Unwritten History- Cave Paintings

Unwritten History- Cave Paintings

The Painting of Our History
In the Upper Paleolithic period, from 40000 B.C. to 10000 B.C., paintings were created in over 300 caves across the globe. “There are two types of cave art: petroglyphs, which are pictures carved in stone and pictographs, which are pictures painted on stone” (Cave Painting). The art is usually found in hidden caves thatare difficult to locate. For this reason, scientists have taken great interest in discovering why man wished to go to such extremes to produce theartistry. The graphics include mainly animals, geometric figures, and signs but rarely depict any relevance to humans. The visual communication gives valuable clues to the culture and beliefs of that era. The degree of preciseness of the images, being at such a high level, suggests that the art was not merely decorations that covered the bare surfaces of the caves, butwere created for purpose. “The tonal qualities, and the ingenious use of surfaces in the rock, suggest depth and even a kind of perspective” (Johnson). The astuteness of the art raises many questions pertaining to how and why this artistry was produced. Discovery after discovery, scientists and historians become more enthroned with the cave paintings and their meanings. These men, such as Andreas Leroi-Gourhan, Henri Breuil, and David Lewis-Williams, offer a rationalizationand reasoning behind these historical narratives. These men believed the art to be a ritual act or ceremony, done to increase hunting potential or as a result of hallucinations. The man who really developed the history within the art is Richard Rudgley. He is an anthropologist that looks at the culture and religious side of the artwork. He argues the advancement the people of that time had and the information they transmitted to us, via cave art. His studies of the geometric figures relates to the religious and mythological beliefs of the people. The crosses, stars, and spirals provide us with the key to understanding the religious aspect of...

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