Where were the rock paintings found? Primitive art, When did the first images created by man appear? Unique find in the south of France
All over the world, speleologists in deep caves find confirmation of the existence of ancient people. Rock paintings have been excellently preserved for many millennia. There are several types of masterpieces - pictograms, petroglyphs, geoglyphs. Important monuments of human history are regularly included in the World Heritage Register.
Usually on the walls of the caves there are common plots, such as hunting, battle, images of the sun, animals, human hands. People in ancient times attached sacred significance to the paintings, they believed that they were helping themselves in the future.
Images were applied by various methods and materials. For artistic creativity animal blood, ocher, chalk, and even bat guano were used. special kind murals - hewn murals, they were beaten out in stone with the help of a special cutter.
Many caves are not well studied and are limited in visiting, while others, on the contrary, are open to tourists. However, most of the precious cultural heritage disappears unattended, not finding its researchers.
Below is a short excursion into the world of the most interesting caves with prehistoric rock paintings.
Magura Cave, Bulgaria
It is famous not only for the hospitality of the inhabitants and the indescribable color of the resorts, but also for the caves. One of them, with the sonorous name of Magura, is located north of Sofia, not far from the town of Belogradchik. Total length more than two kilometers of cave galleries. The halls of the cave are colossal in size, each of them is about 50 meters wide and 20 meters high. The pearl of the cave is a rock painting made directly on the surface covered with bat guano. The paintings are multi-layered, here are a number of paintings from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Ages. The drawings of ancient Homo sapiens depict figures of dancing villagers, hunters, many outlandish animals, constellations. The sun, plants, tools are also represented. Here begins the story of the festivities of the ancient era and the solar calendar, scientists assure.
Cueva de las Manos Cave, Argentina
The cave with the poetic name of Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for “Cave of Many Hands”) is located in the province of Santa Cruz, exactly one hundred miles from the nearest locality the city of Perito Moreno. The art of the rock painting in the hall, 24 meters long and 10 meters high, dates back to 13-9 millennium BC. amazing picture on limestone is a three-dimensional canvas, decorated with traces of hands. Scientists have built a theory about how the surprisingly crisp and clear handprints turned out. Prehistoric people took a special composition, then they put it in their mouths, and through a tube they blew it with force onto a hand attached to the wall. In addition, there are stylized images of a man, rhea, guanaco, cats, geometric shapes with ornaments, the process of hunting and observing the sun.
Bhimbetka Rock Dwellings, India
Charming offers tourists not only the delights of oriental palaces and charming dances. In north central India, there are huge mountain formations of weathered sandstone with many caves. Once upon a time, ancient people lived in natural shelters. About 500 dwellings with traces of human habitation have been preserved in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Indians called rock dwellings named Bhimbetka (on behalf of the hero of the Mahabharata epic). The art of the ancients here dates back to the Mesolithic era. Some of the paintings are minor, and some of the hundreds of images are very typical and vivid. 15 rock masterpieces are available for contemplation of those who wish. Mostly, patterned ornaments and battle scenes are depicted here.
Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil
Rare animals and venerable scientists find shelter in the Serra da Capivara National Park. And 50 thousand years ago here, in the caves, our distant ancestors found shelter. Presumably, this is the oldest community of hominids in South America. The park is located near the town of San Raimondo Nonato, in the central part of the state of Piauí. Experts have counted more than 300 archaeological sites. The main surviving images date back to 25-22 millennium BC. The most amazing thing is that extinct bears and other paleofauna are painted on the rocks.
Laas Gaal cave complex, Somaliland
The Republic of Somaliland recently seceded from Somalia in Africa. Archaeologists in the area are interested in the Laas-Gaal cave complex. Here are rock paintings from the 8th-9th and 3rd millennium BC. On the granite walls of the majestic natural shelters, scenes of the life and life of the nomadic people of Africa are depicted: the process of grazing, ceremonies, and playing with dogs. The local population does not attach any importance to the drawings of their ancestors, and uses the caves, as in the old days, for shelter during the rain. Many of the studies have not been studied properly. In particular, there are problems with the chronological reference of the masterpieces of the Arab-Ethiopian ancient rock paintings.
Rock art of Tadrart Acacus, Libya
Not far from Somalia, in Libya, there are also rock paintings. They are much earlier, and date back almost to the 12th millennium BC. The last of them were applied after the birth of Christ, in the first century. It is interesting to observe, following the drawings, how the fauna and flora changed in this area of the Sahara. First we see elephants, rhinoceros and fauna characteristic of a rather humid climate. Also interesting is the clearly traced change in the lifestyles of the population - from hunting to settled cattle breeding, then to nomadism. To get to Tadrart Acacus, one has to cross the desert to the east of the city of Ghats.
Chauvet Cave, France
In 1994, on a walk, by chance, Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the cave that later became famous. She was named after the caver. In the Chauvet cave, in addition to traces of the life of ancient people, hundreds of wonderful frescoes were discovered. The most amazing and beautiful of them depict mammoths. In 1995, the cave became a state monument, and in 1997, 24-hour surveillance was introduced here to prevent damage to the magnificent heritage. Today, in order to take a look at the incomparable rock art of the Cro-Magnons, you need to get a special permit. In addition to mammoths, there is something to admire, here on the walls there are handprints and fingers of representatives of the Aurignacian culture (34-32 thousand years BC)
Kakadu National Park, Australia
In fact, to the famous cockatoo parrots, the name of the Australian national park it does not matter. It's just that the Europeans mispronounced the name of the Gaagudju tribe. This nation is now extinct, and there is no one to correct the ignorant. The park is inhabited by natives who have not changed their way of life since the Stone Age. For thousands of years, Indigenous Australians have been involved in rock art. Pictures were painted here already 40 thousand years ago. In addition to religious scenes and hunting, stylized stories in drawings about useful skills (educational) and magic (entertainment) are sketched here. Of the animals, extinct marsupial tigers, catfish, barramundi are depicted. All the wonders of the Arnhem Land plateau, Colpignac and the southern hills are located 171 km from the city of Darwin. in the 35th millennium BC, it was the early Paleolithic. They left outlandish rock paintings in the Altamira cave. The art artifacts on the walls of the huge cave date back to both the 18th and 13th millennia. IN last period polychrome figures, a peculiar combination of engraving and painting, the acquisition of realistic details are interesting. The famous bison, deer and horses, or rather, their beautiful images on the walls of Altamira, often end up in textbooks for middle school students. The cave of Altamira is located in the Cantabrian region.
Lascaux Cave, France
Lascaux is not just a cave, but a whole complex of small and large cave halls located in the south of France. Not far from the caves is the legendary village of Montignac. The paintings on the walls of the cave were drawn 17 thousand years ago. And they still amaze amazing shapes, akin to modern graffiti art. Scholars especially value the Hall of the Bulls and the Palace Hall of the Cats. What prehistoric creators left there is easy to guess. In 1998, the rock masterpieces were almost destroyed by mold, which arose due to an improperly installed air conditioning system. And in 2008, Lasko was closed to save more than 2,000 unique drawings.
Vintage cave drawings primitive people were very amazing images, basically they were all drawn on stone walls.
There is an opinion that the rock paintings of ancient people are various animals that were hunted at that time. Then these drawings were made leading role V magical rites, hunters wanted to attract real animals during their hunt.
Pictures and rock paintings of primitive people very often resemble a two-dimensional image. Rock art is very rich in drawings of bison, rhinos, deer, mammoths. Also in many pictures you can see hunting scenes or people with spears and arrows.
What did the first people draw?
Rock paintings of ancient people is one of the manifestations of their emotional state and figurative thinking. Not everyone was able to create a vivid image of an animal or a hunt; only those people who could create such an image in their subconscious could do this.
There is also an assumption that ancient people with the help of rock art passed on their visions and life experience That's how they expressed themselves.
Where did primitive people paint?
Parts of the caves that were hard to find - this is one of the best places to draw. This explains the significance of the rock paintings. Drawing was a certain ritual, the artists worked by the light of stone lamps.
Human civilization has come a long way of development and achieved impressive results. Contemporary art is one of them. But everything has its beginning. How did painting originate and who were they - the first artists of the world?
The beginning of prehistoric art - types and forms
In the Paleolithic, primitive art first appears. It took different forms. These were rituals, music, dances and songs, as well as drawing images on various surfaces - rock art of primitive people. This period also includes the creation of the first man-made structures - megaliths, dolmens and menhirs, the purpose of which is still unknown. The most famous of them is Stonehenge in Salisbury, consisting of cromlechs (vertical stones).
Household items, such as jewelry, children's toys, also belong to the art of primitive people.
periodization
Scientists have no doubts about the time of the birth of primitive art. It began to form in the middle of the Paleolithic era, during the existence of the late Neanderthals. The culture of that time is called Mousterian.
Neanderthals knew how to process stone, creating tools. On some objects, scientists found depressions and notches in the form of crosses, forming a primitive ornament. At that time they could not paint yet, but ocher was already in use. Pieces of it were found worn off, like a pencil that was used.
Primitive rock art - definition
This is one of the species. It is an image painted on the surface of the cave wall by an ancient man. Most of these objects were found in Europe, but there are drawings of ancient people in Asia. The main area of distribution of rock art is the territory of modern Spain and France.
Doubts of scientists
For a long time modern science was not aware that the art primitive man reached such high level. Drawings in the caves were not found until the 19th century. Therefore, when they were first discovered, they were mistaken for falsification.
History of one discovery
Ancient rock art was found by an amateur archaeologist, Spanish lawyer Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola.
This discovery is related to dramatic events. In the Spanish province of Cantabria in 1868, a hunter discovered a cave. The entrance to it was littered with fragments of crumbling rock. In 1875 it was examined by de Sautuola. At that time, he found only tools. The find was the most common. Four years later, an amateur archaeologist again visited the Altamira cave. On the trip, he was accompanied by a 9-year-old daughter, who discovered the drawings. Together with his friend, the archaeologist Juan Vilanova y Piera, de Sautuola began excavating the cave. Shortly before that, at an exhibition of Stone Age objects, he saw images of bison, surprisingly reminiscent of the cave drawing of an ancient man that his daughter Maria saw. Sautuola suggested that the images of animals found in the Altamira cave belong to the Paleolithic. In this he was supported by Vilanoff-i-Pierre.
Scientists have published the shocking results of their excavations. And then they were accused scientific world in falsification. Leading experts in the field of archeology categorically rejected the possibility of finding paintings from the Paleolithic period. Marcelino de Sautuola was accused of the fact that the drawings of ancient people, allegedly found by him, were drawn by a friend of the archaeologist, who was visiting him in those days.
Only 15 years later, already after the death of the man who revealed to the world beautiful examples of the painting of ancient people, his opponents recognized the correctness of Marcelino de Sautuola. By that time, similar drawings in the caves of ancient people were found in Font-de-Gaumes, Trois-Frères, Combarel and Rouffignac in France, Tuc d'Auduber in the Pyrenees and other regions. All of them were attributed to the Paleolithic era. Thus, the honest name of the Spanish scientist, who made one of the most significant discoveries in archeology, was restored.
Mastery of ancient artists
The rock art, the photo of which is presented below, consists of many images of different animals. Among them figurines of bison predominate. Those who first saw the drawings of ancient people found in the area are amazed at how professionally they are made. This magnificent craftsmanship of ancient artists made scientists doubt their authenticity at one time.
Ancient people did not immediately learn how to create accurate images of animals. Drawings have been found that barely outline the contours, so it is almost impossible to know who the artist wanted to portray. Gradually, the skill of drawing became better and better, and it was already possible to quite accurately convey the appearance of the animal.
The first drawings of ancient people can also include handprints found in many caves.
The hand smeared with paint was applied to the wall, the resulting print was outlined in a different color along the contour and enclosed in a circle. According to the researchers, this action had an important ritual significance for the ancient man.
Themes of painting by the first artists
The rock drawing of an ancient man reflected the reality that surrounded him. He displayed what worried him the most. In the Paleolithic, the main occupation and method of obtaining food was hunting. Therefore, animals are the main motif of the drawings of that period. As already mentioned, in Europe, images of bison, deer, horses, goats, bears were found in many. They are not transmitted statically, but in motion. Animals run, jump, frolic and die, pierced by a hunter's spear.
Located in France, there is the largest ancient image bull. Its size is more than five meters. In other countries, ancient artists also painted those animals that lived next to them. In Somalia, images of giraffes were found, in India - tigers and crocodiles, in the caves of the Sahara there are drawings of ostriches and elephants. In addition to animals, the first artists painted scenes of hunting and people, but very rarely.
The purpose of the rock paintings
For what ancient man depicted animals and people on the walls of caves and other objects, it is not known exactly. Since religion had already begun to form by that time, most likely they had a deep ritual significance. Drawing "Hunting" of ancient people, according to some researchers, symbolized the successful outcome of the fight against the beast. Others believe that they were created by the shamans of the tribe, who went into a trance and tried to gain special power through the image. Ancient artists lived a very long time, and therefore the motives for creating their drawings are unknown to modern scientists.
Paints and tools
To create drawings, primitive artists used a special technique. First, they scratched the image of an animal with a chisel on the surface of a rock or stone, and then applied paint to it. It was made from natural materials- ocher different colors and black pigment, which was extracted from charcoal. Animal organics (blood, fat, medulla) and water were used to fix the paint. There were few colors at the disposal of ancient artists: yellow, red, black, brown.
Drawings of ancient people had several features. Sometimes they overlapped each other. Often, artists depicted a large number of animals. In this case, the shapes foreground depicted carefully, and the rest - schematically. Primitive people did not create compositions, in the vast majority of their drawings - a chaotic pile of images. To date, only a few "paintings" have been found that have a single composition.
During the Paleolithic period, the first painting tools were already created. These were sticks and primitive brushes made from animal fur. Ancient artists also took care of lighting their "canvases". Lamps were found that were made in the form of stone bowls. Fat was poured into them and a wick was placed.
Chauvet cave
She was found in 1994 in France, and her collection of paintings is recognized as the most ancient. Laboratory studies helped determine the age of the drawings - the very first of them were made 36 thousand years ago. Here were found images of animals that lived in glacial period. This is a woolly rhinoceros, bison, panther, tarpan (the ancestor of the modern horse). The drawings are perfectly preserved due to the fact that millennia ago the entrance to the cave was filled up.
Now it is closed to the public. The microclimate in which the images are located can disturb the presence of a person. Only its researchers can spend several hours in it. To visit the audience, it was decided to open a replica of the cave not far from it.
Lascaux cave
This is another famous place where drawings of ancient people are found. The cave was discovered by four teenagers in 1940. Now her collection of paintings by ancient artists of the Paleolithic era has 1900 images.
The place has become very popular with visitors. The huge flow of tourists led to damage to the drawings. This happened due to an excess of carbon dioxide exhaled by people. In 1963 it was decided to close the cave to the public. But problems with the preservation of ancient images exist to this day. The microclimate of Lasko was irreversibly disturbed, and now the drawings are under constant control.
Conclusion
The drawings of ancient people delight us with their realism and mastery of execution. Artists of that time were able to convey not only the authentic appearance of the animal, but also its movement and habits. In addition to aesthetic and artistic value, the painting of primitive artists is an important material for the study of the animal world of that period. Thanks to the drawings found in the drawings, scientists made an amazing discovery: it turned out that lions and rhinos, the original inhabitants of hot southern countries, in the era of the Stone Age lived in Europe.
The oldest cave paintings of primitive people were amazing images that were mainly painted on stone walls. It is worth noting that in general, cave painting is unique. Today, perhaps, every person has identified from a video or photo that rock carvings are deer, people with arrows, mammoths and much more. At that time, artists did not know such a thing as composition. Experts say that the animals that are depicted on the rocks or other grounds are sacred animals, the ancestors of the clan, or one of the objects of veneration of one or another tribe.
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There is an opinion that the cave paintings of primitive people are animals hunted by people of that time. In this case, these drawings served as magical rites, with the help of which hunters wanted to attract real animals during the hunt.
The main part of such murals is located in the depths of caves - places that were considered a kind of sanctuary. If we talk about the Madeleine era, then this period became quite bright in the development of Paleolithic art. Most of these finds are located in the southwestern part of France, in the Pyrenees, as well as in the northwestern part of Spain.
Changes in the life of primitive people
After the disappearance of certain animal species, as well as due to climate change, the nature of the activities of people of that time has changed significantly. For example, people 
they stopped hunting and gathering food in the area less, they began to pay more attention to agriculture and cattle breeding. Changes also affected magical images, that is, the cave paintings of primitive people became different. People began to make rock paintings not in the depths of the caves, but on the contrary, closer to the exits and in some cases outside.
If we talk about the Paleolithic era, then it was almost impossible to meet images of people here. Now the man is the main thing actor in the depicted space. The domestication of animals led to the fact that they began to be depicted next to people. For example, they were used to depict hunting scenes. In addition, people began to use a completely different technique of painting on the rocks.
Basically, the figures were depicted schematically using triangles, as well as straight lines. In addition, the images were monochrome. For example, artists of that time used black, red, orange, or white mineral paint. In addition to hunting scenes, scenes of various ritual dances and battles began to appear on the rocks. As well as scenes of grazing. Paintings of this type can be seen in Spain.
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The first examples of sculpture
If we talk about the first samples of Neolithic sculpture, they were associated with the funeral cult: skulls, both people and animals, and much more. Images of nude women with large breasts and hips also became common. Rarely, pregnant women were also depicted.
The first monumental sculptures appeared in the southern part of Europe. Ceramics also appeared at that time. The first products were wicker bottles, as well as baskets, which were decorated with various ornaments.
It should be noted that historians, as well as archaeologists, are still engaged in active search rock carvings, of which, according to experts, there are still many. The most common rock carvings are images of deer, tigers, mammoths, and horses. It is no secret that today the cave paintings of primitive people cause a large number of contentious issues among a large number of historians and archaeologists.
Video: Rock paintings of ancient people
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The palette of primitive man was poor: it had four basic colors - black, white, red and yellow. Chalk and chalk-like limestones were used to produce white images; black - charcoal and oxides of manganese; red and yellow - minerals hematite (Fe2O3), pyrolusite (MnO2) and natural dyes - ocher, which is a mixture of iron hydroxides (limonite, Fe2O3.H2O), manganese (psilomelane, m.MnO.MnO2.nH2O) and clay particles. In the caves and grottoes of France, stone slabs were found on which ocher was rubbed, as well as pieces of dark red manganese dioxide. Judging by the painting technique, pieces of paint were rubbed, bred on bone marrow, animal fat or blood. Chemical and X-ray diffraction analysis of paints from the Lascaux Cave showed that not only natural dyes were used, mixtures of which give different shades of primary colors, but also rather complex compounds obtained by firing them and adding other components (kaolinite and aluminum oxides).
The serious study of cave dyes is just beginning. And questions immediately arise: why were only inorganic paints used? The primitive man-collector distinguished more than 200 different plants, among which were dyeing ones. Why are the drawings in some caves made in different tones of the same color, and in others - in two colors of the same tone? Why does it take so long to enter early painting colors of the green-blue-blue part of the spectrum? In the Paleolithic, they are almost absent, in Egypt they appear 3.5 thousand years ago, and in Greece - only in the 4th century. BC e. Archaeologist A. Formozov believes that our distant ancestors did not immediately understand the bright plumage of the "magic bird" - the Earth. The most ancient colors, red and black, reflect the harsh color of the life of that time: the sun disk at the horizon and the flame of a fire, the darkness of the night full of dangers and the darkness of the caves bringing relative calm. Red and black were associated with opposites ancient world: red - heat, light, life with hot scarlet blood; black - cold, darkness, death... This symbolism is universal. It was a long way from the cave artist, who had only 4 colors in his palette, to the Egyptians and Sumerians, who added two more (blue and green) to them. But even further from them is the cosmonaut of the 20th century, who took a set of 120 colored pencils on his first flights around the Earth.
The second group of questions that arise in the study of cave painting concerns the technology of drawing. The problem can be formulated as follows: did the animals depicted in the drawings of the Paleolithic man "leave" the wall or "gone" into it?
In 1923, N. Castere discovered a Late Paleolithic clay figure of a bear lying on the ground in the Montespan cave. It was covered with indentations - traces of javelin blows, and numerous prints of bare feet were found on the floor. The thought arose: this is a “model”, which has absorbed hunting pantomimes fixed for tens of millennia at the carcass of a dead bear. Further, the following row can be traced, confirmed by finds in other caves: a model of a bear, made in life size, dressed in his skin and adorned with a real skull, is replaced by his clay likeness; the beast gradually "gets on its feet" - it is leaned against the wall for stability (this is already a step towards creating a bas-relief); then the beast gradually “leaves” into it, leaving a traced, and then a picturesque outline ... This is how the archaeologist A. Solyar imagines the emergence of Paleolithic painting.
No less likely is another way. According to Leonardo da Vinci, the first drawing is the shadow of an object lit by a fire. Primitive begins to draw, mastering the technique of "bypass". The caves have preserved dozens of such examples. On the walls of the Gargas Cave (France), 130 "ghostly hands" are visible - imprints of human hands on the wall. It is interesting that in some cases they are depicted by a line, in others by shading the outer or inner contours (positive or negative stencil), then drawings appear, "torn off" from the object, which is no longer depicted in full size, in profile or frontally. Sometimes objects are drawn as if in different projections (face and legs - profile, chest and shoulders - frontally). Skill grows gradually. The drawing acquires clarity, confidence of the stroke. By the best drawings biologists confidently determine not only the genus, but also the species, and sometimes the subspecies of the animal.
The next step is taken by Madeleine artists: by means of painting they convey dynamics and perspective. Color helps a lot with this. full of life the horses of the Grand Ben Cave seem to run in front of us, gradually decreasing in size ... Later this technique was forgotten, and similar drawings are not found in rock art either in the Mesolithic or in the Neolithic. Last step- the transition from a perspective image to a three-dimensional one. So there are sculptures that "came out" from the walls of the cave.
Which of the following points of view is correct? A comparison of the absolute dates of the figurines made of bones and stone shows that they are approximately the same age: 30-15 thousand years BC. e. Maybe in different places the cave artist followed different paths?
Another of the mysteries of cave painting is the lack of background and framing. Figures of horses, bulls, mammoths are freely scattered along the rock wall. The drawings seem to be hanging in the air, not even a symbolic line of the earth is drawn under them. On the uneven vaults of caves, animals are placed in the most unexpected positions: upside down or sideways. No in drawings of primitive man and a hint of landscape background. Only in the 17th century n. e. in Holland the landscape takes shape in a special genre.
The study of Paleolithic painting provides specialists with abundant material to search for the origins of various styles and trends in contemporary art. So, for example, a prehistoric master, 12 thousand years before the appearance of pointillist artists, depicted animals on the wall of the Marsula cave (France) using tiny colored dots. The number of such examples can be multiplied, but something else is more important: the images on the walls of the caves are a fusion of the reality of existence and its reflection in the brain of a Paleolithic person. Thus, Paleolithic painting carries information about the level of thinking of a person of that time, about the problems that he lived with and that worried him. primitive art, discovered more than 100 years ago, remains a real Eldorado for all kinds of hypotheses about this.
Dublyansky V.N., popular science book
