ART IN OLD STONE AGE

PECH- MARLE

That the paintings did have meaning to the paleolithic peoples who made and observed them cannot , however, be doubted. In fect, sings consisting of checks, dots, squares, or other arrangements of lines often accompany the pictures of animals. Representations of human hands also are common. At pech Marle in France, painted hands accompanyrepresentations of spotted horses. These and the majority of painted hands at other sites are “nagative” that is, the painter palced one hand against the wall and then brushed or blew or spat pigment around it. Occasionally, from the moment in 1879 that cave paintings were discovered at Altamria , scholara have wondered why the hunters of the Old stone age decided to cover the walla of dark caverns with animals images like those found at Altamria, pech –merle Lascaux ND Vallon –pont-d’Arc Scholars have proposed various theories including that the painted and engraved animals were mere decoration, but this explanation cannot account for the narrow range of subjects or the inaccessibility of many of the representations .In fact, the remoteness and difficulty of access of many of the images, andindications that the caves were used for centuries,are precisely why many researchers have suggested that the perhistoric hunters attribusted magical propertiesto the images they painted and sculpted.According to this argument, by confining animals to the surface of their cave wall, the Paleolithic hunters belived they were bringing the beasts under theu=ir control. Some  prehistorians have even hypothesized that rituals or dances were preformed in fornt of the images and that These rites served to improve the hunters’ luck. Still others have stated that the animals representations may have served as teaching tools to insruct new hunters about the character of the various species they would encounter or even to serve as target for spears.

In contrast, some schlors have aruged that the magical purpose of the paintongs and relifes was not to facilitate the destrucation of bison and other species.Instead ,they believe prehistoric painters and sculptors created animals images to assure  the surivival of the herds on which paleolithic peoples depended for their food supply and for their clothing. A central problem for both the hunting magic and food –creation theories is that the animals that seem ti have been diet staples of Old Stone Age peoples are not thoes most frequently protrayed.For example, faunal remains show that the Altamrirans ate

ate reed, not bison.

Hall of the Bulls (left wall)in the cave at Lascaux,France ca 15,000to 13,000 BC  Largest bull 11’-6” Long.

Other scholars have sought to reconstruct an elaborate mythology based on the cave pintings and sculptures, suggestings that paleolithic human belived they had animals ancestors. Still others have equated certain species with man and other with women and postulated various meanings for the abstrect sings that sometimes accompany the images. Alomost all of these theories have been discredited overtime,and most perhistorians admit that no one known the intent of these  Representations.In fact a single explanation for all paleolithic animals images even ones similar in subject, style, and compositin (how the motifs are arranged on the surface), is unlikely  to apply universally.The works remain an enigma-and always will, because before the invention of writing,no contemporanceous explanations could be recorded.