Even if you have never seen them in real life, you have probably heard of ancient cave paintings. These paintings were painted in times so ancient that modern humans didn’t even exist. In this article, I’ll talk about three of the most ancient cave paintings.
We first have the Cueva de las manos, meaning “Cave of Hands”. The painting is exactly what it sounds like. Throughout the cave where these painting lie, there are old hand prints from different people that lived inside. The cave hand prints each date back to a different time. Some as early as 13000 B.C. In addition, most of the cave handprints come from people’s left hands. This suggests that they used their right hands to spray paint their left hands. This cave is located in Argentina.
Next, we have the Cave of Altamira in Spain. This cave was owned in the 1800s by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. At first, he thought the cave had nothing important inside and didn’t bother to explore it. However, this perspective changed after going to a museum that displayed carved bones with another archeologist, Juan Vilanova, and his 9-year-old daughter Maria.
While the men were busy looking for ancient deposits, Maria wandered into the cave and found cave paintings. Later, Marcelino and Juan published descriptions of what they saw in a book. Many people thought their descriptions were fake. Critics thought this because the paintings were too new or well-preserved compared to other cave paintings that have been discovered around the world. Also, the cave paintings were on the ceiling and critics thought it was impossible for people at that time to draw so accurately and preserve it so well. It wasn’t until Émile Cartailhac, a respected archeologist and one of previous the critics, changed his stance. After seeing other cave paintings that were well preserved, he realized it was possible for these paintings to truly be real. He noticed that paintings that were caved in by rock movement over the years were better preserved – this is because neither moisture nor oxygen could get in to damage it.
Last, we have the Kakadu Rock Paintings. These paintings are located in Australia. They are unlike any cave paintings discovered. Being near the river, the original artists’ community ate plenty of fish. The paintings aren’t just of the outline of the fish – they also feature the skeleton of the fish, scales, and even the internal organs! There were also drawings of turtles and kangaroos.
In this article, I talked about three of the most ancient cave paintings. The Cueva de las manos, Kakadu Rock Paintings, and last but not least, Cave of Altamira. I hope you learned something from my article and that I inspired you to think more about ancient civilizations.
We first have the Cueva de las manos, meaning “Cave of Hands”. The painting is exactly what it sounds like. Throughout the cave where these painting lie, there are old hand prints from different people that lived inside. The cave hand prints each date back to a different time. Some as early as 13000 B.C. In addition, most of the cave handprints come from people’s left hands. This suggests that they used their right hands to spray paint their left hands. This cave is located in Argentina.
Next, we have the Cave of Altamira in Spain. This cave was owned in the 1800s by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. At first, he thought the cave had nothing important inside and didn’t bother to explore it. However, this perspective changed after going to a museum that displayed carved bones with another archeologist, Juan Vilanova, and his 9-year-old daughter Maria.
While the men were busy looking for ancient deposits, Maria wandered into the cave and found cave paintings. Later, Marcelino and Juan published descriptions of what they saw in a book. Many people thought their descriptions were fake. Critics thought this because the paintings were too new or well-preserved compared to other cave paintings that have been discovered around the world. Also, the cave paintings were on the ceiling and critics thought it was impossible for people at that time to draw so accurately and preserve it so well. It wasn’t until Émile Cartailhac, a respected archeologist and one of previous the critics, changed his stance. After seeing other cave paintings that were well preserved, he realized it was possible for these paintings to truly be real. He noticed that paintings that were caved in by rock movement over the years were better preserved – this is because neither moisture nor oxygen could get in to damage it.
Last, we have the Kakadu Rock Paintings. These paintings are located in Australia. They are unlike any cave paintings discovered. Being near the river, the original artists’ community ate plenty of fish. The paintings aren’t just of the outline of the fish – they also feature the skeleton of the fish, scales, and even the internal organs! There were also drawings of turtles and kangaroos.
In this article, I talked about three of the most ancient cave paintings. The Cueva de las manos, Kakadu Rock Paintings, and last but not least, Cave of Altamira. I hope you learned something from my article and that I inspired you to think more about ancient civilizations.
