Interesting and picturesque messages from the past - drawings on the walls of caves, which are up to 40 thousand years old - fascinate modern people with their brevity.
What were they for the people of ancient times? If they served only to decorate the walls, then why were they performed in remote corners of caves, in places where, most likely, they did not live?
The oldest of the found drawings were made about 40 thousand years ago, others are several tens of thousands of years younger. It is interesting that in different parts of the world the images on the walls of caves are very similar - in those days people depicted mainly ungulates and other animals that were common in their area.
The image of hands was also popular: community members put their palms to the wall and outlined them. Such pictures are truly inspiring: by pressing your palm against such an image, a person can feel as if he has formed a bridge between modern civilization and antiquity!
Below we bring to your attention interesting images made on the walls of caves by ancient people from different parts of the world.
Pettaker Lime Cave, Indonesia
Pettaker Cave 12 kilometers from the town of Maros. At the entrance to the cave, there are white and red outlines of hands on the ceiling - 26 images in total. The age of the drawings is about 35 thousand years. Photo: Cahyo Ramadhani/wikipedia.org
Chauvet Cave, south of France
The images, which are about 32-34 thousand years old, are placed on the walls of a limestone cave near the city of Valon-pont-d'Arc. In total, in the cave, which was discovered only in 1994, there are 300 drawings that amaze with their picturesqueness.
One of the most famous images from the Chauvet Cave. Photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
El Castillo Cave, Spain
El Castillo contains some of the oldest examples of cave painting in the world. The age of the images is at least 40,800 years.
Photo: cuevas.culturadecantabria.com
Covalanas Cave, Spain
The unique Kovalanas cave was inhabited by people less than 45 thousand years ago!
Photo: cuevas.culturadecantabria.com
Photo: cuevas.culturadecantabria.com
The walls of the caves located near Covalanas and El Castillo are also decorated with numerous paintings made by people thousands of years ago. However, these caves are not so famous. Among them are Las Monedas, El Pendo, Chufin, Hornos de la Pena, Culalvera.
Lascaux Cave, France
The Lascaux cave complex in southwestern France was accidentally discovered in 1940 by a local resident, an 18-year-old boy named Marcel Ravid. The huge number of paintings on the walls, which are surprisingly well preserved, give this cave complex the right to claim the title of one of the largest galleries of the ancient world. The age of the images is about 17.3 thousand years.
LASCO CAVE
The paintings on the ceiling and walls of the Lascaux cave in France were even better than those in Altamira. This cave was discovered in 1940 by a boy while playing with his dog. The boy was throwing stones to the dog and suddenly heard that one of the stones had fallen somewhere deep. The next day he decided to go down there with a flashlight. He found himself in a cave, on the ceiling and walls of which he saw huge images of animals: bison, bulls, horses, deer and other animals. They were painted with red, yellow, black, and brown paints. As it turned out later, the length of all the passages of this cave was 180 meters. The width of the largest hall, the “hall of bulls,” was 7.5 m, and the height was more than 7 m. Some drawings reached a length of up to 3 meters. Scientists analyzed the drawings and found that they were drawn 18,000 years ago. Lascaux Cave is considered the oldest cave with paintings known to paleontologists.
Chauvet Cave
In 1912, the Chauvet Cave was discovered in the south of France near the city of Dark, this discovery became a real sensation. Scientists believed that primitive painting must have developed in stages in the ancient world. The images in Chauvet Cave suggest otherwise. Some of the drawings are 33,000 years old, which suggests that our ancestors mastered painting even before migrating to Europe. The image of black rhinoceroses from Chauvet is considered the oldest image known to scientists. Mostly on the walls of the cave, ancient people depicted animals: panthers, horses, deer, as well as woolly rhinoceroses, tarpans, cave lions and other animals that lived during the Ice Age. The Chauvet Cave has been closed and tourists are not allowed there, as changes in the composition of the air can lead to the destruction of the images.
Even archaeologists are allowed to work in this cave for no more than 1 hour.
Caves of Nerja
In 1959, in the vicinity of the city of Nerja in Andalusia (Spain), a network of huge caves of amazing beauty was discovered. Some of the passages are open to tourists, and in one of the caves there is a real natural amphitheater; the room has excellent acoustics; concerts are held in this cave. Fur seals and seals are depicted on the walls. Pieces of charcoal were found near the drawings, radiocarbon dating of which determined the age to be between 43,500 and 42,300 years. If paleontologists prove that the paintings in the Nerja caves are significantly older than the cave paintings from Chauvet, this discovery will confirm that Neanderthals had the ability to create no less than Homo sapiens.
Kapova Cave (Shulgan-Tash)
A cave was found on the Belaya River (Bashkiria) in the area of the Shulgan-Tash nature reserve. The longest cave in the Urals. Drawings of people from the Paleolithic era were found in the cave. Horses, mammoths and other animals were depicted on the walls and ceiling of the cave. Ancient people painted in this cave with a natural pigment based on animal fats - ocher. Several drawings were drawn in charcoal. The age of these drawings is about 18,000 years. Human figures are also depicted. Paleontologists believe that ancient people created such images to appease the “gods of the hunt.” In 2012, the cave was closed to tourists as the drawings began to deteriorate. However, a virtual Kapova Cave was created.
Cueva de las Manos cave
In the province of Santa Cruz (Argentina), the ancient cave Cueva de las Manos (“Cave of Many Hands”) was found. It was discovered in 1964 by Professor of Archeology Carlos Gradin. The cave contains many wall paintings and human handprints, the oldest of which date back to the 9th millennium BC. e. About 800 prints are superimposed on each other and form a mosaic of different tsets. Scientists have not yet figured out the meaning of the images of palms and arms. Of the 800 prints, only 36 are right-hand prints. Moreover, a large number of prints belong to teenage boys. Most likely, with the help of such prints, the tribe identified its relatives.
In addition to handprints, on the walls of the cave there are images of people, ostriches, horses and geometric figures with ornaments. There are also entire prehistoric masterpieces depicting the hunting process.
The discovery of an ancient rock painting in a cave in Gibraltar, which scientists believe was made by Neanderthals about 39,000 years ago, has become a sensation in the scientific world. If the discovery turns out to be true, then history will have to be rewritten, because it turns out that Neanderthals were not at all primitively stupid savages, as is commonly believed today. In our review of ten unique rock paintings that were found at different times and created a real sensation in the world of science.
1. White Shaman's Rock
This 4,000-year-old ancient rock art is located in the lower Peco River in Texas. The giant image (3.5 m) shows the central figure surrounded by other people performing some kind of rituals. It is assumed that the figure of a shaman is depicted in the center, and the picture itself depicts the cult of some forgotten ancient religion.
2. Kakadu Park
Kakadu National Park is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Australia. It is especially valued for its rich cultural heritage - the park contains an impressive collection of local Aboriginal art. Some of the rock art at Kakadu (which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is almost 20,000 years old.
3. Chauvet Cave
Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the south of France. More than 1000 different images can be found in the Chauvet Cave, most of them are animals and anthropomorphic figures. These are some of the oldest images known to man: their age dates back to 30,000 - 32,000 years. About 20,000 years ago, the cave was filled with stones and has remained in excellent condition to this day.
4. Cueva de El Castillo
In Spain, the “Castle Cave” or Cueva de El Castillo was recently discovered, on the walls of which the oldest cave paintings in Europe were found, their age is 4,000 years older than all the rock paintings that were previously found in the Old World. Most of the images feature handprints and simple geometric shapes, although there are also images of strange animals. One of the drawings, a simple red disk, was made 40,800 years ago. It is assumed that these paintings were made by Neanderthals.
5. Laas Gaal
Some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings on the African continent can be found in Somalia, at the Laas Gaal (Camel Well) cave complex. Despite the fact that their age is “only” 5,000 – 12,000 years, these rock paintings are perfectly preserved. They depict mainly animals and people in ceremonial clothing and various decorations. Unfortunately, this wonderful cultural site cannot receive World Heritage status because it is located in an area constantly at war.
6. Bhimbetka Cliff Dwellings
The cliff dwellings at Bhimbetka represent some of the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. In natural rock shelters on the walls there are drawings that are about 30,000 years old. These paintings represent the period of development of civilization from the Mesolithic to the end of prehistoric times. The drawings depict animals and people engaged in daily activities such as hunting, religious ceremonies and, interestingly, dancing.
7. Magura
In Bulgaria, the rock paintings found in the Magura cave are not very old - they are between 4,000 and 8,000 years old. They are interesting because of the material that was used to apply the images - bat guano (droppings). In addition, the cave itself was formed millions of years ago and other archaeological artifacts have been found in it, such as the bones of extinct animals (for example, the cave bear).
8. Cueva de las Manos
The "Cave of Hands" in Argentina is famous for its extensive collection of prints and images of human hands. This rock painting dates back to 9,000 - 13,000 years. The cave itself (more precisely, the cave system) was used by ancient people 1,500 years ago. Also in Cueva de las Manos you can find various geometric shapes and images of hunting.
9. Altamira Cave
The paintings found in the Altamira Cave in Spain are considered masterpieces of ancient culture. The stone paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period (14,000 – 20,000 years old) are in exceptional condition. As in Chauvet Cave, a landslide sealed the entrance to this cave about 13,000 years ago, so the images remained intact. In fact, these drawings are so well preserved that when they were first discovered in the 19th century, scientists thought they were fakes. It took a long time until technology made it possible to confirm the authenticity of rock art. Since then, the cave has proven so popular with tourists that it had to be closed in the late 1970s because large amounts of carbon dioxide from visitors' breath began to destroy the paintings.
10. Lascaux Cave
It is by far the best known and most significant collection of rock art in the world. Some of the most beautiful 17,000-year-old paintings in the world can be found in this cave system in France. They are very complex, very carefully made and at the same time perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, the cave was closed more than 50 years ago due to the fact that, under the influence of carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors, the unique images began to collapse. In 1983, a reproduction of part of the cave called Lascaux 2 was discovered.
Of great interest are also. They will be of interest not only to professional historians and art critics, but also to anyone interested in history.
On December 18, 1994, the famous French speleologist Jean Marie Chauvet discovered a cave gallery with ancient images of animals. The find was named in honor of its discoverer - Chauvet Cave. We decided to talk about the most beautiful caves with rock paintings.
Chauvet Cave
The discovery of the Chauvet Cave in the south of France near the town of Pont d'Arc became a scientific sensation that forced us to reconsider the existing understanding of the art of ancient people: it was previously believed that primitive painting developed in stages. At first, the images were very primitive, and more than one thousand years had to pass for the drawings on the walls of the caves to reach their perfection. Chauvet's find suggests the opposite: the age of some images is 30–33 thousand years, which means that our ancestors learned to draw even before moving to Europe. The discovered rock art represents one of the oldest examples of cave art in the world, in particular, the drawing of black rhinoceroses from Chauvet is still considered the most ancient. The south of France is rich in such caves, but none of them can compare with the Chauvet Cave either in size, or in the preservation and skill of the drawings. Mostly animals are depicted on the walls of the cave: panthers, horses, deer, as well as woolly rhinoceros, tarpan, cave lion and other animals of the Ice Age. In total, images of 13 different species of animals were found in the cave.
Now the cave is closed to tourists, as changes in air humidity can damage the images. Archaeologists can only work in a cave for a few hours a day. Today, the Chauvet Cave is a national treasure of France.
Caves of Nerja
The Caves of Nerja are an amazingly beautiful series of huge caves near the city of Nerja in Andalusia, Spain. They received the nickname "Prehistoric Cathedral". They were discovered by accident in 1959. They are one of the main attractions of Spain. Some of their galleries are open to the public, and one of them, which forms a natural amphitheater and has excellent acoustics, even hosts concerts. In addition to the world's largest stalagmite, several mysterious drawings were discovered in the cave. Experts believe that seals or fur seals are depicted on the walls. Fragments of charcoal were found near the drawings, the radiocarbon dating of which gave an age between 43,500 and 42,300 years. If experts prove that the images were made with this charcoal, the seals of the Nerja Cave will turn out to be significantly older than the cave paintings from the Chauvet Cave. This will once again confirm the assumption that Neanderthals had the ability for creative imagination no less than that of Homo sapiens.
Photo: iDip/flickr.com, scitechdaily.com
Kapova Cave (Shulgan-Tash)
This karst cave was found in Bashkiria, on the Belaya River, in the area of which the Shulgan-Tash nature reserve is now located. This is one of the longest caves in the Urals. Cave paintings of ancient people from the Late Paleolithic era, the likes of which can only be found in very limited places in Europe, were discovered in Kapova Cave in 1959. Images of mammoths, horses and other animals are made mainly with ocher, a natural pigment based on animal fat, their age is about 18 thousand years. There are several charcoal drawings. In addition to animals, there are images of triangles, stairs, and oblique lines. The most ancient drawings, dating back to the early Paleolithic, are in the upper tier. On the lower tier of the Kapova Cave there are later images of the Ice Age. The drawings are also notable for the fact that human figures are shown without the realism inherent in the animals depicted. Researchers suggest that the images were made in order to appease the “gods of the hunt.” In addition, cave paintings are designed to be perceived not from one specific point, but from several angles of view. To preserve the drawings, the cave was closed to the public in 2012, but an interactive kiosk was installed in the museum on the territory of the reserve for everyone to look at the drawings virtually.
Cueva de las Manos cave
Cueva de las Manos (“Cave of Many Hands”) is located in Argentina, in the province of Santa Cruz. Cueva de las Manos became world famous in 1964 thanks to the research of archeology professor Carlos Gradin, who discovered many wall paintings and human handprints in the cave, the oldest of which date back to the 9th millennium BC. e. More than 800 prints, overlapping each other, form a multi-colored mosaic. So far, scientists have not come to a consensus about the meaning of the images of hands, from which the cave got its name. Mostly left hands were captured: out of 829 prints, only 36 were right hands. Moreover, according to some researchers, the hands belong to teenage boys. Most likely, drawing an image of one’s hand was part of the initiation rite. In addition, scientists have built a theory about how such clear and clear handprints were obtained: apparently, a special composition was taken into the mouth and forcefully blown through a tube onto a hand attached to the wall. In addition to handprints, on the walls of the cave there are depictions of people, rhea ostriches, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, hunting processes (the drawings show the use of bolas - a traditional throwing weapon of the Indians of South America) and observations of the sun. In 1999, the cave was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Lascaux Cave
The cave received the nickname “Sistine Chapel of primitive painting”; it has no equal in the quantity, quality and preservation of rock paintings. It was discovered in 1940 by four teenagers near the city of Montignac, France. The paintings and engraved drawings that are located here do not have an exact dating: they appeared around the 18th-15th millennium BC. e. and depict horses, cows, bulls, deer, bears. In total, there are about six hundred drawings of animals and almost one and a half thousand images carved on the walls. The drawings are made on a light background with shades of yellow, red, brown and black. Scientists claim that ancient people did not live in this cave, but used it exclusively for drawing, or the cave was something of a cult place. The Lascaux Cave was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
Andrey Matveev worked on the article
Materials used: http://smartnews.ru/articles/14122.html
The work of scientists can be compared to putting together a puzzle: each new piece can easily change the whole picture completely, destroying already established ideas about the world. Archaeological finds of the 19th and 20th centuries helped us look into the past and learn more about the life of our ancestors. Most often, ancient artists painted animals on rocks, without even thinking that they were passing on invaluable knowledge about the fauna to future generations.
Animals of the Chauvet Cave
On December 18, 1994, the entrance to a cave on the banks of the Ardèche River in the south, blocked since the Ice Age, was opened. Jean-Marie Chauvet, Elette Brunel Deschamps and Christian Hillaire decided to explore a place they already knew about. A flashlight beam directed into the darkness illuminated the rock carving. A group of speleologists saw on the wall near the entrance. Researchers at that moment could not even imagine that a real treasure awaited them inside - 300 drawings, which were about 30 thousand years old.
The techniques that ancient artists used in their work are unique. Nothing similar was found at other archaeological sites. First, the wall was scraped and leveled, then the contours of the drawings were scratched and the necessary volume was created with paints and accents were placed. The methods of painting images in the halls of the cave are different. In the first two, the artists used red ocher; in the third, they mostly made engravings; all the figures in the third hall are black.
Another distinctive feature of this rock painting is its unusual artistic technique. Scientists suggest that multiple contours that are layered on top of each other helped create the effect of moving pictures.
Primitive animation can be seen when the torch moves quickly - the animals seem to begin to move. The attention of the researchers was attracted by the figure of a cave bear, which seems to be coming out of the wall - the lower part of the body was deliberately not drawn. Some animals were drawn by talented artists not in profile, as was customary at that time, but in front.
The first artists in the Chauvet Cave were not people, but bears. Some designs are painted over the marks left by their claws.
Animals of the Laas Gaal cave complex
A few hours away from Somalia is the small town of Hargeisa. An ancient rock painting was discovered in caves on its outskirts, which was so well preserved that it was initially even considered a fake. Here you can see mainly cattle; on the walls there are also figures of people and their pets – dogs. There are images of giraffes.
It is noteworthy that some animals were transformed by the artist’s light hand - there were decorations on the necks of the cows, and even clothes on some of the cows. It seems that they are participating in some kind of ritual or celebration. Researchers suggest that the cow was a sacred animal for local residents, which is why its images are made so carefully and in detail not only on the walls, but also on the vaults of the cave. The animals' horns are unusual - they resemble a moon. The remaining figures are depicted schematically, with dashes.
Ten previously unknown caves with ancient paintings were discovered by a group of French researchers in the Laas Gaal region only in 2002-2003. The age of the images is 9-3 millennia BC. Local residents knew about them for a long time, but outside the state there was no information about such an archaeological discovery. Ancient painting cannot receive the status of a world object because it is located in a region where there is constant war.
You can be transported to the Laas Gaal caves and examine in detail the images of animals and human figures found in them in Hargeisa in one of the series of the project “Places That Don’t Exist” by Simon Reeve.
Animals of the Bhimbetka cliff dwelling
In the dense forest of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in the Vindhya mountain range, caves were discovered that were shelters for our distant ancestors. As in the case of Lass Grail, for a long time only local residents knew that rock paintings could be seen inside the mountain. Europeans began exploring these places at the end of the 19th century and discovered paintings inside. Rock painting - this is what scientists called their discovery in honor of one of the heroes of the popular Indian epic “Mahabharata”. As we found out, some of the drawings are more than thirty thousand years old. Since 2003, the site has been included in the UNESCO list.
All images are made in two colors – red and white. On the walls you can see scenes from the life of ancient man: how our ancestors harvested crops, performed rituals and hunted. There are many images of animals, mainly horses and cows can be seen on the rocks.
Anyone can see the ancient drawings - access to the cave is open not only to archaeologists, but also to tourists. You can explore the sites on your own, or you can go on a tour with a local guide.
Bulls of Lascaux Cave
Realism is one of the hallmarks of the images found in southwestern France. It was discovered not by experienced archaeologists, but by local teenagers from Montignac. This event happened by chance - during a thunderstorm, a pine tree fell from a lightning strike, opening a small passage for inquisitive researchers. In the cave, the young men discovered ancient drawings, which they reported to their teacher immediately after returning home. The drawings are made in red, yellow and black. Some of them were so well preserved that scientists even had doubts about their authenticity and age.
All images can be divided into three groups: people, symbols and animals. Most of all there are drawings of animals. The most common species are horses and deer. The figures are not static; the ancient artist skillfully conveyed the movements of animals.
The Hall of the Bulls, which is also sometimes called the Rotunda, deserves special attention. On the wall you can see four black bulls, the size of which is impressive. The height of one of them is five meters. This is the largest rock art studied by scientists. It is believed that he is depicted in life size. In addition to bulls, you can also see other animals here - horses, deer, bears. The drawing of a mysterious beast with a horn on its forehead raised many questions in the scientific world. The researchers did not reach a consensus. Perhaps the ancient world was also inhabited by unicorns, but for now this is just a guess.
There is a small area in the cave called the “Cat Hole”, here you can see cats, images of which are not so often found in other caves.
Archaeologists hoped that they would find traces of burials in this cave, but nothing of the kind was found. They saw more and more new drawings, as well as household items and paints that ancient artists used in their work.
As with many other places of archaeological discoveries, a sad story happened to the Lascaux Cave - due to tourists visiting the site, irreversible changes began to occur. Mold appeared on the walls.
A specially installed microclimate system did not seriously change the situation. Today the site is closed to tourists. Archaeologists in protective suits are sometimes inside, manually cleaning the walls of fungus.
You can see ancient paintings in an artificially recreated cave, located 200 meters from the original.
Colored bulls of Altamira cave
Today, the whole world knows the drawings of bulls, skillfully preserved on stone by an ancient artist. On the vaults of the cave you can see a whole herd - 23 bulls in motion. Each animal is busy with its own business, and together they make an indescribable impression on the audience.
Animals can rightfully be called the most popular heroes of rock art of the ancient world. Drawing techniques and creative techniques vary significantly in different countries. From ancient painting you can learn more about a person’s life and his relationship to the world.
If at first our ancestors simply admired what they saw around them and conveyed it in their drawings, then they began to conquer territories, conquering nature. Instead of individual images of animals, ancient artists began to depict scenes of hunting them.
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