Cave Art essays

Cave Art essays Some 30,000 years ago throughout Europe an artistic crusade began to commence that would later extend its roots far into the Eastern and Western world. Through the prehistoric art works discovered, future generations are able to analyze and start to piece together the behavioral patterns of early homo-sapiens. The most prevalent, and possibly the most important artwork to be discovered are the cave paintings located throughout the world. Present study and knowledge of this art is confined to works discovered well over 150 sites throughout Europe. While there are little specifics known regarding cave paintings, specialists have carefully analyzed why so much time and effort was spent on each of the works, and have drawn educated conclusions on their possible purposes and functions. The most convincing clue in which cave art provides us is the fact that early homo-sapiens were beginning to end a life of constant roaming, and begin to settle in more permanent societies. One of the earliest known sites of prehistoric cave paintings was discovered in December of 1994. The site became known as the Chauvet Cave and was located near Vallon-Pont-dArc in southern France. The cave paintings themselves are a trove of hundreds of animals and bird paintings; the most dynamic of the images depict wild animals grazing, running, or resting (Stokstad 47). Among the animals represented are the wild horse, bison, mammoth, bear, panther, owl, deer, aurochs, woolly-haired rhino, and the wild goat. In the caves, perfect footprints were left of homo-sapiens living some 30,000 years ago. These footprints suggest that it is a possibility animals could have been painted as a means to mark the eating habits of a particular environment; the artists intent may have been to provide hunting knowledge to future generations. It also suggests that the cave was used often by the Paleolithic homo-sapiens. Marilyn Stokstad, a major in art hist...