1

UPPER PALEOLITHIC CAVE

ART
INTRODUCTION
“There were details like clothing, hair styles
and the fragile objects that hardly ever survive
for the archaeologist—musical instruments, bows
and arrows, and body ornaments depicted as they
were worn. … No amounts of stone and bone could
yield the kinds of information that the paintings
gave so freely.”
- Mary Leakey

When Charles Darwin put forth the theory of human evolution in his book Origin of
Species it was with respect to biological evolution. But human progress was beyond
physiological changes. These changes spilled over to what we now term as ‘cultural
life’ of the prehistoric man. These biological and cultural changes have been
captured by historians, under the three conventionally used categories: Paleolithic,
Mesolithic, and Neolithic Age. Distinctive features and gradual improvement mark
each of these periods i.e. in terms of tool- making, procurement of food, cave art,
habitation areas, interactions etc. It is in this context, that the role of Cave Art within
the boundary of the Upper Paleolithic Period (40,000 BC to 30,000 BC) would be
analyzed giving effect to understanding the beginnings and continuation of Cave Art
within the network of several other developments.

Cave paintings indicate a huge turning point in the evolution of the human race.
They indicate the emergence of creativity and imagination. The origins of art
distinguished us from all other animals and it reflects a radical change in our
consciousness, since we started using symbols and images to represent our
experiences. “Cave art" - also known as "parietal art" is a general term used to
describe any kind of man-made image on the walls, ceiling or floor of a cave or rock
shelter. It does not refer to "mobiliary art like venus figurines or loose decorated
stones: it must be part of the cave's fabric. Most cave art is found in shallow rock
shelters, such as those formed by overhanging rocks, but some was created in total
darkness within deep, uninhabited caves, and was rarely seen by humans. Also, the
term is used mostly in connection with Stone Age art created during the last Ice Age,
between about 40,000 and 10,000 BCE - a period known as the "Upper Paleolithic".
It is generally believed that the vast majority of cave art was created by Modern man
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(Homo sapiens sapiens), who began arriving in Europe from Africa around 40,000
BCE. Important finds have been made in India, Indonesia, Siberia, Australia and
elsewhere, but most of our knowledge of Paleolithic art comes from excavations
conducted in European caves, notably in southern France and northern Spain.1

ORIGINS OF CAVE ART

The development of cave art coincided with the displacement of Neanderthal man
by anatomically modern man, starting around 40,000 BCE. Indeed, it was from about
this date that the earliest rock art began to emerge in caves and rock shelters around
the world, but especially throughout the Franco-Cantabrian region. Painting comes
first, followed by mobiliary art, as exemplified by the portable Venus figurines like
the Venus of Hohle Fels (38-33,000 BCE). Broadly speaking, cave painting techniques
and materials improved across the board, century by century. Thus we see the
monochrome paintings of Aurignacian culture (40-25,000 BCE) give way to the
polychrome art of the Gravettian (25-20,000 BCE), leading to the apogee of cave
painting which is traditionally acknowledged to occur during the Magdalenian era
(c.15-10,000 BCE) at Lascaux, Altamira, Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles. During
the Late Magdalenian, the Ice Age ended and a period of global warming led to the
destruction of the Magdalenian reindeer habitat, along with its culture and its cave
art.

TYPES OF CAVE ART

Cave art embraces five different types of art: (1) Hand prints and finger marks. (2)
Abstract signs. (3) Figurative painting. (4) Rock engraving. (5) Relief sculpture. The
prevalence and age of the five main forms varies considerably. In general, hand
prints and abstract symbols are the most common form of art, while relief sculpture
is least common, occurring in only a few caves. Most pictures that appear in caves
are of large animals - either predators or animals hunted for food - although artists
also depicted a small number of human figures.

HAND PAINTINGS

Hand paintings are depicted in Rock Art

around the world. The hand image would
have been created in a variety of ways: the
artist may have used the hand on the rock

1 http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/cave-painting.htm
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as a stencil, spraying paint from the mouth or charcoal powder through a reed; the
outline of the hand may have been painted around by brush; or simply painting the
hand and then placing it on the rock. The hand paintings were created by men,
women and children. What ever the method, and what ever the style of
accompanying art, hand paintings are one of the most common elements of rock art.
Given that the images exist around the world, and cover a great time span, clearly
there must be a variety of meanings. For all of the hypotheses, hand painting and
the 'hand' motif could have represented any number of rituals, but without
knowledgeable informants from a particular culture, hypotheses they must remain.2

CAVE SITES FOR HAND PAINTINGS

In Chauvet, France, the red ochre hand prints and stencils are found in chambers
throughout the cave. These were painted during the Aurignacian culture, possibly
31,000 years ago. In the Brunel Chamber, the four panels are comprised of 420
prints of palms covered with ochre. In
the Red Panels Gallery, the Panel of
Hand Stencils is comprised of 3 red hand
stencils, 2 clusters of dots and 2 black
animals - an equid and a mammoth.
Two of the hand stencils sit within the
outlines of the animals. In the Panel of
the Red Dots, a cave painting located
near the cave entrance, is composed of
a cluster of large dots, which may
represent a mammoth. It is perhaps one
of the earliest examples of pointillism.
The scientists discovered that the dots
were created by covering the palm of
the right hand with wet red paint and
applying the hand to the wall. The consistency of the dots suggests that the painting
was created by one person. The artist would have had an image in his or her mind
before beginning the piece. In other words, it appears not to be a random
composition.

Similarly in Cuevas de las Manos, Argentina (Spanish for Cave of the Hands) , has an
incredible panel of hand paintings, made by the indigenous inhabitants (possibly
forefathers of the Tehuelches) some 9,000 years ago. The hands have mainly been

1. 2 www.bradshawfoundation.com/hands/
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stencilled. Within the cave there are also depictions of human beings, guanacos,
rheas, felines and other animals, as well as geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, red
dots, representations of the sun, and hunting scenes. Most of the painted hands are
left hands, and of a size that resembles that of a 13-year-old boy; this may have been
an initiation ceremony.

In fact, Some hand paintings depict an

apparently missing finger. These
'mutilated' stencils could have been made
by the artist bending the finger in a type
of sign language. However, it is also
possible that the amputation of fingers at
the joints was part of shamanic initiation
rituals at certain times during the Upper
Palaeolithic. Finger mutation is certainly
known in other parts of the world, such as
southern Africa where it is practiced by the Khoekhoe . Grotte de Gargas (the
Gargas cave) - in the French Pyrenees, where the hand stencils have been dated to
27,000 BC, has examples of this phenomenon.

ABSTRACT SIGNS

In all cave art, from the Aurignacian onwards, abstract motifs are found alongside
human and animal figures, and are given equal prominence. Abstraction arose from
the need to represent, in a sign, an idea with a meaning unknown to outsiders, and it
-was achieved either simply or symbolically.

Paleolithic people practiced abstraction in the form of repetitive symbols, which

represented primitive logical constants that were widely shared and diffused. These
included schematic figures of animals, signs of vulvas and phalluses, handprints,
series of dots and
notches, which possibly
had a numerical
significance, and the
occasional stylized
anthropomorphic
symbol.
The Paleolithic caves of
France are famous for
their prehistoric rock
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art. Along with the animal and human imagery, 26 symbols have appeared
repeatedly. These symbols appear in other parts of the world as well, leading to the
possibility that symbolic communication through geometric signs arose with early
humans. Geometric signs are found at nearly all decorated rock art sites in Western
Europe, but the meaning(s) they held for those who produced and replicated them
remain elusive. Some of the cave art sites representing these symbols are Font-de-
Gaume Cave, in france and Bernifal Cave in Dordogne.3

PAINTINGS

It was believed that the paintings in upper

Paleolithic underwent changes gradually over
the period of time. This assumption was
wrecked when the art at Chauvet was
discovered in 1994. In simple terms, it was too
sophisticated for its presumed age. And when
radiocarbon dating results confirmed that the
art was as old as 30,000 BCE, it became clear
that Modern man was producing very high
quality art much earlier than previously thought
- within a mere 10,000 years of arriving in
Europe. Even so, cave painting techniques do
not appear to show gradual, steady progress. Instead, there seems to have been
sudden breakthroughs, followed by even backward steps followed by further
progress. For instance, the next major improvement over Chauvet, did not occur
until Lascaux (17,000-13,000), some 13,000 years later. Yet 2,000 years after this
came the glorious multi-coloured bison at Altamira, seen as the apogee of Ice Age
cave art.4

Cave painting was generally done

either in red or black pigment. The
red colours are iron oxides, such as
hematite or ochre. The blacks,
either manganese dioxide or
charcoal. Studies of the pigments

2. 3 www.bradshawfoundation.com/abstract symbols/
3. 3 http://blog.world-mysteries.com/strange-artifacts/prehistoric-cave-
paintings/
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used have revealed the addition of 'extenders' like talc or fields path, to make the
paint go further, as well as 'binders' such as animal and plant oils, to make the
pigments adhere to the wall surface.

Paintings were typically executed using simple outlines or with some infill added,
although a high degree of sophistication was sometimes achieved - some of the
monochrome animals at Chauvet, for instance, display high quality shading. The two-
colour and three-colour figures that appeared during the Magdalenian (including the
polychrome bison on the ceiling at Altamira) were rare exceptions. Colour pigments
were applied in various ways. Either directly with the finger, or with a piece of
charcoal held like a pencil, or with a chunk of red ochre, or with a brush made of
animal hair, or with a moss pad. Sometimes, similar to the hand stencil technique,
pigment was liquified then blown through a hollow tube made from animal bone.
Paintings have been found not only on walls and floors but also on ceilings - a task
which sometimes (eg. at Lascaux) required the erection of a ladder or some kind of
scaffolding.

Typically a cave painting was created in

three stages, varying with the
experience of the artist, the contour of
the rock surface, the availability of light,
and the abundance raw materials. Take
a bison-painting, for example. First, the
outline and main features of the animal
are drawn on the rock surface in black,
using charcoal or manganese (or it can
be incised with the edge of a stone).
After this, the finished drawing is filled in with red ochre or other pigment. Lastly,
the edges of the animal's body are shaded typically with more black, so as to
increase its three-dimensionality.5

ROCK ENGRAVINGS

Prehistoric rock engravings are more numerous

than paintings but far less spectacular. Indeed
some are barely noticeable. Their incised lines -
made with anything from a sharp flint to a crude

5Fagan, M. Brian, People of the Earth, New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2004, p. 127-
128
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pick - can be deep and wide, or thin and superficial, according to the nature of the
rock surface.6

Alternatively, if the surface is too rough for

fine incisions, the artist may rely on
scratching and scraping techniques. Shading
can be added by taking advantage of the
contrast between the white of the engraved
lines and the dark colour of the rock. These
petroglyphs constitute some of the earliest
art on the planet and are generally found
alongside other forms of art, like painting and
relief sculpture. In fact, sometimes it's
difficult to distinguish between engraving and
sculpture (Abri du Poisson, Roc de Sers). Only
a few caves (Abri Castanet, Cussac, Les Combarelles) are decorated exclusively with
engravings.

In Europe, the earliest Ice Age engraving occurs at Gorham's Cave (37,000), and Abri
Castanet (35,000), while the finest examples appear at Lascaux, Roc de Sers, Les
Trois-Freres, and Les Combarelles. The most enigmatic example is perhaps one of
the Addaura Cave engravings, found at Mount Pellegrino, near Palermo, Italy. It
depicts a unique scene of human sacrifice, with two painfully bound prostrate
victims surrounded by others (including two shamans) who are dancing. Although
the vast majority of rock engravings depict animals, a number of engraved abstract
signs and human figures are also seen, along with male and female genitalia.
RELIEF SCULPTURE

Prehistoric sculpture - that is relief sculpture - is

the least common art form of the Upper
Paleolithic. In France, it is found in only about 10
percent of known sites, and then only in rock
shelters, not deep caves. The most important
examples are the friezes of stone sculpture at Cap-
Blanc in the Dordogne, Roc de Sers in the Charente,
and Roc-aux-Sorciers in the Vienne. In addition,
there are several magnificent individual reliefs,
such as the Venus of Laussel and the salmon at the
Abri du Poisson, both in the Dordogne. There is one other type of cave sculpture -

6 http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/cave-art.htm
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namely, clay modelling. Created exclusively during the Middle or Late Magdalenian,
clay reliefs are found only in four caves of the French Pyrenees: Tuc d'Audoubert,
Bedeilhac, Labouiche and Montespan. The
most important is Tuc d'Audoubert, which is
famous for its striking floor-level bison
reliefs, depicting two animals in a
premating scene. Bedeilhac contains a bas-
relief of a bison, sculpted on the clay wall of
the shelter, while Montespan's clay
sculpture depicts a crouching bear.
7

THEMES IN CAVE ART

Whether found in sunlit rock shelters or in the dark deep caves, cave art is the art of
animals. True, animal images are greatly outnumbered by abstract symbols (dots,
bars, circles, lines, triangles), quantities of which are found in almost every cave, but
animal paintings remain - at least optically speaking - the dominant visual art of the
Ice Age, and the key to understanding the aesthetics of our ancestors. Most animals
shown are adults drawn in profile, with no care for scale. 8The most common images
are horses. In some caves they may be
outnumbered by bison (Altamira) or reindeer
(La Pasiega), sometimes even by rhinos and
lions (Chauvet during the Aurignacian) or, much
later, by mammoths (Rouffignac during the
Magdalenian). But overall horses predominate
across most regions and styles, despite the fact
that they were a far less common food than
bison or reindeer, whose images are also found
in high numbers throughout the Upper Paleolithic. Less popular are lions, rhi
noceroses and bears, except at Chauvet. Indeed, Aurignacian artists gave much more
attention to predators, a tendency which changed at the start of the Gravettian
around 25,000, when hunted animals became
the favourite theme.

Fish are rarely depicted: two exceptions being

the salmon relief at Abri du Poisson, and the
halibut drawing at La Pileta. There are also a
few rare examples of imaginary animals, such
as the two-horned "unicorn" of Lascaux.
Animals can be depicted whole or represented just by their heads or other parts.

7 http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/prehistoricart/
8 http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/cave-art.htm#themes
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Images tend to be drawn precisely and more often as individuals: there are no
pictures, for instance, of herds or mating scenes, although pregnancy is seen (La
Pileta). The ground is rarely drawn and there is never any landscape. Size is usually
determined by wall contours and space, but some images - like the great bulls or
aurochs at Lascaux - can exceed 5 meters in length.

Pictures of humans or human-like figures are also found, but much less often
compared to paintings and engravings of animals.
Apart from being very scarce, drawings of humans
tend to be only partially complete, and non-
naturalistic (mostly stick figures). Drawings of
complete human figures are exceptional (less than
20): they include: carved women (Laussel, La
Magdelaine, Le Roc aux Sorciers), or incised
sketches of women on soft surfaces (Cussac, Pech-
Merle), or engraved men (Gabillou, Saint-Cirq,
Sous-Grand-Lac). There are several enigmatic
representations of shaman-type anthropomorphs,
such as the "Sorcerer" in Les Trois Freres, as well as
others in Fumane, Lascaux, Niaux, Gabillou and Addaura. Body segments - including
hands and heads, as well as female and male genitals - are much more numerous,
and tend to be most common in the more ancient caves (Abri Castanet, Chauvet,
Cosquer, Pech-Merle, Gargas), although depictions of female organs are seen
throughout the Upper Paleolithic (Bedeilhac, Font-Bargeix, Tito Bustillo).

THEORIES OF CAVE ART

Scientists have explained the meaning behind cave art of the Paleolithic period in a
number of ways. Some of the main theories include: Art for Art's sake, the
Sympathetic Theory and Shamanism.
ART FOR ARTS SAKE

The Cave of Altamira was the first cave in which prehistoric cave paintings were
discovered. When the discovery was first made public in 1880, it led to a bitter public
controversy between experts since many did not believe prehistoric man had the
intellectual or religious capacity to produce any kind of artistic expression.

Therefore the first theory about rock art was to become known as art for art's sake.
It was proposed by Edouard Lartet & Edouard Piette, and stated that rock art had no
specific meaning. It was purely decorative. The scholars conceded that the parietal
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paintings may have been associated with some form of ownership or territory, or
that they reflected some form of seasonal statement, but essentially they were the
product of a Palaeolithic society that had time on its hands.

SYMPATHETIC MAGIC THEORY

Proponents of the sympathetic magic theory believe that the animals in the
paintings were created to control or influence real animals. One of the most popular
of the sympathetic magic theories is the idea of "hunting magic." French Priest and
Historian Henri Edouard Prosper Breuill adopted this way of thinking, saying that
Paleolithic art sprung from the hunter's anxieties about the availability of game.
Some animals appeared to have been killed by missiles or attacked by hand-held
weapons.

Breuil said that the small circles covering some of the animals might indicate that the
animal would be stoned to death. Marks at the animals' mouth or nose were
probably blood being vomited by the
dying beasts, he suggested. One of the
ideas is that the painting could be used
again and again, presumably drawing
more stones to help predict another
good hunt. A bear in the Montespan
cave was said to have been stabbed
with spears in a ritual attack, however,
the "holes" were simply the natural
texture of the cave wall. Bahn calls such ideas "ridiculous flights of fancy." He says
that had the scientists been "a little more "objective," they would have realized that
they were "constantly stretching to fit the theory."

SHAMANISM

Shamanism is loosely defined as a practice

involving a figure-head who enters into an altered
state of consciousness in order to enter into a spirit
world. The shaman usually enters into this altered
state through ritual (such as chanting, dancing,
using hallucinogenic plants etc.). Mircea Eliade
writes in “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of
Ecstasy” that the shaman enters into a
supernatural world in order to heal the community
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– this is why the shaman is also referred to as a “healer” or “medicine man”. Some
archaeologists and art historians point to specific examples of cave art as signs of
shamanism

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH

The other most important theory is the systematic theory In which Leroi-Gourhan
decided to take a purely statistical approach to prehistoric cave paintings and began
a systematic investigation in which he spent years classifying 72 groups of pictures in
66 caves. He recorded: 610 horses, 510 bisons, 205 mammoths, 175 rhinos, 9
nondescript monsters, 8 large-horned deer, 8 fish, 6 birds, 3 nondescript beasts of
prey, 2 wild boars. Leroi-Gourhan found correlations between the types of animals
and their positions in the cave. To Leroi-Gourhan, the Paleolithic cave "temples"
seemed similar to modern religious structures, with a certain images in similar
places, a specific route of direction, the altar and entrance in the same order, and
typical stations of initiation. Leroi-Gourhan believed that cave art portrays a culture
with a very sophisticated religious or philosophical view of the world.

Twentieth-century male scholars have suggested that the art is about the male
preoccupations of hunting, fighting and girls. Some suggest that the superimposed
figures of one animal within another is symbolic of procreation. Some Paleolithic
depictions of women have even been compared with pin-ups in Playboy, and
"appear in sexually inviting attitudes, which may be quite the same as those in the
most brazen pornographic magazines . . ." according to R.D. Guthrie in “Ethological
Observations from Paleolithic Art”. Bahn says the comparison of Paleolithic art to
Playboy pinups "reveals a lurid imagination."9

FRANCO-CANTABRIAN ART

Franco-Cantabrian art, is a style of art

associated with a group of Paleolithic cave sites
in southwestern France and northern Spain.
The art thus designated is found in limestone
caves, such as those at Altamira and Lascaux;
more than 200 have been identified to date. A
few of these served as dwellings for ancient
hunters, but most were apparently used
infrequently and only for purposes linked to the

9 http://www.ancient.eu/article/
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art. This cave art featured engravings, paintings, and—in a few cases—bas-relief
sculpture and (in the French Pyrenees) works in clay. In addition, a wide range of
portable art was crafted during this period. Franco-Cantabrian art spans the entire
Upper Paleolithic Period and is composed of often naturalistic images of animals, far
fewer depictions of humans, and a great variety of geometric and highly enigmatic
“signs.”
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UPPER PALEOLITHIC CAVE ART SITES

EL – CASTILLO, SPAIN

“Prehistoric dots and crimson hand stencils on Spanish cave walls are now the
world's oldest known cave art, according to new dating results—perhaps the best
evidence yet that Neanderthals were Earth's first cave painters.”- NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC11

The Cave of El Castillo (Cave of the Castle), is a Stone Age rock shelter in Spain which
contains the oldest cave painting yet discovered: namely, a panel of abstract signs
and hand stencils rock art located in the
"Gallery of the Hands. Discovered in
1903 by the Spanish archaeologist
Hermilio Alcalde del Rio, a famous
expert in the prehistoric art of Spain,
the 300-metre long cave is one of
several ancient rock shelters in Monte
Castillo, a conical limestone mountain
situated near the town of Puente
Viesgo, south of Santander in the Cantabria region of Spain. 12The El Castillo Cave
consists of two basic areas; a large
entrance chamber (the "Gran Sala"),
and a subsequent extensive labyrinth of
narrow galleries totaling almost a
kilometre in length. The parietal art on
the walls of the galleries consists of over
100 images, including several rock
engravings of deer as well as images of

10 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Franco-Cantabrian-art
11 http://www.nationalgeographic.com
12 http://www.amusingplanet.com/the-oldest-cave-paintings-in-cave-of-el.html
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animals (aurochs, bison, goats, horses) along with some rare images of dogs, many
of which are superimposed, as well as a large number of hand stencils and disks
created by spraying paint onto the rock surface through a tube.13

Much of El Castillo's Stone Age art is figurative and includes a number of outstanding
drawings of horses, bison, deer and mammoths as well as some rare images of dogs.
Of these, the black paintings have been assigned to the era of Solutrean art
(c.20,000-15,000 BCE), while the polychrome paintings, like the red mammoth,
belong to the era of Magdalenian art (15,000-10,000 BCE). However, the abstract art
- including some 40 red ochre hand stencils and dozens of large red discs - belongs to
the earlier period of Aurignacian art (c.40,000-25,000 BCE). Most of the stencils are
grouped on a panel in a narrow gallery (known as the Gallery of the Hands) which
lies beyond the Gran Sala, although isolated stencils and pictographs can be found in
deeper, more remote locations in the cave. A red disk in the deeper "Corredor de los
Puntos", for example, was spray-painted about 33,000 BCE.14

GROTTE DE CHAUVET, FRANCE

The second-oldest known cave art is that of Chauvet Cave in France. The Grotte De
Chauvet is a series of painted and engraved chambers undisturbed since the late ice
age. Hearths on the floor looked as if they had been extinguished the day before.
Flaming torches had been rubbed against
the wall to remove the charcoal so they
would flare a new. More than 300
paintings adorn the walls. They include a
frieze of black horses and wild oxen with
twisted horns and two rhinoceroses facing
one another. The horses have half open

muzzles; the eyes are depicted in detail.

There are lions, stags, and engravings of
an owl, animals never seen before in
painted caves, covering an area of more
than 10 meters. A 10m frieze of black
figures dominated by lions or lionesses,
rhinoceros, bison and mammoth lies in an
end chamber, a human figure with a bison
head standing to its right.

13 http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/castillo-cave-paintings.htm
14 http://news.nationalgeographic.com
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The artists were masters of perspective, overlapping the heads of animals to give the
effect of movement and numbers. They even scraped some of the walls before
painting them to make the figures stand out better. They would spread the paint
with their hands over the rock, obtaining the values that showed dimension and
color tonality.

Grotte de Chauvet was a bear cave, a place where these powerful animals
hibernated. Interestingly, many of the animals on the cave walls represent
dangerous members of the late ice age bestiary: the bear and the lion, the
mammoth, rhinoceros, and bison, even, occasionally, the nimble and ferocious
aurochs. Perhaps human visitors to the cave, with its claw marks, hollows and prints,
and scattered bones, came to the chambers to acquire the potency of the great
beast, whose smell probably lingered in the darkness. The chauvet cave offers
dramatic evidence for the very early flowering of the late ice age art.
15

ALTAMIRA, SPAIN

Altamira, cave in northern Spain is famous for its magnificent prehistoric paintings
and engravings. It is situated 19 miles (30 km) west of the port city of Santander, in
Cantabria provincia. The cave, discovered by a hunter in 1868, was visited in 1876 by
Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a local
nobleman. He returned in 1879 to excavate
the floor of the cave’s entrance chamber,
unearthing animal bones and stone tools.
On one visit in the late summer, he was
accompanied by his eight-year-old
daughter,
Maria,
who first
noticed the paintings of bison on the ceiling of a
side chamber. Convinced of the antiquity of the
paintings and the objects, Sanz de Sautuola
published descriptions of his finds in 1880.16 Most
prehistorians of the time, however, dismissed the

15 Fagan, M. Brian, People of the Earth, New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2004, p. 127

16 Conkey W. Margaret; A Century of Paleolithic Cave Art

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paintings as modern forgeries, and it 17was not until the end of the 19th century that
they were accepted as genuine.18

The Altamira cave is 971 feet (296 metres) long. In the vestibule numerous
archaeological remains from two main Paleolithic occupations—the Solutrean (about
21,000 to 17,000 years ago) and the Magdalenian (about 17,000 to 11,000 years
ago)—were found. Included among these remains were some engraved animal
shoulder blades, one of which has been directly dated by radiocarbon to 14,480
years ago. The lateral chamber, which contains most of the paintings, measures
about 60 by 30 feet, the height of the vault varying from 3.8 to 8.7 feet; the artists
working there were thus usually crouched and working above their heads, never
seeing the whole ceiling at once.

The roof of the chamber is covered with paintings and engravings, often in
combination—for example, the bison
figures that dominate were first engraved
and then painted. These images were
executed in a vivid bichrome of red and
black, and some also have violet tones.
Other featured animals include horses
and a doe 8.2 feet long, (the biggest
figure on the ceiling), as well as other
creatures rendered in a simpler style.
Numerous additional engravings in this chamber include eight anthropomorphic
figures, some handprints, and hand stencils. The other galleries of the cave contain a
variety of black-painted and engraved figures. In many cases the creator of the
images exploited the natural contours of the rock surface to add a three-dimensional
quality to the work.19

LASCAUX,FRANCE….

Lascaux is famous for its Paleolithic cave

paintings, found in a complex of caves in
the Dordogne region of southwestern

18. https://www.britannica.com/place/Altamira
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France, because of their exceptional quality, size, sophistication and antiquity.

Estimated to be up to 20,000 years old, the paintings consist primarily of large
animals, once native to the region. 20Lascaux is a complex cave with several areas.
The paintings consisting mostly of animal representations, are among the finest
examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic period21.

First studied by the French archaeologist Henri-Édouard-Prosper Breuil, the Lascaux

grotto consists of a main cavern 66 feet wide and 16 feet high. The walls of the
cavern are decorated with some 600 painted and drawn animals and symbols and
nearly 1,500 engravings. The pictures depict in excellent detail numerous types of
animals, including horses, red deer, stags, bovines, felines, and what appear to be
mythical creatures. There is only one human figure depicted in the cave: a bird-
headed man with an erect phallus. Archaeologists believe that the cave was used
over a long period of time as a center for hunting and religious rites. 22

Sections have been identified in the cave; the Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral
Passage, the Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery,
and the Chamber of Felines. The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be
grouped into three main categories -
animals, human figures and abstract
signs. Most of the major images
have been painted onto the walls
using mineral pigments although
some designs have also been incised
into the stone.
Of the animals, equines
predominate and there are 90
paintings of stags. Also represented
are cattle, bison, felines, a bird, a
bear, a rhinoceros, and a human. Among the most famous images are four huge,
black bulls or aurochs in the Hall of the Bulls. One of the bulls is 17 feet (5.2 m) long -
the largest animal discovered so far in cave art. Additionally, the bulls appear to be
in motion. There are no images of reindeer, even though that was the principal
source of food for the artists. A painting referred to as 'The Crossed Bison', found in
the chamber called the Nave, is often held as an example of the skill of the

20 http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/
21 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lascaux-cave-paintings-
discovered
22 http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/
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Palaeolithic cave painters. The crossed hind legs show the ability to use
perspective.23

INTERPRETATIONS OF ABBE AND LEROI- GOURHAN,

AND UCKO AND ROSENFELD AND OTHER
SCHOLARS ON CAVE ART
For half a century or more the Abbe Breuil dominated the recording and
interpretation of the south- west European Paleolithic art and it was not until
recently that his major postulates were questioned. He felt tat the works of art were
the result of the major anxieties of the Paleolithic hunters, namely that their game
should flourish and increase and they themselves should enjoy continuing success in
the hunt. The paintings and engravings accompanied by the appropriate rites would
ensure this.

Professor Leroi- Gourhan has been collecting data from the Paleolithic caves of
south- west Europe since 1947 and has recently begun to offer interpretations
alternative to those of the Abbe Breuil. His argument is that the motivation of the art
of the Paleolithic is somewhat more complicated than the Abbe. In the sixty- six
caves visited by Leroi- Gourhan the frequencies of the species represented in
parietal art are horse (610), bison(510), mammoth(205), ibex(176), ox(137),
hind(135), stag(112), reindeer(84), bear(36), lion(29), and rhino(16). There are in
addition 6 birds, 8 fish and 9 monsters.

According to Leroi- Gourhan these animals are not randomly distributed through the
caves, but may be divided into three groups( central, entrance and rear, rear) on the
basis of their preferred topographical position within the caves. This topographical
grouping corrospondings to a three fold divison of subjects into large herbivores( ox,
horse, bison, mammoth), small herbivores(ibex, stag), and more danagerous
animals(lion, bear, rhino). At this point Leroi- Gourhan admits that the frequency of
occurrence of the species (horse, mammoth, ibex, etc.) and the three fold grouping
suggested above might both be interpreted as the relative popularity of the animals
to the hunter, computed on the meat : risk ration. However he considers this
insufficient explanation and offers an alternative, for which there are two clues.

First, the horse exhibits a strong tendency to occur in the central areas of the caves
and is always found where there are groups of large herbivores. But it never

23 http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/
 18

accompanies more than one of these herbivores (bison, or ox) that is, the horse my
be found with bison or with ox, but not with both. This may suggest that the horse is
the complement of the herbivore. Secondly, the horse, stag and ibex, together with
the fish, the barbed signs and the phalli form the group more often represented on
engraved bone weapons. The weapons, Leroi- Gourhan claims, must be looked upon
as male. This suggests to him that the animals may be grouped into two categories
over and beyond their economic value to the hunter: (a) complementary groupings
combining animals (i.e. bison and horse or ox and horse) and (b) equivalent
groupings combining two or more animals (i.e horse and stag or horse and stag and
ibex).

Leroi- Gourhan speaks of a dualistic division of the animals into ‘male’ (horse, ibex,
stag, reindeer, hind) and ‘female’ (ox and bison) categories. Moreover there are two
sets of signs which coincide with the division of animals and human figures into male
and female groups. Single dots, rows of dots, short strokes and barbed signs occur
throughout and are therefore male. Ovals, triangles, rectangles and bracer shaped
signs are found predominantly in the central areas and are therefore female.

That these two groups of signs represent male and female groups, Leroi- Gourhan
has no doubt. The ovals, triangles and rectangles are ‘ all more or less abstract
variations on the vulvas’. ‘ as for the dots and strokes, it was obvious that they are
male signs, although their degree of abstraction is beyond any simple similarity of
form’. Thus at this stage two groups of motifs can be discerned each with preferred
topographical locations ad distinct associations. One group comprises male figures,
male signs (dots, rows of dots, strokes and barbed signs) and male animals (horse,
ibex, stag,, reindeer) which can occur at the entrance of caves, in the rear of caves or
in the central areas where they are either peripheral, as in the case of stag, ibex,
reindeer, or paired with female motifs as in the case of male signs and horse. the
other group is that of female figures, female signs (ovals, triangles and rectangles)
and female animals ( ox and bison) which occur only in central areas paired with
male motifs.

The final addition to this grouping arises from Leroi- Gourhans discussion of the
wounded animals. As he says, wounded animals are infrequent and the so- called
wounds, missels, spears, etc., are often ambiguous. The wounds, for example, are ‘
hard to distinguish from highly simplified female signs’ ad the spears show similar
affinities to the barbed signs of the male sign category. In fact such geographic
markings as were previously interpreted as spears and wounds ‘can be assimilated to
variant forms of the male and female signs’. Thus to the symbolism of male and
female is added that of sexual union and death, the life cycle. Leroi Gourhan
concludes that ‘without overly forcing the evidence, we can view the whole of
 19

peleolithic figurative art as the expression of ideas concerning the natural and
supernatural organization of the living world’.24

Ucko and Rosenfeld (1967, 182) argued that interpretation of Upper Palaeolithic
cave art as hunting magic entailed an assumption that the magic was to ensure the
capture or increase of the prey animals. The scarcity of reindeer, absence of saiga
antelope and occasional abundance of mammoth depictions are all at variance
with the observed faunal remains that are assumed to represent the products of
hunting by the society of painters and engravers. Ucko and Rosenfeld dismissed
the only explanations of these variations within the hunting magic paradigm: that it
was only worth practicing hunting magic if the animals were difficult to catch.

Vinnicombe puts forth the view that ‘ the rock paintings are not a realistic reflection
of the daily pursuits of the bushmen but a selection involving the use of a restricted
set of conventions about the subject matter and how it was portrayed. This view is
confirmed by the analysis by Lewis Williams in which he associates eland with trance
performances and a belief that the animal has supernatural power.

Andrée Rosenfeld demonstrated the selective representation of animals in the Laura

region rock art. She emphasized that what was depicted seems to have depended on
the context of the marked surface, and that doubtless the cultural values of the
figures were revealed in the spoken interactions between society members.

Jésus Altuna (1983; 1984) demonstrated the lack of fit between the numbers of
pictures of animals at the northern Spanish sites of Ekain and Tito Bustillo, and the
relative frequencies of animals he identified from excavations at the same sites.
Altuna pointed out that the species depicted were an uncertain guide to the ecology
of the region around the site.

Rice and Patterson (1985; 1986) surveyed the evidence from ten regions of France
and four regions of Cantabrian Spain and explored the general pattern of fit between
species representations in the depictions and the prevalence of the same species in
the excavated archaeological layer. Despite the disparity between the scales of
measurement of relative abundance, and contrary to the conclusion reached by
Altuna, they concluded that there was a good correlation between the relative
proportions region by region. In general, however, they claimed that the deer
species were represented appropriately, while the larger bovids, horses and
mammoths were rather over-represented in the depictions relative to the faunal

24 Parkington John; Symbolism In Paleolithic Cave Art

 20

remains in the relevant region, and ibex were anomalous in France, but not in
Spain.25

PREFERRED LOCATIONS FOR ART

Using the framework of 'entrance', 'central' and 'rear' panels, and 'central',
'peripheral' and 'paired' elements, Leroi-Gourhan claims to have found significant
regularities in the preferred locations of certain species and signs. This provides the
basis of his dichotomous division into male and female groups. Leroi-Gourhan's point
is that oxen, bison, horse and possibly mammoth are concentrated in the central
areas, but what he does not tell us is what percentage of all panels are classified as
central. If only 10-20% of the panels are central then it is certainly significant that
90% or so of the oxen and bison are found in such a limited percentage of the space.
If however, as seems to be the case, central panels comprise the vast majority (say
75 % or more) then it is far more significant that only 16 % felines, 38 % stag and
38%, bear are found there26.

The bear is described as belonging to a group of dangerous animals to be found at

the rear of caves, but as Leroi-Gourhan himself points out it most often (60%) occurs
in the central area. Rather than group these animals as 'rear' cave elements it seems
more appropriate to draw attention to the fact that they never occur at the
entrance. Apart from this they may appear anywhere in the caves with only the lion
showing a particular concentration in the rear. To summarize, the situation is that
although most animals can be expected anywhere in the cave some have clear
preferences. By which is meant that some animals show a tendency to occur in
particular locations more frequently than can be explained by chance.

Leroi-Gourhan's grouping into large herbivores, small herbivores, and dangerous

animals seems to be an over-simplification, but not an unreasonable one. This
grouping and the overall relative frequencies of the animals suggest to some the sort
of phenomenon one might expect from a hunter/fisher/gatherer group. However,
Leroi-Gourhan advances from this stage to a more symbolic division initially
suggested by the topographical 'behaviour' of the horse. His argument is that the
horse is found with other large herbivores not because it is thought of as equivalent
to them but rather because it is their complement: a male to their female. Thus one

25 Davidson Iain; Symbols By Nature: Animal Frequencies In The Upper

Paleolithic of Western Europe And The Nature of Symbolic Representation
26 Parkington John; Symbolism In Paleolithic Cave Art
 21

would expect to find horse, oxen, and bison anywhere in the caves but rarely as first
or last panel themes.

HUMAN FIGURES
Although Leroi-Gourhan claims that the locations and associations of male and
female figures closely follow those of the animals, it is difficult to recognize any
significant regularities in the data as presented by him. As to the associations of
human figures the situation is as follows. Only four examples of the pairing of male
and female figures are quoted: a phallus and a vulva in a network of engraved lines
at the entrance to the ossuary at Peche Merle; a phallus and a vulva oval side by side
at Les Combarelles; a vulva superimposed on a horse also at Les Combarelles; and
the 'small face of a man in frontal view above and apart from three female torsos' at
Angles-sur-l'Anglin. Strictly speaking only the last is a pair of human figures, the first
is a pair of part figures, the other
involve signs and animals.

'Groupings with animals', argues Leroi-

Gourhan, 'are far more frequent and
instructive'. Males are associated with
horse on plaquettes from Bedeilhac
and Isturitz, with horse and snake on
pierced staffs from Teyjat and La
Madeleine, with bear and reindeer on
incised bone at La Colombiere, with
stag, ibex and mammoth on the walls
at Cougnac. All of these groupings he describes as of a male with male (i.e.
equivalent) character.

'The groupings of women and

animals are of a constant
character' (p. 135). Women (or
more often representations of the
female sexual parts) are found
with 'undefinable' animals at La
Ferrassie and the Abri Cellier, with
bison at Laussel, Angles-
surl'Anglin, La Magdelaine,
Bideilhac and Castillo. At Peche
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Merle 'in a recess, five figures display every conceivable transition from bison with
raised tails to women bending over' . Of this particular phenomenon Leroi-Gourhan
says 'it is impossible to imagine a more striking illustration of the close affinity
between these two symbols of the female category' . All these groupings are then
female with female or of an equivalent character.

But just as males are found with 'female' elements so are females with 'male'
elements. The female is found with the horse on a broken plaquette from Laugerie-
Basse, with the horse at La Magdelaine, and with the mammoth at Peche Merle, and
vulvas are associated with horses twice at Les Combarelles and at Gargas. These
groupings are female with male or of complementary character. To sum up, the male
and female figures (including representations of sexual parts) may be found with
several species of animals27

CONCLUSION
The upper Paleolithic cave art is a representation of the peoples
creativeness and consciousness. The beautiful depictions are that
of horse, bison, deer, lion, and many other animals with a few
human depictions. The cave art is identified in different parts of
the cave. For instance, some are made deep inside the cave where
there is complete darkness while the others are made in the
lighted portion of the cave. Each of these depictions inside the
cave in the form of art, sculptures, and engravings provide us the
evidence of the activities carried out by the people of those times
in the form of hunting, foraging, and several rituals for fertility, a
better hunt and for many other activities. Upper Paleolithic Cave
art is popular in sites of Spain and France where several depictions
of hunting scenes, rituals and many other activities are depicted.
Hence cave art is considered to be a wonderful means of
understand the past societies and their cultures for which there
have been many interpretations among the scholars of present
times for understanding the reason behind these art forms ….
27 Parkington John; Symbolism In Paleolithic Cave Art