.
Petroglyphs of the archaeological landscape of Tamgaly
The Tamgaly tract is located approximately 170 km from Almaty. In the 1950s, about 2 thousand rock paintings were discovered on its territory. Most of the images were created in the Bronze Age, but there are also modern creations that appeared in the Middle Ages. Based on the nature of the drawings, scientists have suggested that an ancient sanctuary was located in Tamgaly.
Petroglyphs of the Mongolian Altai
The complex of rock signs, located in Northern Mongolia, covers an area of 25 km² and stretches 40 km in length. The images were created in the Neolithic era more than 3 thousand years ago, there are drawings even older, 5 thousand years old. Most of them depict deer with chariots; there are also figures of hunters and fairy-tale animals reminiscent of dragons.
Rock art in Hua Mountains
Chinese rock art was discovered in the south of the country in the Hua Mountains. They represent figures of people, animals, ships, celestial bodies, weapons, painted in rich ocher. In total there are about 2 thousand images, which are divided into 100 groups. Some pictures develop into full-fledged scenes, where you can see a solemn ceremony, ritual or procession.
Cave of Swimmers
The grotto is located in the Libyan Desert on the border of Egypt and Libya. In the 1990s, ancient petroglyphs were discovered there, their age exceeding 10 thousand years (Neolithic era). They depict people swimming in the sea or other body of water. That's why the cave was named modern name. After people began to visit the grotto en masse, many of the drawings began to deteriorate.
Horseshoe Canyon
The gorge is part of Canyonlands National Park, which is located in the US state of Utah. Horseshoe Canyon became famous because ancient paintings created by nomadic hunter-gatherers were discovered there in the 1970s. The images are depicted on panels about 5 meters high and 60 meters wide, they represent 2-meter humanoid figures.
Petroglyphs of Val Camonica
In the first half of the 20th century, in the Italian Val Camonica valley (Lombardy region), the largest collection of rock art in the world was discovered - more than 300 thousand drawings. Most of them were created in the Iron Age, the latest ones belong to the Camun culture, which is written about in ancient Roman sources. It is curious that when B. Mussolini was in power in Italy, these petroglyphs were considered evidence of the emergence of the superior Aryan race.
Twyfelfontein Valley
The most ancient settlements appeared in the Namibian Twyfelfontein Valley more than 5 thousand years ago. Around this time, rock paintings were created depicting the typical life of hunters and nomads. In total, scientists counted more than 2.5 thousand fragments, most of them are about 3 thousand years old, the youngest are about 500 years old. In the middle of the 20th century, someone stole an impressive part of the slabs with petroglyphs.
Chumash Painted Cave
A national park in California, on the territory of which there is a small sandstone grotto with wall paintings of the Chumash Indians. The subjects of the paintings reflect the ideas of the aborigines about the world order. By different estimates, the paintings were created between 1 thousand and 200 years ago, making them quite modern compared to prehistoric cave paintings elsewhere in the world.
Petroglyphs of Toro Muerto
A group of petroglyphs in the Peruvian province of Castilla, which were created in the 6th-12th centuries during the Huari culture. Some scientists suggest that the Incas had a hand in them. The pictures depict animals, birds, celestial bodies, geometric patterns, as well as people dancing, probably performing some kind of ritual. In total, about 3 thousand painted stones of volcanic origin were discovered.
Petroglyphs of Easter Island
One of the most mysterious places planet, Easter Island can surprise not only with giant stone heads. Ancient petroglyphs painted on rocks, boulders, and cave walls are of no less interest and are considered an important archaeological heritage. They are either schematic images of a technical process, or non-existent animals and plants - scientists have yet to understand this issue.
Most scientists believe that ancient people appeared over two million years ago. Archaeologists have found traces of their existence in East Africa. The conditions here were favorable for primitive man: hot climate, plenty of edible roots and fruits, places to hide from bad weather and predators. The life of ancient man depended on nature. Primitive history lasted hundreds of thousands of years. During this time, people populated all continents except Antarctica. They appeared on the territory of our country about half a million years ago.
The emergence of primitive art
Already then there was ancient art. The oldest images were discovered in Spain, in the south of France, in Russia in the Urals.
Primitive art has been known since time immemorial. The oldest images on the walls of caves include imprints human hand. Almost 150 years ago, a cave was discovered in Spain with drawings on the walls and ceiling. Later, more than 100 similar caves were discovered in France and Spain.
There are several periods in the development of cave art:
First period (XXX thousand years BC). When the surface inside the outline of the design was filled with black or red paint.
The second period (up to X thousand years BC) is marked by a transition to oblique parallel strokes. This is how fur began to be depicted on animal skins. Additional colors were introduced (various shades of yellow and red) for spots on the skins of bulls, horses, and bison.
In the third period (from the 10th millennium BC) - cave art became very voluminous with the use of multi-colored paints
First paints.
What are paints? IN explanatory dictionary S.I. Ozhigova gives the following definition:
Paint is a homogeneous colored substance that gives a particular color to objects. Widely used in the national economy, everyday life, as well as in painting.
Of course, ancient man did not have colors in the modern sense of the word. He used natural materials for his drawings.
The first paint was clay. It can be different: yellow, red, white, blue, greenish. The ancient artist carved a design into the rock, and then rubbed clay mixed with animal fat into the recess. Often ancient artists used ocher - a paint of red, yellow and Brown, found in nature in the form of clay or crumbly small lumps. Cave paintings were made with coal, which was always at hand, as well as black soot and soot.
Paints from minerals, plants and animals.
Our ancestors also painted with paints obtained from rocks. blue paint were mined from the mineral lapis lazuli, green from malachite, and red from a mineral called cinnabar.
Over time, people learned to mine and make a lot various colors. The purple crimson color was especially valued. IN Ancient Rome Only the emperor wore clothes of purple and crimson colors. This paint was very expensive, it was extracted from the shells of snails living in the Mediterranean Sea. To obtain 1 gram of such paint, 10 thousand shells had to be processed. They even made paints from insects. Tropical insects called cachinelles were the source of a red dye called carmine.
Bright and long-lasting colors were obtained from plants. In ancient times, plant paints were used by humans to decorate weapons, clothing, and homes. At first it was the juices of bright petals, leaves, and fruits of plants, then people learned to prepare special dyes from plants.
For example, yellow paint was obtained from the bark of barberry, alder, and milkweed.
Onion peels, oak bark and henna leaves from this Lawsonia plant produced a brown dye.
Many different paints were extracted from plants in Ancient Rus'. Blue dye was obtained from the root of the knotweed, yellow from the roots of horse sorrel, cherry dye from the lichen of the steppe goldenrod, and with the help of blackberries and blueberries they dyed fabrics purple.
During excavations Egyptian pyramids blue fabrics dyed with indigo, a dye from the leaves of the indigofera plant, were found.
Plants were found from which paint of several colors could be obtained. So, for example, red, yellow and orange paint. And yellow, green and black paint was obtained from the cuff plant. A particularly wide color palette was provided by a plant such as madder. Famous for the brightness of colors and multicolored Dagestan carpets, they were woven from wool dyed with a substance obtained from madder roots.
Conclusion.
Observation results.
I conducted an observation.
Many times I saw how my grandmother and mother painted with onion skins Easter eggs. They produced a very rich burgundy color.
For the holiday, my mother often bakes a cake and decorates it with cream, to which she adds beet and carrot juice. She produces red roses and orange flowers.
Experiment results.
I conducted an experiment myself and tried to first draw a picture with charcoal, and then color it with beet and carrot juice. I added a decoction of the yarrow plant to my new paints. I made a color drawing “Flowers”.
Thus, from all the paints discussed above that the ancient artist used, we can conclude:
1) Of course, ancient man did not have colors in the modern sense of the word. He used natural materials for his drawings.
2) The color was used for coloring, although it was not very different from natural. It was conditional in nature, to highlight more important objects in the drawing.
3) Painting was carried out with mineral paints, paints from the flora and fauna
4) Paints made from natural materials were available and harmless.
5) Recipes for preparing some paints from natural materials such as: brown from onion peel, burgundy from beets and orange from carrots and many others.
From my research I concluded: the hypothesis I put forward that ancient people found colors in nature was completely confirmed.