Cave Painting

Cave Painting

QI JIN CHEN

EG20

SPRING 2006

People would probably never have known where the alphabets came from. Alphabets did not just exist. It took a long time to have cave paintings formed into alphabets. The existence of alphabets must have some correlation with cave paintings thousands of years ago. Alphabets could not have developed without the influence of cave paintings. Thus, to understand where and how alphabets had formed, we ought to track back to thousands of years ago.

To understand where alphabets came we have to talk about the earliest writing that people called “cave painting.” You might have wondered what cave painting is and what did ancient people wrote or painted. According to Sue Tomlinson (1998). In History of Writing. Retrieved January 25, 2006 from http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/language/history.htm the very first artistic painting as well as the very earliest writing was in the form of naturalistic paintings of animals and people in protected places like caves. The pictures of animals were attempts at honoring and appeasing the spirits of the animals that the group needed to kill in the hunt. The paintings were not in letters, it consisted of paintings of various animals. Cave paintings were mostly painted on rocks or floors in narrow caves. In addition, they were created during the Palaeolithic period from 40,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.

During Palaeolithic period, the best cave paintings were done by the Magdalenians, people who flourish in Europe during 18,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C. Their works have a unity and it can be described as the Madalenians art system, the first in human history. It was also the longest lasting for more than two thirds of the total time humans have produced art as mentioned by Paul Johnson, in http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html. Furthermore, according to Thomas Heyd and John Clegg, eds (2005). Aesthetics and Rock Art. England and Burlington, VT: Aldershot. in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting cave paintings may have begun in the Aurignacian period which were before Palaeolithic period where Magdalenians flourished.

Cave paintings were not discovered until 1860s. Although cave paintings were discovered in 1860s, but it was not accepted by anthropologists and art historians until 1902. Before anthropologists and art historians started to study cave paintings, cave paintings were not valuable, people did not pay much attention to it.

After anthropologists and historians accepted the importance of cave paintings, they begin to open up caves and study them. Most caves were no disposed to air. Hence, when anthropologists and historians start opening up these caves, rapid deterioration of paintings began. Some of the most superb paintings completely disappeared within six months after discovered. Thus, many of great painting had disappeared. In addition, unlocking the secrets of Magdalenian’s cave paintings during 1902 became extremely difficult according to Paul Johnson, in http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html.

In spite of the obstacles that we had in 1902, anthropologists and art historians did found something interesting. Magdalenian cave paintings consist of human hands and numbers of animals in different activities, including various species, such as the wooly rhinoceros, which are not extinct. Furthermore, paintings included species which were extinct even at the time they were painted. Geometric figures and signs in the cave paintings were no uncommon. Human portrays were also found; however, it was extremely rare.

Even though these paintings are fragile, but it has been preserved for more than thirty thousand years. What kind of materials did ancient Magdalenians used that could be preserved for more than thousands of years? According to Paul Johnson, the earliest and most rudimentary images are drawn by fingers using soft clay on the rock surface. Then came engraving which was the most commonly used method during that period of time that followed examples of animal claw marks. They would use sharp stones to engrave and use various types of rock to produce color. Finally, the most impressive images were paintings. Most commonly used colors were red, black and white. The color of red was adopted from hematite which is a kind of red ochre, black was from manganese dioxide, and white from kaolin and mica. In addition, yellow and brown were also used in Magdalenian paintings.

At Lascaux, great ingenuity was displayed by artists. More than 158 different mineral fragments were used to mix colors. During Stone Age artists had primitive crayons and they applied the paint with brush tools, though none had survived. However, it showed us how clever and brilliant ancient people were. You might have also wondered how ancient people paint in dark caves. As mentioned by Paul Johnson, they used Palaeolithic lamps and they usually worked by torchlight.

Paul Johnson mentioned that some of the paintings were done on a gigantic scale or at heights many feet from the cave floor. An immense horse is found 14 feet above the floor level at Labastide in the Pyrenees. Mammoths are painted 20 feet at Bernifal in the Dordogne. Considering the size of cave paintings, they’re not easy to produce even with modern technology. However, the question we should ask is what’s the purpose of cave paintings? Did they paint just for fun? If they were, why did they spend enormous time and energy in it? Or were they trying to tell us something? Different kinds of question might have come to your mind at this point. Unfortunately, many of these questions can’t be answered.

According to Paul Johnson whom I’ve mentioned earlier stated that the purpose of Magdalenian art is unknown. We don’t have an answer, and we may never know. Some scholars said the arts were designed to teach the science of hunting. But, if the was designed for this purpose, why did it include creatures that’s already extinct or animals that were never hunted? In fact, the skills of hunting are acquired by practice not by studying pictures. Other scholars adopted theories seeing the creation of arts as magical or religious factor. Humans, almost always the central point of early religious art systems, scarcely figure at all as Paul Johnson indicated. Thus, this theory did not fit the criteria. Although, there are many questions that could not be answered, but the alphabet we used today should have some kind of connection with early cave paintings.

It is believed that our alphabet was evolved from these early paintings. With time, early people developed systematized symbols from their drawings. These symbols represented words and sentences, but were easier and faster to draw and universally recognized for meaning. Later, people discovered clay made portable writing equipment possible. The alphabet replaced pictographs between 1700 and 1500 B.C in the Sinaitic world according to Mary Bellis, in http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm. Therefore, without the cavemen, we would probably not have developed the alphabet we used today. Thru inspiration from the early cavemen, our use of writing evolved.

In conclusion, learning about the past is very important. Without knowing the past, we would not have improved. Without knowing the impressive things we, humans did, we would not have known how brilliant ancient people are. We also thought of cavemen as dumb and stupid; however, they’re not. They were the greatest inventors. They used limited equipments to survive and create art. Could we, the modern people whom relied on technology enormously create such arts without using technology?

Reference:

http://www.thairidgeback.co.uk/a%20history/Cave%20painting%202.jpg

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html

http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/language/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/c/cave/cave_painting_bison.jpg

http://members.aol.com/kitchenboy/pix/cave640x480.jpg

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/ontheline/explore/journey/algeria/images/alghist.jpg

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Saturday February 25, 2006