My Science School

• Cueva de Manos: The cave of hands, in Patagonia, Argentina, gets its name from the “stenciled” handprints that dot the cave. Of course, there are other depictions of hunting scenes and animals, but the hands (most of them are left hands) were spray-painted and hence, the specialty. These date back up to 13,000 years.


• Altamira Cave: This cave in northern Spain was discovered in the 19th Century. It had depictions of bison, horses and handprints, coloured ochre and outlined in black. They were so well-preserved that scientists thought it was fake until 1902, when it was deemed genuine.


• Lion Man: This is a prehistoric sculpture discovered in Hohlenstein-Stad!, a cave in Germany, in 1939. Nicknamed Lowenmensch, or lion man, it is the oldest-known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world. It is between 35,000 and 40,000 years old.


• Nazca Lines: The Nazca Lines in Peru are great examples of geoglyphs. These large creations are made by incisions in soil. They are of various animals such as monkeys, dogs, spiders, and fish and since they are so big, they are best seen from the air. There are over 70 such images with the total length of the lines being over 1,300 km. They occupy over 50 sq.km of land. These are more recent, and date between 500 BC and 500 AD.

Wow Facts

Scientists have found drawings by homo sapiens that date back as far as 73,000 years – some of the earliest in history! Among the oldest in sub-Saharan African art, the Blombos Cave has abstract geometric signs and beads made from shells. These were discovered in 2002 and date back to 70,000 BC. The discovery suggests that human beings used and understood symbols back then.

The Bhimbetka and Daraki-Chattan caves in Madhya Pradesh are the oldest evidence of prehistoric art and human existence in India. While the caves had been used as shelter in excess of 1,00,000 years, the earliest paintings there are 30,000 years old.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Prehistoric art constitutes all forms of art and communication in pre-literature eras and the pre-historic period, roughly from 40000 to 5000 BC. In layman terms, much before there was papers or pens, leave alone mobile phones, computers or the Internet! This meant that people had to communicate with each other in person.

Prehistoric art is among the earliest forms of sculpting and painting. Whether this art took shape to express one’s creativity is unknown but what is clear is that humans wanted to leave their legacy behind. Either that, or they were just really good at Pictionary!

So, early human chose what they could find and began to draw. Sometimes it would be a cave. If that didn’t get the message across, they would make sculptures (the most popular being the Lion Man, said to be about 40,000 years old). Geoglyphs (a large design made on the ground, mostly using rocks or other materials) and megaliths (a large stone sculpted into a monument) probably helped as well.

These forms of art were a way of recording history and culture until humans began to develop some kind of written language to keep records better. Therefore, the age at which prehistoric art transitions into ancient art is blurry and varies it different parts of the world. You know earlier, not everyone caught on that fast!

 

Picture Credit : Google