Pre Indo-european Cave Art Emma Stein Table of Contents

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Pre Indo-european Cave Art
Emma Stein
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Table of Contents

• Cromagnons
• Magdalenian Civilization
• Explaination of general themes in cave art
• Animals in cave art
• Humans in cave art
• Signs
• Anthromorphs
• The caves of Europe
• Lascaux, France
• Altamira, Spain
• Niaux, France
• Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, France
• Alta, Norway
• Importance of Cave Art

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Cro-Magnons The First Painters Cro-magnons
were the first species of the Homo Sapiens
Sapiens. They lived in Europe during the period
before the emergence of Indo-Europeans, from
40,000 to 8,000 BCE.
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Magdalenian Civilization
The Magdalenian civilization of cro-magnons,
which populated Spain and France, were
responsible for the cave paintings found in
Lascaux, France dating about 17,000 years ago and
Altamira, Spain dating about 12,000 years ago.
In addition to being skilled painters, they were
advanced toolmakers, making tools such as sewing
needles and fat burning lamps.
Carnebill points
Tooth necklace
Spear heads
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General themes of cave paintings
There are three general themes that tend to
appear in cave paintings. 1) Humans 2)
Animals 3) Signs All of the images found on the
cave walls fall into one of these categories.
There are never any representations of the
climate of the geographical area outside of the
caves.
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Animals
The most abundant animal depictions are those of
horses. A quarter of all the animal images
painted in caves in Western Europe are horses.
Images of Bison are also very common. The
animals tend to be painted larger than the other
images.
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Humans
Close up on the image of the dead human figure.
Humans are rarely depicted in caves. When they
are shown, they are drawn as a cartoon-like
silhouette.
This is the only representation of a human in
the cave of Lascaux, France. It is the image of
a dead man, and is located in an area of the cave
referred to as The Shaft of the Dead Man.
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Signs
Signs are abstract symbols that are difficult to
interpret because of their ambiguity. Signs are
commonly associated with hunting equipment and
the female form.
These are examples of signs that have been
identified as the profiles of females.
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Anthromorphs
A symbol that can often be found on cave walls is
an anthromorph. An anthromorph is a
representation of a mythical creature that
appears to be a human but shares animal body
parts. One theory about what anthromorphs
represent is that they are drawings of humans
dressed in animals skins, probably to perform a
religious ceremony.
This anthromorth has horse, owl, and reindeer
features, along with male sexual organs. This
combination is belived to be symbolic of male
attributes.
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The Caves of Europe
There are caves containing the art of our ancient
European ancestors all over Europe, with many
particularly in France and Spain. This
presentation will provide specific information
about 5 specific caves Lascaux,
France Altamira, Spain Niaux,
France Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, France Alta,
Norway
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Lascaux, France
The art in the cave of Lascaux, France was
discovered by a group of teenage boys in the
1940s. The cave contains over 2000 images of
various types of animals, such as deer, bison,
horses, and bulls among others.
These are photographs of Hall of Bulls in the
Lascaux cave in France.

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Altamira, Spain
Altamira, Spain
Up in the mountains of Northern Spain, cave
paintings produced by the members of the
Magdenenian civilization have been sheltered from
the elements. Unlike other caves, domestic
materials have been preserved in Altamira along
with the paintings, such as hearths, tools, and
even food.
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Niaux, France
This cave in France has been commercialized over
a century. There are tours given of the caves
paintings, which are located on a huge ceiling
known as the Salon Noir. The paintings of the
Salon Noir were discovered in 1906, although
tourists had been coming to see the cave for
years before, unaware of its ancient paintings.
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Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, France
The cave of Chauvet-Pont dArc contains many
unique paintings. The images of animals are
different than in other caves because of the
artists use of perspective and shading. They
look very different in comparison to
representations of animals found in other caves.
In addition, there is an abundance of images of
bears, lions, mammoths, and rhinoceroses, as
opposed to the usual occurences of horses and
bison. In addition to these differences, the
cave contains a wall of dots. When these dots
were examined closely they revealed to be hand
prints.
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Alta, Norway
These external rock drawings are between 6,200
and 2,500 years old. There is a possibility that
some of these drawings were done by the
Indo-Europeans, because the older drawings were
created around the time when they started
migrating from their location in central Asia.
Theses drawings were made by a different
civilization than the other caves discussed in
this presentation, which is clear when comparing
the themes in these possibly Indo-European
drawings to the ice age drawings. There is an
abundance of human representations, including
humans performing daily activities such as
hunting and fishing.
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The Importance of Cave Art
The art that our European ancestors left behind
opens a window into another culture that if
explored, can reveal much about our own lives
today. It is important to study the lives of the
ancient civilizations that were the foundations
for our own culture, in order to better
understand our traditions and beliefs.
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Bibliography

• http//www.humanities-interactive.org/ancient/icea
  ge/ex038_09a.html This website has lots of
  information about ice age cave art and how the
  art relates to human evolution, as well as good
  images.
• http//www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentP
  rojects/99-00/9608559r/project/html/palaeolithicar
  t.html This site has information about the cave
  art of the Palaelolithic period. It specifically
  discusses gender archeology.
• http//vm.kemsu.ru/en/palaeolith/cavepaint.html
  This is a comprehensive site on ancient art that
  has information on a number of various caves.
• http//www.mcdougallittell.com/whist/netact/U1/U1m
  ain.htm My favorite of all my sources. Lots of
  information on early humans, early civilizations,
  and specific caves.
• http//www.mcdougallittell.com/whist/netact/U1/U1m
  ain.htm Picture source only.
• http//www.beloit.edu/museum/logan/paleoexhibit/l
  augerie.htm Picture source only.
• www.hominids.com/donsmaps/ tools.html Picture
  source only.
• http//www.culture.gouv.fr80/culture/arcnat/lasca
  ux/en/ Site specifically about the Lascaux cave.
• http//campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/Prehi
  story/Altamira.html This site has information
  about lots of different ancient civilizations. I
  used its information on the Altamira cave.
• http//www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/
  en/ Official website for the Chauvet- Point
  dArc cave.
• http//www.hominids.com/donsmaps/indexpaintings.ht
  ml Detailed information about specific
  caves/locations. I used its information on the
  Norway rock art.
• http//www.alta.museum.no/English/rock_art.htmhttp
  //www.alta.museum.no/English/rock_art.htm
  Official museum website for the Alta, Norway rock
  art.