PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS [1968]- by REBECCA MARCUS.pdf

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CAVE PAINTINGS By

REBECCA

B.

ILLUSTRATED WITH

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MARCUS PHOTOGRAPHS

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PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS Twelve-year-old Maria de Sautuolo liked to

accompany her

father

when

he went cave exploring near their home in northern Spain. It was fun to hunt for tools left in the cave by ancient, unknown men. Then one day Maria went exploring by herself and made a discovery of her own. Wandering into a deep part of the cave, she saw a painted herd of lifelike bison charging across the ceiling. Maria's discovery

was the first step

an exciting treasure hunt for cave paintings that led from Altamira to in

Lascaux and Font-de-Gaume,

to

Mexico, to South Africa and back in time to Cro-Magnon man through the

Olmec Indians of 3,000 years ago, and

down

to th«* present. Maria's

tures

were

adven-

like those of the priests

and explore.s who have devoted their lives to the search for clues to solve

the mysteries of these paintings.

In a crisp, clear style

Rebecca

Marcus conducts an adventure of discovery. She explores the history, origins, and techniques of the art and the artists, reveals the meaning of their work, and describes the methods used by present-day scientists to date the paintings and protect them from mold and temperature changes. She shows how we, too, can go cave exploring and discover for ourselves the remarkable world of these artists of long ago. (see

back

flap)

PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS

ROSLINDALE

Cro-Magnon man painting to

make

the wall of a cave.

a picture of a stenciled hand.

He

is

using a blowtube

PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS by

REBECCA

illustrated with

B.

MARCUS

photographs

FRANKLIN WATTS, INC. 575 LEXINGTON AVENUE NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022

ROSLINDALE

\

.t)

.$& ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes

to

thank Dr. Richard A. Gould of the Department of

Anthropology of the American

Museum

of Natural History for his criti-

Thanks are

cal reading of the manuscript.

also due the following persons

for their special kindness and courtesy in helping to gather material for this

book:

Seiior Felipe

Mendez de

la

Torre, Jefe de Relaciones Publicas, Cuevas

de Altamira, Spain; Sefior

Tomas Maza

Solano, Director de

la

Revista Altamira, Patronato

de las Cuevas Prehistoricas, Santander, Spain; Dr. Jean Guichard, Director,

Photo credits appear on page

Musee de

Prehistoire, Les Eyzies, France.

89.

BOSTON PUBLIC

LIBWfltf

©1968 by Franklin Watts, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-25724 Printed in the United States of America Copyright

12

3

4

5

CONTENTS MARIA'S DISCOVERY

3

SEALED IN A CAVE

4

THE SECRET TREASURE AT ALTAMIRA

8

DISCOURAGEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT IN

THE VEZERE VALLEY

IN

FRANCE

13

16

LES COMBARELLES, FONT-DE-GAUME,

AND BACK TO ALTAMIRA

20

DISCOVERY OF THE LASCAUX CAVE

28

THE PAINTINGS AT LASCAUX

29

THE MYSTERIOUS SCENE

IN

THE WELL

CRO-MAGNON MAN

39 42

ROSLINDALE

BEGINNINGS OF CAVE ART

47

HOW CAVE PAINTINGS WERE PRODUCED

48

SKETCH SHEETS AND ART SCHOOLS

50

CAVE PAINTINGS AND SYMPATHETIC MAGIC

51

CAVE ART MAY HAVE A DIFFERENT MEANING

55

THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF CAVE ART

58

MEXICAN CAVE PAINTINGS

62

ROCK PAINTINGS - SPANISH LEVANTINE ART

64

ROCK ART

AFRICA

67

CAVE PAINTINGS TODAY

72

IN

VISITING THE

APPENDIX I — Some APPENDIX

II

Painted Caves in Spain and France

- Radiocarbon Dating

75

80

GLOSSARY

82

INDEX

86

PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS

\T

The painted

ceiling in the Altamira cave.

MARIA'S DISCOVERY "Tows, torosl—

Bulls, bulls! Father,

come and look

at the

Maria de Sautuolo's cry from deep inside the cave reached her father as he dug in the rubble at

bulls!" Twelve-year-old

the cave's front.

The cave was

in a gently rolling

meadow

at Altamira,

near

Mar in northern Spain, a few miles from the Sautuolo summer home. Marcelino de Sautuolo sometimes took his daughter with him when he went digging for remains Santillana del

by ancient man. Maria liked to poke around in the dark cave, to shine her candle on the walls and ceiling, and watch the shadows cast by the bulges in the rock. On this day in 1879, Maria had found her way to a part of the cave that only a child could have entered walking upright. As she flashed her candle on the low ceiling, she saw, painted on the rock, a herd of animals that looked like bulls. The paintings were so lifelike that the animals seemed to be left

there

(3)

charging right out of the rock. In wonderment, she called to her father.

Her father stooped through the opening into the part of the cave from which Maria's voice came. There he found a treasure, not of gold or precious stones, but of pictures painted

the ceiling of the cave

by men who had lived 15,000 years

SEALED IN The entrance

ago.

A CAVE Altamira cave had been sealed for

was discovered only by accident. hunter in the meadow saw his dog disappear

15,000 years. In 1868 a

to the

on

It

into

the ground. Following the faint barking of the dog, the hunter

began

to dig

away

at a small hole into

which the animal had

apparently fallen. This hole led to an underground pile of loose rock. In order to free the dog, the hunter had to

move away some

of

the rock. In so doing, he discovered that the rocks covered

had fallen and blocked the entrance. The hunter released the dog and conthe entrance to a cave. Part of the cave ceiling

tinued his search.

Upon

his return to Santillana del

told of his discovery, but

Mar he

no one was curious enough

to ex-

plore the cave.

Ten years

Marcelino de Sautuolo, a historian and archaeologist, returned to his home in northern Spain from a visit to the Paris Exposition of 1878. There he had seen a later,

display of tools and other objects

(4)

made by

ancient peoples.

Rhinoceros engraved on bone, found among the remains of ancient in

man

southwestern France.

The

had been found in 1864 in a cave near the town of Les Eyzies in the Dordogne valley of southwestern France. Among the objects Sautuolo had seen were engraved pieces of animal bone and ivory that came from the tusks of mammoths, an extinct type of elephant. One piece of ivory had a fine engraving of a mammoth, and undoubtedly had been made by a man who had seen such an animal. Now mammoths had not roamed Europe for about 15,000 years. They had died out about the time the great ice sheet that covered much of Europe was melting. The engraving, then, had to be articles

at least

15,000 years old. In

all

probability, the other objects

found with the piece of ivory were also

(5)

at least as old.

Sautuolo had been intrigued by these remains showing the

work

of ancient men. Perhaps groups of these

lived near his

own home

men had

also

few hunFrance. Perhaps

in northern Spain, only a

dred miles from the Dordogne region in these men, too, had left remains that told something about their lives. He knew of the unexplored, barely opened cave at Altamira. Might not this be a place to look for evidences of ancient

cavemen?

Soon after his return from Paris, Sautuolo went to Altamira and began to remove more of the rubble and slabs of rock that had fallen down and sealed the mouth of the cave. When he had cleared away enough of the fallen rock to enter, he found himself in a dark chamber. He explored the chamber and saw that it showed signs of having been occupied by people. Here and there he found bone needles, stone axheads, spear points, knives, and scrapers — objects unmistakably made by man. That winter, back in Madrid, Sautuolo spoke of his finds Juan Vilanova of the University of Madrid. Vilanova was one of the world's foremost scholars engaged in the study of ancient man. He encouraged Sauto his friend Professor

tuolo to continue his digging in the cave the next summer. In the

home

summer

of 1879, Sautuolo returned to his country

At Altamira he spent many days digging in the front part of the cave, and found many different objects. Among them were small pieces of bone, each in northern Spain.

pierced with a small hole at one end. pieces of bone together, he

an ancient

man

or

woman

saw

When

he strung the

had a necklace that might have worn. Once, on a rocky

(6)

that he

V

i

1 <

r

I

i

kid

s

Some of the bone and

stone tools,

by Marcelino de Sautuolo.

now in the Altamira Museum,

collected

wall in a far part of the cave, he glimpsed black drawings of animals, but he thought little about them.

So things remained until that day when Maria saw the painted animals on the ceiling of the low chamber and called to

her father.

THE SECRET TREASURE AT ALTAMIRA The

chamber in which Maria stood sloped downward toward the back of the cave. Just inside the entrance, Sautuolo was able to stand upright. But as he walked toward his daughter at the rear he had to lower his head to keep from hitting the ceiling. Where Maria was pointing at the ceiling, the cave's height was just a little over five feet. Sautuolo had to crouch to look at the ceiling of the cave. Through the darkness, pierced only by candlelight, Sautuolo saw a herd of bison painted on the ceiling— the "bulls" Maria had seen. They were painted in various shades of red, but in some there was yellow and brown as well. Some animals were standing, some sitting with legs folded under them. One painting showed a bison struck with a spear. The animal's head was sunken, its hind legs doubled up, as a real animal would have fallen. In addition to the bison, there were paintings of wild boars, deer, and horses. Most of the animals were from four to six feet long, but some were life-size. They looked so alive ceiling of the

(8)

Necklaces and neck ornaments like the ones found at Altamira. These are from caves in southwestern France.

/

4 to

#»a

Deer

at Altamira.

The body was

The

outline

filled in

was

first

engraved, then painted in black.

with shades of brown and red.

that Sautuolo could almost see

them breathe. Yet the animals

were mainly types that were no longer found in Spain. Nothing like these paintings had even been known to exist. Sautuolo gazed at them in astonishment. Who had made these beautiful polychrome (many-colored) paintings? When had they been made, and for what purpose? It seemed clear to Sautuolo that the artists must have been able to observe these ancient animals closely to have made such lifelike paintings. Therefore, the paintings must have been made Above left: Close-up view of some of the animals on the ceiling mira. Below left: Bison with legs folded under it, Altamira.

at Alta-

many thousands

of years ago.

that old for another reason.

cave

He

believed the paintings were

The stone

tools sealed inside the

when part of the ceiling collapsed showed that Stone Age

men were

the last to have been in the cave before

covered. Thus the paintings must be the

work

it

was

redis-

of Stone

Age

men.

Day study

went into the side chamber He saw that the shapes of many

after day, Sautuolo its

painted ceiling.

had

to

of

been cut into the rock with a sharp tool, then outlined in black and painted in. Sometimes a part of an animal was painted on a bulge in the rock so as to give the feeling of the rounded form of the animal. Many of the animals were painted in different shades of

the animals

the

same color

ings, the color

first

to bring out the animal's shape. In these paint-

was

darker color. This

lighter at the center

made

from a person looking

and shaded off into

the animal appear to curve

away

at the picture.

In addition to the paintings, there

were many small engrav-

ings cut into the rock. And, in the far part of the ceiling,

were a few pictures of hands— just hands. Some were painted in red, and several appeared to be stenciled on the rock. Probably a hand had been placed against the rock and paint applied around it. When the hand was removed its shape was outlined in paint on the bare rock. Sautuolo explored the cave further, and found more paintings on other parts of the cave. However, these were not as beautiful as those on the ceiling, for they were in monochrome (one color), red or black. The walls of most of the cave were bare, yellowish limestone rock. But in the rear, where the height of the ceiling there

(12)

Sketch of lines drawn by fingers on the clay of the roof

The head of

was

less

a cowlike animal

than four

is

at Altamira.

at the right.

rock was covered with natural

feet, the

yellow-red clay. Sautuolo saw designs in the clay that ap-

peared to have been scratched into

it

by

fingers.

He made

drawings of these scratches for the notes he was keeping on his discoveries.

DISCOURAGEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT In 1880, Sautuolo

wrote an

article telling of his discoveries

Altamira cave. In his article he stated that the paintings had been made by Stone Age artists. The article was brought in the

(13)

King Alfonso XII of Spain. With much royal fanfare, the king came to see the cave paintings for himself. He was so impressed that he permitted his name to be inscribed on the wall near the entrance, as a sign of his to the attention of

favor.

Later that year, the International Congress of Anthropol-

ogy and Prehistoric Archaeology was to meet in Lisbon. (Anthropology is the science that deals with the study of man. Archaeology deals with the study of relics left by ancient man.) Sautuolo wanted his report on the Altamira cave to

be read and discussed

at the congress.

He knew

that this

body must first approve it before scientists all over the world would acknowledge its truth. He also hoped that some of the members would come to Altamira when the meeting was over to see the paintings for themselves.

But Sautuolo was doomed to disappointment. When his friend Professor Vilanova showed the program committee Sautuolo's report and asked that

be read before the entire congress, the request was denied. The committee members did not think it possible that paintings such as those described in the report could have been made by Stone Age men. The report was never read before the congress. Word of the cave paintings spread, however, in spite of the fact that few people believed they had been made by Stone Age men. One group of scientists declared that the paintings had been done by Roman soldiers less than 2,000 years earlier. At one point an insane painter whom Sautuolo had befriended came forward and "confessed" that Sautuolo it

had paid him to paint the caves. But the confession was easily proved false, and was completely discredited. (14)

*ri

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Bisc Oy

Santander* Santillana del

Mar

Altamira

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nan Sea)

\ EI Castillo

Pindal

Las Chimeneas La Pasiega Las Monedas

Hornos de

la

Covalanas La Haza Sotarriza

Pena

FRANCE 0^

SOME PAINTED CAVES OF NORTHERN SPAIN

'

S.iniander • <

SPAIN