In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistoric cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history.
It usually continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of record-keeping, or makes significant contact with another culture that has, which makes some record of major historical events. At now ancient art begins, for the older literate cultures.
The end-date for what's covered by the term thus varies greatly between different parts of the planet. Pablo Picasso famously exclaimed “after Altamira, all is decadence” after visiting the Altamira cave paintings in northern Spain. He wasn’t kidding.
The art during this cave and in many others that dot parts of France, Spain and other regions within the world are among the best pieces of art ever created. Like all great art they supply an insight into the way that folks thought, albeit it had been tens of thousands of years ago.
10 Prehistoric Art Cave Painting:
1. Magura Caves: The Magura Cave is one among the most important caves in Bulgaria located within the northwest a part of the country. The cave walls are decorated by prehistoric cave paintings dating back about 8000 to 4000 years ago.
More than 700 drawings are discovered on the cave walls. They are painted with bat guano (bat excrement) and represent hunting and dancing people also as an outsized sort of animals.
2. Cueva De Las Manos: Cueva de las Manos is located in Patagonia in the southern part of Argentina and contains cave paintings that were created between 13,000 and 9,000 years ago.
The cave’s name literally means ‘Cave of hands’ and was presented that name because of the hundreds of stenciled hands painted on the cave walls. The age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone-made pipes used for spraying the paint.
3. Bhimbetka: Located in central India, Bhimbetka contains over 600 rock shelters decorated with prehistoric cave paintings. Executed mainly in red and white with the occasional use of green and yellow the paintings usually depict the lives and times of the people who lived in the caves.
Animals such as bisons, tigers, lions, and crocodiles have also been abundantly depicted in some caves. The oldest paintings are considered to be 12,000 years old.
4. Serra Da Capivara: Serra da Capivara is a national park in Brazil which has the largest and the oldest concentration of prehistoric paintings in the Americas.
Rock shelters within the park were found to contain ancient paintings depicting animals and hunting. Whilst Stone tools found at Serra da Capivara date to as early as 22,000 years ago.
5. Laas Gaal: Laas Gaal may be a complex of caves and rock shelters in northwestern Somalia that contain a number of the earliest known rock art within the Horn of Africa and therefore the African continent in general.
The prehistoric cave paintings are estimated to be between 11,000 and 5,000 years old. They show cows in ceremonial robes amid humans, domesticated dogs and even a giraffe. The cave paintings are excellently preserved and retain their clear outlines and strong colors.
6. Tadrart Acacus: Tadrart Acacus may be a range , located within the Sahara of Western Libya that contains rock art dating from 14,000 years ago. There are paintings and carvings of animals like giraffes, elephants, ostriches and camels, but also of men and horses.
7. Chauvet Cave: The Chauvet Cave in southern France contains some of earliest known prehistoric cave paintings in the world. Based on carbon dating the oldest paintings within the cave could also be up to 32,000 years old. Jean-Marie Chauvet and his team of speleologists discovered this cave in 1994.
These paintings contain images of animals like the ibex, mammoth, horses, lions, bears, rhinos and lions. Advanced techniques like the utilization of perspective is clearly demonstrated within the ‘panel of horses’ which shows several animals on an equivalent plane.
8. Ubirr: Ubirr may be a group of rock outcrops within the Kakadu park , a protected area within the Northern Territory of Australia. There several large rock overhangs that might have provided excellent shelter to Aboriginal people over thousands of years.
Some of the paintings are up to twenty ,000 years old and depict e barramundi, catfish, mullet, goanna, snake-necked turtle, pig-nosed turtle, rock-haunting ringtail possum, and wallaby and thylacine (Tasmanian tiger).
The Kakadu park contains a huge amount of Aboriginal rock paintings; over 5000 art sites are discovered there. The Aboriginals not only painted the outside of their subjects, but also the skeletons of some animals.
9. Altamira Caves: Discovered within the late 19th century, the Altamira subside northern Spain was the primary subside which prehistoric paintings were discovered.
The paintings were of such an astounding quality that the scientific society doubted their authenticity and even accused its discoverer Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola of forgery.
Many people simply didn't believe prehistoric man had the comprehension to supply any quite artistic expression. The paintings were not acknowledged as genuine until 1902.
The charcoal and ochre images of horses, bison and handprints within the Altamira Cave are among the simplest preserved cave paintings within the world.
10. Lascaux Paintings: In the department of Dordogne in southwestern France near the village of Montignac, Lascaux is like the setting of a complex of caves. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the within walls and ceilings of the cave.
Typical local and contemporary fauna that correspond with the fossil record of the Upper Paleolithic time as the paintings represent primarily large animals.
The drawings are the combined effort of the various generations, and with continued debate, the age of the paintings is estimated at around 17,000 years (early Magdalenian).
This prehistoric paintings sums up about the period and timeline of Human Evolution giving a great aspect for historians to know more about the evolution.
Written by: Sanjana Chakraborty
Edited by: Gourav Chowdhury
0 Comments