This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies.

Cave or Rock Paintings are paintings on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known rock paintings are dated to the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago, while the earliest European cave paintings date to 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the cave paintings is not known, and may never be. The evidence suggests that they weren't merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they've been found don't have signs of ongoing habitation. Also, they are often in areas of caves that aren't easily accessed. Some theories hold that they may have been a way of transmitting information, while other theories ascribe them a religious or ceremonial purpose. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... For other uses , see Painting (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Cave (disambiguation). ... “Rock” redirects here. ... Prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is the period of human history prior to the advent of writing (which marks the beginning of recorded history). ... The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. ...

Europe

---

This image has an uncertain copyright status and is pending deletion. You can comment on the removal.

Cave Painting

When Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola first encountered the Magdalenian paintings of the Altamira cave, Cantabria, Spain in 1879, the academics of the time considered them hoaxes. Recent reappraisals and increasing numbers of discoveries have illustrated their authenticity and have indicated high levels of artistry of Upper Palaeolithic humans who used only basic tools. Cave paintings can also give valuable clues as to the culture and beliefs of that era. Image File history File linksMetadata Lascaux2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Lascaux2. ... Image File history File links CavePainting1. ... Image File history File links CavePainting1. ... Cave, or rock, paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to pre_historic times. ... Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola (1831-1888): Spanish jurist and amateur archaeologist, who owned the land where the Altamira cave was found. ... The Magdalenian, also spelt Magdalénien, refers to one of the later culture of the Upper Palaeolithic in western Europe. ... Cave painting of a Bison from Altamira Outline of cave paintings. ... For the Mesozoic island Cantabria, see Cantabria (Mesozoic island). ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the philosophical concept of Art. ... The Upper Paleolithic or Palaeolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. ... For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ...

Locations

Well known cave paintings include those of:

• Lascaux, France
• La Marche, near Lussac-les-Chateaux, France
• Chauvet Cave, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France
• Altamira, near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain
• Cosquer Cave, with an entrance below sea level near Marseille, France
• Font de Gaume, in the Dordogne Valley in France

Other sites include Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire, England. (Cave etchings and bas-reliefs discovered in 2003), and Magura [1], Belogradchik, Bulgaria. Painting of bison attacking a man, from the cave at Lascaux, c. ... The Chauvet Cave or Chauvet-Pont-dArc Cave is a cave located near Vallon-Pont-dArc, in the Ardèche département, in southern France. ... Pont dArc Vallon-Pont-dArc is a town and commune in the south of France, in the Ardèche département. ... Cave painting of a Bison from Altamira Outline of cave paintings. ... Santillana del Mar is a historic town situated in Cantabria, Spain. ... For the Mesozoic island Cantabria, see Cantabria (Mesozoic island). ... A painted bison from the Cosquer cave The Cosquer cave is located in the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille, France, not very far from Cap Morgiou. ... For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ... Marseilles redirects here. ... Font de Gaume is a cave in southwestern France near Les Eyzies. ... Dordogne (Occitan: Dordonha) is a department in central France named after the Dordogne River. ... Map sources for Creswell Crags at grid reference SK536741 Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border, in the Midlands of England. ... Nottinghamshire (abbreviated Notts) is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Detail from the Elgin Marbles, an example of bas-relief Greek soldier in Armour in bas-relief     Bas-relief is a method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. ...

Rock painting was also performed on cliff faces, but fewer of those have survived because of erosion. One well-known example is the rock paintings of Astuvansalmi in the Saimaa area of Finland. For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion (morphology). ... Saimaa, or Saimen in Swedish, is a lake in southeastern Finland. ...

Age

Nearly 350 caves have now been discovered in France and Spain that contain art from prehistoric times. The age of the paintings in many sites has been a contentious issue, since methods like radiocarbon dating can be easily misled by contaminated samples of older or newer material^{[citation needed]}, and caves and rocky overhangs (parietal art) are typically littered with debris from many time periods. Recent advances make it possible to date the paintings by sampling the pigment itself. [2] Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring isotope carbon-14 (14C) to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years. ...

The choice of subject matter can also indicate date such as the reindeer at the Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas which imply the art is from the last Ice Age. The oldest cave is that of Chauvet, and is 32,000 years old.[3] Other examples may date as late as the Early Bronze Age, but the well known prolific and sophisticated style from Lascaux and Altamira died out about 10,000 years ago, coinciding with the advent of the neolithic period. Caribou redirects here. ... The Wisconsin (in North America), Devensian (in the British Isles), Midlandian (in Ireland), Würm (in the Alps), and Weichsel (in northern central Europe) glaciations are the most recent glaciations of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BCE. The general glacial advance began about 70,000 BCE, and... The Chauvet Cave or Chauvet-Pont-dArc Cave is a cave located near Vallon-Pont-dArc, in the Ardèche département, in southern France. ...

Spanish Cave Painting of Bulls

Image File history File linksMetadata Rock_art_bull. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Rock_art_bull. ...

Themes and patterns

The most common themes in cave paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns, called finger flutings. Drawings of humans are rare and are usually schematic rather than the more naturalistic animal subjects. Cave art may have begun in the Aurignacian period (Hohle Fels, Germany), but reached its apogee in the late Magdalenian (Lascaux, France). Species †B. antiquus B. bison B. bonasus †B. latifrons †B. occidentalis †B. priscus Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... Binomial name Subspecies Bos primigenius primigenius   (Bojanus, 1827) Bos primigenius namadicus   (Falconer, 1859) Bos primigenius mauretanicus   (Thomas, 1881) See Ur (rune) for the rune. ... This article is about the ruminant animal. ... For other uses, see Hand (disambiguation). ... In prehistoric art, Finger flutings are lines that fingers leave on a soft surface. ... Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic present in Europe and south west Asia. ... The Magdalenian, also spelt Magdalénien, refers to one of the later culture of the Upper Palaeolithic in western Europe. ...

The paintings were drawn with red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal. Sometimes the silhouette of the animal was incised in the rock first. This article is about the color. ... Hematite, also spelled haematite, is the mineral form of Iron(III) oxide, (Fe2O3), one of several iron oxides. ... Manganese(IV) oxide (MnO2) is a chemical compound also known as manganese dioxide or manganese oxide. ... Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. ...

Theories and interpretations

Henri Breuil interpreted the paintings as being hunting magic, meant to increase the number of animals. As there are some clay sculptures that seem to have been the targets of spears, this may partly be true, but does not explain the pictures of predators such as the lion or the bear. Henri Breuil (February 28, 1877 - August 14, 1961), often referred to as Abbé Breuil was a French archaeologist. ... For other uses, see Lion (disambiguation). ...

An alternative theory, developed by David Lewis-Williams and broadly based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings were made by Cro-Magnon shamans. The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the caves, enter into a trance state and then paint images of their visions, perhaps with some notion of drawing power out of the cave walls themselves. This goes some way toward explaining the remoteness of some of the paintings (which often occur in deep or small caves) and the variety of subject matter (from prey animals to predators and human hand-prints). James David Lewis-Williams is a professor emeritus of cognitive archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... For the avant garde collective, see Cromagnon (band). ... The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means... This article is about the practice of shamanism; for other uses, see Shaman (disambiguation). ... This snapping turtle is trying to make a meal of a Canada goose, but the goose is too wary. ...

R. Dale Guthrie^[1] has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings but also a variety of lower quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women in the Venus figurines) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males, who made a big part of the human population at the time. According to Merlin Stone in her book When God Was a Woman, many scholars and archaeologists impose modern sexist views on ancient findings. Considering the prevalence of Goddess worship (beginning between 7,000 and 25,000 B.C.E), it is much more probable that art depicting the fullness of a woman's body was not a teenage male's fantasy but reproductions done in praise of women by artists of either sex. As with all prehistory, it is impossible to be certain because of the relative lack of material evidence and the many pitfalls associated with trying to understand the prehistoric mindset. External links Venus figures from the Stone Age Images of women in ancient art http://perso. ... Stonehenge, England, erected by Neolithic peoples ca. ...

Graham Hancock's Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind explores the various theories on the interpretation of rock art, and provides extensive references. He concludes that recent theory linking shamanic and religious practices with cave painting throughout the world appear the most credible. Graham Hancock Graham Hancock (born 1951) is a British writer and journalist. ...

Africa

Rock paintings from the Western Cape

At Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa, now thought to be some 3,000 years old, the paintings by the San people who settled in the area some 8,000 years ago depict animals and humans, and are thought to represent religious beliefs. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 529 pixelsFull resolution (2925 × 1935 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 529 pixelsFull resolution (2925 × 1935 pixel, file size: 1. ... Capital Cape Town Largest city Cape Town Premier Ebrahim Rasool Area - Total Ranked 4th 129,370 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 5th 4,524,335 35/km² Elevation Highest point: Seweweekspoort Peak at 2325 meters (7628 feet) Lowest point: sea level Languages Afrikaans (55. ... The Bushmen, San, Basarwa, !Kung or Khwe are indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert, which spans areas of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. ...

Recently, an archeological team discovered the Laas Gaa'l cave paintings outside Hargeisa in Somaliland. They show the ancient inhabitants of the area worshipping cattle and performing religious ceremonies. one of the Laas Gaal cave paintings outside Hargeisa Laas Gaal or Laas Gaal (Somali Laas Gaal) is a complex of caves in Somalia famous for its recent discovery of cave paintings. ... Hargeisa (Somali: Hargeysa, Arabic: هرجيسا) is a city in Northwestern Somalia and the second largest city in Somalia. ... For other territories formerly called Somaliland, see Somaliland (disambiguation). ... For general information about the genus, including other species of cattle, see Bos. ...

Cave paintings are found in the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in southeast Algeria also in the Akakus, Messak Settafet and Tadrart in Libya and other Sahara regions including: Ayr mountains, Niger and Tibesti, Chad. Landsat image of the Tassili nAjjer The Tassili nAjjer (Arabic: تصلة ناجر) is a mountain range in the Sahara desert in southeast Algeria. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Tadrart Acacus. ... Tadrart is a mountainous region in south-western Libya, main city Aghat (Ghat). ...

Mexico

Rock paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco, Mexico

The Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco is the name given to prehistoric rock art found in the Sierra de San francisco region of Baja California, Mexico, created by a people referred to as Cochimi or Guachimis. There are some 250 sites which are located in the municipality of Mulege within the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve in the state of Baja California Sur in Northern Mexico. Motifs include human figures, weapons, and animal species such as rabbit, puma, lynx, deer, wild goat/sheep, whale, turtle, tuna, sardine, octopus, eagle, and pelican; there are also abstract elements of various forms. The paintings vary in age from 1100 BC to AD 1300. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 404 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Taken on April 2, 2001 License at: http://creativecommons. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 404 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Taken on April 2, 2001 License at: http://creativecommons. ... The Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco is the name of the prehistoric rock art found in the Sierra de San francisco region of Baja California, Mexico. ... The Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco is the name of the prehistoric rock art found in the Sierra de San francisco region of Baja California, Mexico. ...

The paintings are noted for their high quality, extent, the variety and originality of human and animal representations, remarkable colors, and excellent state of preservation. The rock paintings of Sierra de San Francisco were nominated in 1989 and became a World Heritage Site in 1993.

Australia

Significant early cave paintings have also been found in Kakadu National Park in Australia. Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km east of Darwin. ...

The park has a large collection of ochre paintings. Ochre is a not an organic material, so carbon dating of these pictures is impossible. Sometimes the approximate date, or at least, an epoch, can be guessed from the content. Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km east of Darwin. ... This article is about the color. ... Organic material or organic matter is informally used to denote a material that originated as a living organism; most such materials contain carbon and are capable of decay. ... Radiocarbon dating is the use of the naturally occurring isotope of carbon-14 in radiometric dating to determine the age of organic materials, up to ca. ... Look up epoch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A male hunter or warrior. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2012x3038, 958 KB) Опис файлу This is a photo of an ochre cave painting of a hunter (or warrior) in Kakadu National Park, Northern Australia. ...	A wallaby (and some other things). Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3038x2012, 1007 KB) Опис файлу An ancient Aboriginal rock painting of a wallaby in Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia. ... Ancient aboriginal rock painting of a wallaby in Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia. ...	An elaborate turtle. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3038x2012, 856 KB) Опис файлу A rock painting of a turtle in whats known as X-ray style -- with some internal organs. ...	Fishes -- an X-ray style painting -- with some internal organs shown in detail. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3038x2012, 810 KB) Опис файлу A rock painting of fishes in whats known as X-ray style -- with some internal organs. ... In the NATO phonetic alphabet, X-ray represents the letter X. An X-ray picture (radiograph) taken by Röntgen An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength approximately in the range of 5 pm to 10 nanometers (corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 PHz...
A macropod's (probably kangaroo's) skeleton (?) Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3038x2012, 679 KB) Опис файлу A rock painting of (what seems to be) some macropods skeleton. ... Genera Lagostrophus Dendrolagus Dorcopsis Dorcopsulus Lagorchestes Macropus Onychogalea Petrogale Setonix Thylogale Wallabia Tree kangaroos have smaller ears for easier maneuvering between tree branches, and much longer tail. ... This article is about the animal. ... For other uses, see Skeleton (disambiguation). ...

Southeast Asia

Bhimbetka rock painting, World Heritage Site

There are rock paintings in caves in India,^[2] Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In Thailand, caves and scarps along the Thai-Burmese border, in the Petchabun Range of Central Thailand, and overlooking the Mekong River in Nakorn Sawan Province, all contain galleries of rock paintings. In Malaysia the oldest paintings are at Gua Tambun in Perak, dated at 2000 years, and those in the Painted Cave at Niah Caves National Park are 1200 years old. See prehistoric Malaysia. In Indonesia the caves at Maros in Sulawesi are famous for their hand prints, also found in caves in the Sangkulirang area of Kalimantan. Image File history File links Bhimbetka. ... Image File history File links Bhimbetka. ... Bhimbetka is a place in Madhya Pradesh where the earliest known traces of human life in India were found. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... The Niah Caves is a prehistorical site in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. ... Caves paintings of Tambun, dated 3000 BC, in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. ...

See also

• Sympathetic magic
• Rock art
• Parietal art
• Petroglyph
• Prehistoric art

Magic (also called magick to distinguish it from stage magic) is a supposed way of influencing the world through supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. ... Rock art is a term in archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone. ... Term used to describe artwork done on cave walls or large blocks of stone. ... For other uses, see Petroglyph (disambiguation). ... In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history. ...

References

1. ^ R. Dale Guthrie, The Nature of Paleolithic Art. University Of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-226-31126-5. Preface.
2. ^ Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka. World Heritage Site. Retrieved on 2007-02-15.

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• Thomas Heyd and John Clegg, eds. Aesthetics and Rock Art. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, England and Burlington, VT, USA. 2005. ISBN 0-7546-3924-X
• Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4

External links

• Bradshaw Foundation The recording of cave paintings around the world
• EuroPreArt database of European Prehistoric Art
• Malaysian Caves
• Cave paintings in Castell de Castells Spain
• American Rock Art Research Association