Early Artwork

Our Paleolithic ancestors that lived between 30,000 and 8,000 BC were small, hairy, and lacked written language. There’s little archaeology can say about them with certainty. One thing is clear, these Stone Age cave dwellers were artists. They could not only describe in visual terms the animals which they came into contact with daily; such art may be no more than illustration. 

The paintings found on the walls of the Altamira caves were the first to be discovered in 1879. The caves are located near the Santander in northern Spain. The discovery had such fundamental implications for archaeology that it was at first thought to be a forgery. Today, there has been more discoveries in Europe and Africa of ancient art and artifacts. Some dating back as far as hundreds of thousands of years ago. 

The bison in this painting is accompanied by a whole herd that surges majestically across the ceiling of a long, narrow corridor. Horses, boars, mammoths, and other creatures, all the desired kill of the Stone Age huntsman. 

These caves are completely underground, and therefore permanently in darkness. The artists used small stone lamps filled with animal fat or marrow. The initial designs were engraved into the soft rock, or thin lines of paint were blown onto the wall through a hollow reed. Ochre, a natural mineral that could be crushed to a powder that would make red, brown, and yellow pigments. Black was probably made from powdered charcoal. Paint material was then rubbed in by hand or mixed with a binder such as animal fat. 

No one knows for sure why these paintings were created. Could it be ritualistic? Did the ancients believe they could gain magical powers from the images? Many of the paintings show the animals wounded and pierced with arrows. There's some evidence of actual physical attacks on the painted pieces. Humans are rarely depicted and, when they are, the images are much cruder.