Cave painting

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Cave paintings , also known as parietal art, painted pictures on cave or ceiling walls, especially from prehistoric origins, starting around 40,000 years ago (about 38,000 BC) in Eurasia. The real purpose of the Paleolithic cave painting is unknown. The evidence shows that they are not just decorating dwellings, because the caverns where they have been found have no signs of where the dwellings are going on, and they are often located in relatively inaccessible rooms. Some theories argue that cave painting may be a form of communication, while other theories consider it a religious or ceremonial objective. These paintings are very similar throughout the world, usually depicting impressive beasts. Humans mainly appear as hand drawings, most of hand stencils are made by blowing pigments in the hands held onto the wall.

The earliest known cave paintings are at least 64,000 years old. Represented by three non-figurative red symbols found in the caves of Maltravieso, Ardales and La Pasiega, Spain, this precedes the arrival of modern humans to Europe for at least 20,000 years and thus must have been made by Neanderthals.

The earliest known cave/animal painting is at least 35,000 years old and is found in caves in the Maros district, located in Bantimurung district, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, according to an announcement announced in 2014. It was previously believed that the earliest figurative paintings were located in Europe, dating back to the Aurignacian period, some 30,000 to 32,000 years ago, in the Chauvet Cave in France, and in the Cave of Coliboaia in Romania.

Video Cave painting

History of discovery

Age

Nearly 340 caves have now been found in France and Spain containing art from prehistoric times. Initially, the age of the painting has become a controversial issue, since methods such as radiocarbon dating can produce misleading results if contaminated by samples from older or newer materials, and caves and overhangs (where parietal art is found) are usually littered by the debris of many time periods. But subsequent technology has made it possible to date paintings by sampling the pigments themselves, the signs of torch on the walls, or the formation of carbonate deposits on the paintings. Subjects can also show chronology: for example, the deer depicted in the Spanish cave Cueva de las Monedas put the pictures in the last Ice Age.

The oldest known cave painting is a red hand stencil in the cave of Maltravieso, CÃÆ'¨ceres, Spain. It has been dated using the uranium-thorium method to be older than 67,000 years and made by Neanderthals. The oldest date given for animal cave painting is now a pig with a minimum age of 35,400 years, in the Timpuseng cave in Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia.

The earliest known figurative cave painting of Europe is the Chauvet cave in France. These paintings date earlier than 30,000 BC (Upper Paleolithic) according to radiocarbon dating. Some researchers believe the picture is too sophisticated for this era and questioned this age. However, over 80 radiocarbon dates have been obtained in 2011, with samples taken from the torch marker and from the painting itself, as well as from bones and charcoal animals found on the cave floor. The radiocarbon dates of this sample indicate that there were two periods of creation in Chauvet: 35,000 years ago and 30,000 years ago. One surprise is that many paintings have been repeatedly modified for thousands of years, perhaps explaining the confusion about the better paintings that seem faster than the more rough ones. In 2009, explorers found pictures of the Coliboaia Cave in Romania, in a style comparable to that of Chauvet. The early date puts the age of an image in the same range as Chauvet: about 32,000 years old.

In Australia, cave paintings have been found in the Arnhem Land highlands showing the megafauna thought to have been extinct for more than 40,000 years, making this site another candidate for the oldest known painting; However, the age proposed depends on the approximate extinction of the species that appears to be described. Another Australian site, Nawarla Gabarnmang, has radiokarbon-charred images-dated 28,000 years old, making it the oldest site in Australia and one of the oldest in the world where reliable date proof has been obtained.

Other examples may be from the Early Bronze Age, but the famous Magdalenian style is seen in Lascaux in France (c. 15,000 BC) and Altamira in Spain dies about 10,000 BCE, coinciding with the rise of the Neolithic period. Some caves may continue to be painted for several thousand years.

The next phase of surviving European prehistoric painting, the art of rock in the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, is very different, concentrating on a large collection of smaller and less detailed figures, with at least as many humans as animals. It was made approximately between 10,000 and 5,500 years ago, and was painted in stone shelters beneath a shallow cliff or cave, in contrast to deep cave niches used in the previous period (and colder). Although the individual numbers are less naturalistic, they are grouped in compositions grouped coherently to a much greater degree.

Subjects, themes and patterns

The most common subjects in cave painting are large wild animals, such as bison, horse, auroch, and deer, and human handpieces and abstract patterns, called finger flutings. The species most often found suitable for hunting by humans, but not necessarily the typical prey found in bone deposits; for example, Lascaux painters mainly leave bone venison, but this species does not appear at all in cave paintings, where horse species are the most common. Human images are scarce and usually schematic in contrast to more detailed and naturalistic animal subject images. One explanation for this may be that the realistic painting of human form is "forbidden by strong religious taboos." Kieran D. O'Hara, geologist, suggests in his book Cave Art and Climate Change that climate controls the themes described. The pigments used include red and yellow ocher, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal. Sometimes the silhouette of the beast is carved in the first stone, and in some caves all or many images are only engraved in this fashion, taking them out of a strict definition of "cave painting".

Similarly, large animals are also the most common subject in many small carved bones and carved or ivory (rare stones) originating from the same period. But this includes the group of Venus statues, which have no real counterpart in the cave paintings.

Hand stencils, made by putting a hand on the wall and blowing pigment on it (perhaps through a kind of pipe), form a characteristic image of a rough rounded pigment solid area with a colorless hand shape in the middle, which may then be decorated with lines or lines. These are often found in the same cave as other paintings, or perhaps the only form of painting in a location. Some walls contain many hand stencils. The same hand is also painted in the usual way. A number of hands show partial or complete fingers, of which a number of explanations have been given. Hand drawings are found in similar forms in Europe, East Asia, and South America.

Theory and interpretation

Henri Breuil interpreted paintings as hunting magic to increase the abundance of prey.

Another theory, developed by David Lewis-Williams and widely based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that paintings are made by paleolithic shamans. The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the cave, enter a trance state, then paint his visual images, perhaps with some idea of ​​drawing power from the cave wall itself.

R. Dale Guthrie, who has studied art and sculpture that is very artistic and of low quality, identifies various skills and ages among artists. He hypothesized that the main themes in paintings and other artifacts (strong animals, hunting scenes at risk and female representations in Venus sculpture) were the work of adolescent males, who were a large part of the human population at the time. However, in analyzing hand prints and stencils in French and Spanish caves, Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University has proposed that some of them, including those around the horses seen at Pech Merle, are female hands.

Maps Cave painting

Location

South Africa

At uKhahlamba/Drakensberg Park, South Africa, now estimated to be about 3,000 years old, the San paintings that settled in the area about 8,000 years ago depict animals and humans, and are considered representative of religious beliefs. Human figures are much more common in African rock art than in Europe.

The cave paintings found in the Apollo 11 Caves in Namibia are estimated to originate from about 23,000-25,000 BC.

Horn of Africa

In 2002, the French archaeological team discovered the Laas Geel cave painting on the outskirts of Hargeisa in the northwestern region of Somaliland. Dating back around 5,000 years old, the paintings depict wild animals and decorated cows. They also feature shepherds, who are believed to be the creators of rock art. In 2008, Somali archaeologists announced the discovery of another cave painting in the Dhambalin region, which the researchers suggest is one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on a horse. Rock art uses Ethiopian-Arabic style, dated 1000 to 3000 BC.

In addition, between the city of Las Khorey and El Ayo in Karinhegane, where many cave paintings of real animals and myths. Each painting has an inscription beneath it, which is collectively estimated to be around 2,500 years old. Karihegane rock art has the same Ethiopian-Arabic style as Laas Geel and Dhambalin cave paintings. About 25 miles from Las Khorey found Gelweita, another major rock art site.

In Djibouti, the rock art of what appears to be antelope and giraffe is also found in Dorra and Balho.

North Africa

Many of the cave paintings are found in the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in southeastern Algeria. The UNESCO World Heritage Site, the art of rock was first discovered in 1933 and has since produced 15,000 sculptures and drawings keeping records of animal migrations, climate change, and the changing patterns of human inhabitants in this part of Sahara from 6000 BC to the final classic period. Other cave paintings are also found in Akakus, Mesak Settafet and Tadrart in Libya and other Sahara regions including: Ayr mountains, Niger and Tibesti, Chad.

Swimmer Cave and Animal Cave in southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya, in the mountainous area of ​​Gilf Kebir in the Sahara Desert. The Swimmer's Cave was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer LÃÆ'¡szlÃÆ'³ AlmÃÆ'¡sy. This site contains pictures of rock paintings from people who swim, which is thought to have been created 10,000 years ago in the latest Ice Age era.

Australia

Significant early cave painting, done in ocher, has been found in Kakadu, Australia. Oker is not an organic material, so carbon dating of these photos is often impossible. Sometimes the approximate date, or at least, of an age, may be suspected from the content of paintings, contextual artifacts, or organic materials that are intentionally or unintentionally mixed with inorganic inorganic paint, including sooty torches.

The red ocher painting, found in the center of the Arnhem Plateau, depicts two emu-like birds with their necks stretched out. They have been identified by paleontologists as depicting megafauna species Genyornis , giant birds thought to have gone extinct more than 40,000 years ago; However, this evidence is inconclusive for dating. This may simply indicate that Genyornis becomes extinct later in life than prescribed previously.

Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands is also home to a number of cave paintings made by Ngaro sailors.

Europe

Famous cave paintings include from:

• El Castillo Cave, Spain (~ 40,000 y.o.)
• Chauvet Cave, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France (~ 35,000 y.o.)
• La Pasiega Cave, El Castillo Cave, Cantabria, Spain (~ 30,000 y.o.?)
• Arcy-sur-Cure Caves, France (~ 28,200 yoo.)
• Cosquer Cave, near Marseille, France (~ 27,000 y.o.)
• Gargas Cave, France (~ 27,000 y.o.)
• Cussac Cave, France (~ 25,000 y.o.)
• Pech Merle, near Cabrerets, France (25,000 y.o.)
• Lascaux, France (~ 17,000 y.o.)
• Niaux Cave, France (~ 17,000 y.o.)
• Font-de-Gaume, in the Dordogne Valley, France (~ 17,000 y.o.)
• Altamira Cave, near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain (~ 15,500 y.o.)
• In March, at Lussac-les-ChÃÆ'Â ¢ teaux, France (~ 15,000 y.o.)
• Les Combarelles, Les Eyzies de Tayac, Dordogne, France (~ 13,600 y.o.)
• Magura Cave, Bulgaria (~ 10,000 y.o.)

Other sites include Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire, England (~ 14,500 ys old cave and relief found in 2003), Pe? Tera Coliboaia in Romania (~ 29,000 yo art?), And Kapova Cave in Russia (~ 16,000 yo art).

Stone painting is also done on the cliff, but fewer survivors due to erosion. One example is the Astuvansalmi stone paintings (3000-2500 BC) in the Saimaa region of Finland.

When Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola first encountered Magdalenian paintings in the cave of Altamira, Cantabria, Spain in 1879, academics at that time considered him a lie. Recent reappraisals and many additional inventions have shown their authenticity, while at the same time stimulating interest in the arts of upper Palaeolithic society.

India

The Bhimbetka stone shelter shows the early traces of human life in India; some analyzes show that some of these shelters are inhabited by humans for more than 100,000 years. The earliest paintings on the walls of the cave are believed to date from the Mesolithic period, dating back 30,000 years. The latest painting, consisting of geometric figures, dates up to the medieval period. Executed primarily in red and white with the occasional use of green and yellow, the paintings depict the life and time of the people living in the cave, including scenes of labor, dancing and drinking communal, religious rituals and funerals, as well as animal customs.

North America

Typical monochrome and polychrome cave paintings and murals exist in the mid-southern Baja California peninsula and northern Baja Sur, consisting of Pre-Columbian human paintings, terrestrial animals, sea creatures, and abstract designs. These paintings are largely confined to the sierras of this region, but can also be found in the mesas and outer shelter. According to a recent radiocarbon study of the area, materials extracted from the archaeological deposit at the stone shelter and the ingredients in the painting itself, indicate that the Great Murals may have a time span that extends as far back as 7,500 years ago.

Original artists in the Chumash tribe created cave paintings located in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo County in Southern California. They include well executed examples in Burro Flats Painted Cave and Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park.

There is also an example of a native American pictogram in caves in the Southwest of the United States. The 6,000-year-old cave art is found in the Cumberland Plateau area of ​​Tennessee.

South America

Serra da Capivara National Park is a national park in northeastern Brazil with many prehistoric paintings; the garden was created to protect the prehistoric artifacts and paintings found there. It became a World Heritage Site in 1991. Its most famous archaeological site is Pedra Furada.

The city is located in the northeast of PiauÃÆ', between latitudes 8 Â ° 26 '50' and 8 Â ° 54 '23' south and longitude 42 Â ° 19 '47' and 42 Â ° 45 '51' west. It falls within the city territory SÃÆ'Â £ o Raimundo Nonato, SÃÆ'Â £ o JoÃÆ'Â £ o do PiauÃÆ', Coronel JosÃÆ'Ã… © Dias and Canto do Buriti. It has an area of ​​1291.4 square kilometers (319,000 hectares). This area has the largest concentration of small prehistoric agriculture in the Americas. Scientific studies confirm that the Capivara mountains are densely populated in prehistoric periods.

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for "Cave of the Hands") is a cave located in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, 163Ã, km (101Ã, mi) south of the town of Perito Moreno, within the boundaries of Francisco P. Moreno National Park , which includes many important archaeological and palaeontological sites.

Hand drawings are often negative (stencilled). In addition there are also depictions of humans, guanacos, rheas, felines and other animals, as well as geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, sun representations, and hunting scenes. Similar paintings, although in smaller quantities, can be found in nearby caves. There are also red dots on the ceiling, probably made by soaking their hunting bolas with ink, and then throwing it up. The color of the painting varies from red (made from hematite) to white, black or yellow. Negative hand impressions dated around 550 BC, positive impressions of 180 BC, while hunting images counted for over 10,000 years. Most of the hands are left handed, which indicates that the painter holds the spraying pipe with their right hand.

Southeast Asia

There are stone paintings in caves in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma. In Thailand, caves and grate along the Thai-Burma border, in Petchabun Range of Central Thailand, and overlooking the Mekong River in Nakorn Sawan Province, all contain galleries of stone paintings. In Malaysia the oldest painting is in the Tambun Cave in Perak, dated 2000 years, and the paintings in the Custody Cave in the Niah Caves National Park are 1,200 years old. Anthropologist Ivor Hugh Norman Evans visited Malaysia in the early 1920s and found that some tribes (mainly Negritos) still produce cave paintings and have added modern depictions of objects including what the car believed to be. (See prehistoric Malaysia.)

In Indonesia the caves in Maros in Sulawesi are famous for their hand prints. About 1,500 negative hand prints were also found in 30 cave paintings in the Sangkulirang area of ​​Kalimantan; early dating analyzes put their age in the 10,000 year range. In October 2014 it was announced that Maros's paintings were about 40,000 years old. Dr Maxime Aubert, from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, says that the minimum age for the hand line is 39,900 years, which makes it "the oldest hand stencil in the world" and adds, "Beside it is a pig that has a minimum age of 35,400 years, one of the oldest figurative figures in the world, if not the oldest. "

The Padah-Lin Caves of Burma contains 11,000-year-old paintings and many rock equipment.

In the Philippines in Tabon Caves the oldest artwork might relieve sharks above the cave entrance. It was partially marred by a later jar burial scene.

East Asia

Originating in the Paleolithic period, the rock art found in the Khoit Tsenkher Cave, Mongolia, includes the symbols and shapes of animals painted from the wall to the ceiling. Stags, buffaloes, oxen, ibex, lions, Argali sheep, antelope, camels, elephants, ostriches, and other animal pictorials are present, often forming palimpsest overlapping images. The paintings are brown or red, and are stylishly similar to other Paleolithic stone art from around the world but unlike other examples in Mongolia.

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See also

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References

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Further reading

• Dubowski, Mark (2010). Discovery in Cave (Early reader of children) . New York, USA: Random House. ISBNÃ, 0-375-85893-8
• Fage, Luc-Henri; Chazine, Jean-Michel (2010). Kalimantan - Cave Memory . Le Kalimanthrope. ISBN: 978-2-9536616-1-3.
• Heyd, Thomas; Clegg, John, eds. (2005). Aesthetics and Stone Art . Ashgate Publishing. ISBNÃ, 0-7546-3924-X.
• Curtis, Gregory (2006). The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of First Artists . Knopf. ISBNÃ, 1-4000-4348-4.
• Nechvatal, Joseph (2005). "Immersive Advantages in Apse of Lascaux". Technonoetic Art . 3 (3): 181-192. doi: 10.1386/tear.3.3.181/1.

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External links

• Bradshaw Foundation Records of cave paintings around the world
• EuroPreArt Database of European Prehistory
• American Rock Art Research Association
• Tour of Afghan cave painting from BBC News.
• Le Kalimanthrope Art of Kalimantan stone (Borneo, Indonesia)
• Journey through Art History, an outline of prehistoric art with an emphasis on cave painting from around the world.
• Human Timeline (Interactive) - Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).

Source of the article : Wikipedia