The document discusses cave paintings from the Paleolithic period dating back as far as 40,000 years ago. It notes that the earliest known cave paintings were found in Europe, with some of the most famous examples being the paintings in the Lascaux caves in France from around 17,000 years ago and the Altamira caves in Spain dating to around 12,000 years ago. The most common themes depicted are large wild animals as well as human hands.

1. Paleolithic Period
32,000 years ago

2. The earliest known
rock paintings are dated
to the Upper Paleolithic,
40,000 years
ago, while the
earliest European
cave paintings
date to 32,000
years ago.

3. Cave arts are
often in areas of
caves that aren't
easily accessed.
Some theories
hold that they may have been
a way of transmitting information, while
other theories ascribe them a religious
or ceremonial purpose.

4. The most common
themes in cave
paintings are large
wild animals, such
as bison, horses,
aurochs, and deer,
and tracings of
human hands.

5. Cave art is the painting or drawing of
figures called pictographs and
petroglyphs to portray a story or
to record known history.
It is sometimes even used to
design plans for hunting or
gathering.

6. Altimira, Spain
 The first cave paintings were found in
1870 in Altimira, Spain by Don
Marcelino
and his daughter. They were painted
by
the Magdalenian people between
16,000-9,000 BC. This would have
been
11,000-19,000 years ago.
These paintings are sometimes
called
“The Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic
Art”.

8. Lascaux, France
Four boys searching for a lost dog discovered
paintings at Lascaux Cave, France in 1940.
These paintings were created around 15,000
BC, which would make them about 17,000
years old. There are seven chambers in the
Lascaux cave; the Great Hall of the Bulls, the
Painted Gallery, the Lateral Passage, the
Chamber of Engravings, the Main Gallery, the
Chamber of Felines, and the Shaft of the
Dead Man.

9. The Great Hall of the Bulls
Lascaux, France

10. Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc
Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in the South of France
is the newest cave painting to be discovered.
Jean-Marie Chauvet, Christian Hillaire and
Heliette Brunel-Deschamps discovered the cave
on December 18, 1994. Many of the animals like
the ones in Lascaux were painted over each
other. The oldest were probably painted around
30,000 BC, making them about 32000 years old.

12.  Paleolithic art is intricately bound to
anthropological
and archaeological studies.
It concerned itself with either food (hunting
scenes,
animal carvings).
Its predominant theme was animals.
It is considered to be an attempt, by Stone Age
peoples, to gain some sort of control over their
environment, whether by magic or ritual. It
represents a giant leap in human cognition:
abstract

13. There are three general themes that tend to appear in cave
paintings:
Humans
Humans are rarely depicted in caves. When they are shown,
they are drawn as a cartoon-like silhouette.
Animals
The most abundant animal depictions are those of horses. A
quarter of all the animal images painted in caves in Western
Europe are horses. Images of Bison are also very common.
The animals tend to be painted larger than the other images.
Signs
Signs are abstract symbols that are difficult to interpret
because of their ambiguity. Signs are commonly associated
with hunting equipment and the female form.

14. Humans had not know how to write during the
prehistoric time period. So, they
communicated through cave paintings.
Prehistoric humans were basically hunters.
Thus, most paintings are of animals. Early
paintings are believed to be of social and
religious significance.
The painting of the animal sends a message to
its spirit, that great respect is intended and that
only those needed for survival will be hunted
and killed.

15. • Cro-Magnons
– Cro-magnons were the first species of the Homo
Sapiens Sapiens. They lived in Europe during
the period before the emergence of Indo-
Europeans, from 40,000 to 8,000 BCE.
– The Magdalenian civilization of cro-magnons,
which populated Spain and France, were
responsible for the cave paintings found in
Lascaux, France dating about 17,000 years ago
and Altamira, Spain dating about 12,000 years
ago.

16. • Shamans
– The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the
caves, enter into a trance state and then paint
images of their visions, perhaps with some notion of
drawing power out of the cave walls themselves.
Shamanism is a form of worship based on direct,
personal interaction between a shaman and the spirit
world. Typically, this interaction occurred when the
shaman entered a trance, or altered
state of consciousness,
sometimes referred to as
“dreaming.” In this altered
state, the shaman could obtain
supernatural power in the form
of a spirit helper.

17. • Prehistoric people would have used natural objects to
paint the walls of the caves. To etch into the rock, they
could have used sharp tools or a spear.
• The paint or color that they probably used was from
berries, clay, soot, charcoal or animal fat.
• The tools used to apply the paint could have been
made by attaching straw, leaves, moss, or hair to
sticks. They might have used hollow bones or reeds
to spray the color on, similar to an airbrush technique.

18. painting,
drawings,
engravings, and
handprints