The Story Behind Prehistoric Art

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If you have ever wondered about the origins of prehistoric art, you will likely enjoy reading this blog. It is written by John K. Rose, who has a Masters degree in archaeology and is currently studying for his Ph.D. in the same subject. He has worked with prehistoric stone tools and potsherds, and has even helped analyze the DNA of a Neanderthal skeleton.

This blog discusses all aspects of prehistoric art, including cave paintings, drawings on walls and ceilings, carvings on bones and rocks, jewelry made out of seashells and beads made from clay, etc. The author describes various theories of art’s role in prehistoric times and how it developed over time. He also looks at specific pieces of art from a variety of locations around the world.

Prehistoric art is the oldest form of art we can find. Still, we do not know for sure what it meant to the artists who created it. Prehistoric art is a vast field covering many eras and thousands of years. Here are some facts about prehistoric art, along with links to some wonderful examples.

Prehistoric art is the oldest type of art. Although prehistoric art is popularly associated with cave paintings, it also includes carvings and engravings on rock, petroglyphs and pictographs. Prehistoric art is dated to the period of time before writing and is found in every continent.

Prehistoric Art Examples:

Prehistoric art includes cave paintings, rock art, petroglyphs, and pictographs. Many examples have been discovered in Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain. The caves are believed to be painted by Cro-Magnon humans who inhabited Europe 30,000 years ago. Some believe that the purpose of these paintings was religious while others believe they were created for simple entertainment.

Lascaux Cave Paintings:

The Lascaux grotto contains approximately 2,000 drawings and paintings depicting animals such as horses, bulls, deer and bison ( some with blue eyes) as well as abstract shapes, handprints, dots and dashes. The most famous figure found in Lascaux is a 15 inch high fawn which has become known as “The Dying Fawn.” The Lascaux cave paintings were discovered by four teenagers in 1940 when they noticed a hole in the ceiling of the cave. The

Prehistoric art is the oldest form of visual art. All artworks created between the birth of the first human and the invention of writing. Prehistoric art dates back to the Paleolithic period, and examples can be found all around the world.

The first known prehistoric artists were Paleolithic humans. They lived in caves and on open land. They had limited materials with which to work and they often used natural features such as animal bones and horns as their canvases.

Prehistoric art is defined as prehistoric because it predates written records. There is no way to know exactly what motivated prehistoric artists to create their art, since they left no written records. However, there are many theories that try to explain their motivations in more detail. According to one theory, all human societies have a need for visual symbols, and even those societies with a written language use symbols that have no meaning other than their appearance. The earliest forms of writing were often pictographs or hieroglyphs which were used to depict important objects or ideas, so early societies may have relied on images as an alternative way of communicating information that could not be recorded through text alone.

Another theory suggests that cave paintings were inspired by dreams experienced by shamans during trance states associated with possession by animal spirits. In

Prehistoric art is often referred to as cave paintings because many of these original works were found in caves. However, prehistoric art can also be found in rocks, on the walls of buildings, and even on wood and ivory. The majority of prehistoric art dates back to the Stone Age, which lasted from over two million years ago until around 4500 B.C.E.

The purpose of prehistoric art is not entirely clear, but it is believed that it was done for religious purposes. The style of art changed as time progressed, with early artwork being more realistic and advanced artwork becoming more abstract. One example of this progression from realism to abstraction can be seen in cave paintings from France, Spain and Italy. In these paintings there are two distinct styles: one that is realistic and one that is more abstract or symbolic in nature. Some believe that the realistic style may have depicted deities or other important figures while the more abstract style was intended to symbolize a spiritual aspect or journey.

Bison and horses were the logical subjects for early art. They are big, powerful animals with an attitude. Art is not just a way of portraying the world around us; it’s a way of interacting with it. By depicting animals in a certain way it’s possible to influence their behavior.

The earliest depictions of mammoths show them as benign and friendly creatures. The idea was that if people drew their likenesses often enough, the mammoth would remain docile and safe to hunt. Chances are this approach did work. Mammoths were going extinct at the same time humans were becoming more numerous, so some kind of co-evolution seems likely.

I suspect that what we call “prehistoric art” actually consisted of two different kinds: art that was intended to influence animal behavior, and art born from the instinctive desire to make images.**

**From essay section “Name: Why does prehistoric art exist?” article found on www.quora.com **

The cave paintings are evidence that prehistoric people painted pictures of animals and made carvings of them. These were not like our art today. They had no idea what art was for, or why they did it. They made these things to help them in their daily life. For example, they used the cave paintings to help them find food and water.

Most of the paintings have been found in caves and shelters in France, Spain, and other European countries. Many of the paintings show deer, horses, bison, aurochs (a type of cattle), bears, lions, woolly rhinoceros and mammoths. People may have also hunted some of these animals. Sometimes people made more than one painting on the walls of a cave. This may have been to show what they did on different days or at different times of year.

In addition to showing animals and hunting scenes, some of the prehistoric paintings show men with bows and arrows chasing after deer or bison. Whatever happened in real life would be depicted in the painting by drawing a person with arms outstretched holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other hand ready to shoot an animal running along ahead of him. Another example is where a man is shown standing near two lions he

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