Stone Age and Art: Why did an ancient people draw on the rocks? Masterpieces of cave painting.
![Stone Age and Art: Why did an ancient people draw on the rocks? Masterpieces of cave painting.](/uploads/3689efd6b7163e080cda91aabc30114e.jpg)
In the previous article we talked about how you can play with a child in prehistoric times and introduce it to life and life of primitive people. And today we will pay attention to the art of those years and we will try to act as an artist.
Skilled artists
Tell your child story: "Once one Spanish archaeologist Mineleino de Sautola explored ancient cave. With him was his little daughter Maria. Somehow the girl decided to look at the departure of the cave, and, having taught the father, shouted: "there is a bull! Bull!" Father began to calm down her daughter: "Where does the bulls come here?"
Ask the child, could any animals be in the cave? Come up together several options. Then continue the story: "Minestino went deep into the cave and froze in amazement. No, there was not one bull there! And the whole flock! Bison stood, lay, beat hoof. And they were all drawn on the wall of the cave, each one and a half or two meters, and so naturally and realistically, they could really be confused with alive. "
Consider the image of the bridges drawn on the wall of the cave.
Scientists for a long time I could not believe that these are creations created at the dawn of mankind. At one time it was even believed that this is a joke of some modern artist.
Show your young "archaeologist" a few more cave drawings.
Carefully examine the pictures and ask the question: What unites the drawings of primitive people, what do they have in common? True, they all depict animals. Why drew them ancient man? Not plants or landscapes. Remind your "discoverer" about games when you get acquainted with life in prehistoric times. And your child guess that all the vital activity of primitive people was associated with animals, which provided their food, clothes, the skin (on the slags of the mammoth bones).
Pay attention to the child to the art and skill with which drawings are made. Appearance, parts of the body, poses of animals - the observation helped correctly all this. Why did primitive people paid so much attention to the details? Without it, the hunt would not be possible.
Unprecedented prehistoric animals
Show the child illustration of ancient animals, compare them with modern.
Platibelodon
Pakiqet
PantioLambda
Arsynoteries
Titanidees.
Sodelont
Forakos.
Amazing creatures! Read more about them can be found on the site "World of Animals". Say the names of each of them, for sure, they will not leave the young "scientist" indifferent. The child will have to do and come up with his own similar sophisticated names, for this, draw an imaginary prehistoric beast.
Spend another game on imagination and fantasy: Pay attention to the young researcher on the features of the appearance of animals and come up with the "talking" names for which you can easily guess who is who. For example, look for among all the presented instances of long-tailed polymatics.
Magic rituals
Scientists have found that the animals depicted in the caves were often with dents and scratches from stones and copies. Why? Let the child show their mental and creative skills And make assumptions.
Ancient people believed that the drawn animals were alive, they felt pain, fear, born and died. Usually, primitive artists painted them before the hunt and played the scenes from it: how they pursue prey, track it, surround and scored by stones and spears. They believed that if the animal was drawn, then the real hunt would be successful. Often, people invested and magical meaning in these rituals that of real life Help them to train their body, develop consistency of actions.
Interestingly, fish are not depicted on rock paintings, although they were part of the human diet of the time. Reggerer let your explorer come up with their versions of the answer. Remind the child about animal image target. Of course, training, rehearsal of real hunt! And the fish was caught relatively simple, fishing did not require magical rituals.
Primitive paints
Remind the child that there were no modern brushes, no paints in the primitive era. What do prehistoric people draw whole herds of bulls? What natural materials could be intelligent and leave a color track? Perhaps in the life of your young "archaeologist" there is already an experience in acquaintance with clay, which is dirty clothes and hands. For example, when on the shore he mined construction material With great depth. Or the other "paint", which appears after sating a fire on a picnic in the forest - coal. Or traces on the fingers, tongue, teeth from the honeysuckle. All these are examples of natural paint.
Suggest a small researcher to independently guess, with the help of which primitive people could draw, and put several items in front of him: Feltolsters (or pencils, paints), toys (or something, not able to paint), and coal, chalk, colored clay, berries .
In addition, prehistoric people used colored minerals, shredding them and mixing with fat animals. You can mix fat-soluble dyes with sunflower or cream oil with a child.
Brushes in primitive times
Now offer the child to "invent" an ancient brush. Listen to all ideas, including the option to draw your finger, this is one of the correct answers. Then offer to make a prehistoric brush from the proposed items:
long hollow chicken bone with cropped ends (you can take from broth);
a bunch of wool (pets linen);
A piece of moss (if you find).
Ancient people from the bones made tubes and the moss was fixed or animal wool, and through the other filled its paint. Here is a brush and ready for use. Sometimes they painted just a moss or piece of skins.
At home, it is permissible to replace moss with a piece of cotton wool. Explain the baby that this is also a plant, cotton. In the extreme case, you can do and cotton stick. A homemade brush to fill beet juice and proceed to creativity.
Draw a primitive
Find a large cobblestone on a walk and use it as a canvas. If the weather does not allow, then in the name of the good goal, deliver it to the house little artist. Mountain locality residents can like no other to feel themselves with ancient creators and draw in the caves themselves. If it is not possible to get suitable stone, then under the table vertically put a large box and imagine yourself together with the child in a homemade cave.
Drawing methods: just with fingers, moss (or cotton), with a homemade brush (from a hollow bone), coal, color clay, berries, decoction of onion husks, dandelion juice or other strongly pigmented vegetables and fruits. And also modern, but, nevertheless, the natural dye is a thick solution of coffee.
What to draw? Animal that is most liked in your child. Or come up with your beast of the prehistoric era, give him a name, tell me how he lives, what is how to extract food. His appearance And the lifestyle is inextricably linked. If animal has powerful fangs, then he can not be a herbivore. But if he has a long neck that helps to reach foliage high trees, then he is just a herbivore.
What to do if the child does not get to pass all the details of animals exactly like primitive artists. Leave arbitrary prints, stains, blots, paint your eyes and ears - and your unprecedented prehistoric beast is ready. Color points are his traces. Bucket prints with moss - plants with which it eats or in which hides from primitive hunters.
It's time to play ancient hunters! Practice in agility and accuracy using instead of stones of tangle thread or crumpled paper.
After such ritual actions, primitive people always asked for forgiveness from drawn animals, because they considered them alive. Apologize and you with a child in front of your "rude" beast.
Like this, playing, you will get acquainted with a child with another edge the life of prehistoric people and get great pleasure, creating masterpieces in the style of primitive times.
The following articles are waiting for pictograms, caves of hands and embossed images.
Oksana Yaremchuk, Pedagogue additional education, psychologist
As a result, the impression was created that the ancients looked at the images of animals as well as modern man Admires in the Louvre artistic canvases. The art of cave residents was asked to perceive mostly as a purely artistic phenomenon, naturalistic in nature. It was argued that it was intended to decorate and ennoble the life of savages, which were most worried about animal images. Still - after all, the animals gave them the bulk of food. Search for these images some "hidden ideas" is useless. True, timid voices were heard, which noted some strange features in the art of "dough" artists and called on to find some extraordinary meaning in these ancient zoomorphic images. However, most archaeologists were not ready to decide complex task. Mysterious world idework primitive man Until to understand their understanding.
But there were those who, hesitation over the meaning of the artistic creativity of troglodites, began to guess that he was lighted for images, perhaps something very significant. Edward Piette is more, perhaps than anyone prepared for reasoning on this subject, first of all, attention to the fact that not everyone has kenned art objects in the ground. He regarded this as a sign of the fact that in the glacial time, along with artistic gifted people, there were such, "who did not have other desires, except for the satisfaction of animal needs." Others "The tribes rose above the needs of the material existence and dedicated their leisure classes with art ..." As for the latter, the appearance, let's say, the sculptural images of women Piette explained this: "Love prompted the first sculptor to reproduce a beloved woman."
An important motive of creativity is to reproduce in art images that gave a person to food: "Gliptic artists painted often what was well known for them, animals and fish that were used in food. They did not seek other motifs. Most often, depicted horses, which by that time half was domesticated to have a permanent source of meat. Terrible rhinos were prey and rarely engraved. Large feline represented a serious danger to a person at that time. He was not able to fight them, and therefore there are no pictures. In the fox, wolf and hyena meat of disgusting taste and not appreciated in nutrition. Therefore, they were rarely painted. People of that time were not vegetarians, preferring to eat with meat. Therefore, rarely depicted plants. " In these runaway replicas you can see the beginnings future concept On reflection in the art of the Ice Era of Magic Presentations: An image of those animals that were desirable for people in real life.
No less interest causes pietta's brief remarks on the possibility of reflection in the art objects of Cryanonians religious representations, the appearance of which in such distant times was for the leading archaeologists of "prehistoria" by Europe far from indisputable. So, in the sculptures of women, he saw amulets or some sacred subjects. In the same key, Piett estimated 37 engraved and sculptural images of the snakes found by them during excavations: "It seems that they were then objects of superstitious fear, these amulets in the form of snakes found in Gurdan, MAS D" Asil and Lorta. They were a cult , as in the ancient times. Only this can be explained by the presence of spirals on their images. "The characteristic drawings with the divergent rays made it possible to express the assumption of the image of the solar deity in them, the possibility of which in the ideas of the" human nature "hinted at one time and Bush de Perth. In connection with the probability of reflection in the art images of the troglodites of religious ideas, an exceptional interest causes the thought of Pietta about two directions in their artistic work: "Two currents are traced during the almost all the gliptic era in art, artists are divided into accessories - realism and fantasy. "To the fruits of the" art of imagination "he attributed all sorts of ornament , Including the same spirals that have become in the period of the appearance of bas-reliefs especially popular.
The masterpieces of ancient rock painting are amazed not only far from the art of people, but also mastty artists. Their creators have long been sunk in the darkness of thousands of years, but their work continue to live, admiring distant descendants. Neither the scarce palette of paints nor the lack of brushes nor bad illumination prevented primitive artists beautifully and realistically reflect the world around them.
Self-expression or ancient magic?
The first drawings of primitive artists, I made up scientists, were discovered in Spain in the second half of the XIX century. These drawings were not so primitive as it would be expected. It turned out that primitive artists painted no worse than many representatives of contemporary art. After Spain, an ancient rock painting was found in other European countries, and then almost all continents, except Antarctica. Paleolithic cave painting mainly devoted to animals. With development primitive communities In the mesolite and neolithic in the plots of drawings, in addition to animals, the images of people, their interaction with each other and animals began to be met. An images of certain religious rites appeared, and the UFologists differ in a number of drawings even aliens and flying plates.
Some drawings of cave, painting are made in one color, when creating others, several colors were used. It should be noted that primitive artists did not have a rich palette, they used only natural dyes. Kaolin gave them white color; Ossociation - red or yellow; Manganese - black. They also used hematite, mergel, quartz, soot, charcoal, plants and blood of animals. To protect the pattern from erosion flowing along the walls with water in the paint, a wood resin was added or an animal fat. Thanks to such tricks, cave painting for the millennium survived its creators.
When creating drawings, paints were applied with fingers, later, hollow tubes from birds of birds and some similarities of homemade brushes began to be used to apply them. It happened, the contour of the drawing to give it a clarity and expressiveness of prehistoric artists scraped or knocked out. To create the effect of volume, the drawings were often applied to the protrusions of the walls that were chosen with great skill. Because of the poor light or its full lack of masterpieces cave painting Created under the light of fires or torches.
Why did the ancient artists spend so much time for creativity? We can no longer ask about it, but scientists put forward their assumptions about this. For example, Henri Brelie saw a part of the "hunting magic" rituals in rock paintings. Ancient artists painted the herd of bison pierced by the spears of animals, thus attracting good luck on the hunt. According to other researchers, artists simply displayed the world, expressing your creative beginning.
The main artists were women and children?!
When the first rock paintings were discovered, no one doubted that they were created by men. Primitive woman For a long time, it was considered a clogged being without a shadow of intelligence, capable only to give birth and draw the children, maintain fire and extract the skins. However, it was worth the scientist in detail to study the prints of the palms left by the ancient artists, as the views changed. In publication scientific journal National Geographic American researchers directly suggest that the ancient rock paintings were performed by women. Such a conclusion was made on the basis of the analysis of the prints of palms found on the walls in the caves next to the ancient rock paintings. It turned out that the length of the phalange and the proportions of the fingers correspond to the female palm. It turns out that the authors of about 75% of discovered rocking drawings were women. Previously found that artistic creativity Children were involved in the caves.
It turns out that the "team", consisting mainly of women, partly from children and men, and was created masterpieces of cave painting. Among such masterpieces drawings from the cave background de Gom in Dordon. In this cave, numerous images of mammoths, bison, wild horses, deer and other animals have been discovered.
It is curious that they are fulfilled in various manners, and the oldest linear drawingsmade of black and red paint. There are amazing polychrome compositions created at a later time. It is worth remembering about the famous Lyasco Cave, open by French schoolchildren in September 1940 near the town of Montignac. On the walls of the cave, hundreds of yellow, red, brown, performed by ocra, soot and mergel, animal images, deer, goats, bulls, bison, horses, rhinos were turned out to be on the walls of the cave. They were all fulfilled with such skill that some even had an assumption of a grand draw, arranged modern artists. However, there was no question of anything about the drawing, all the drawings were genuine and very ancient. Soon the cave Lyasco called " Sicstinskaya Kapella Primitive painting. "
One of the masterpieces of cave painting was discovered relatively recently, in 1995, in the sew cave in France. Ancient artist with the help of ocher, hematite and wood coal Pictured on its walls of mammoths, bison, bison, horses, deer, cave lions, bears, wild rams, as well as hyena, panther and owls. The most interesting thing is that these drawings turned out to be the most ancient of those known - they are 31 thousand years old. It is surprising that at the same time they are made with astounding skill. Specialist in rock painting French scientist Jean Clott said: "People who drew it were great artists."
And now it's time to recall the famous cave Altamira in Spain, with which the history of the study of ancient cave painting began.
Picasso was admired by the masterpieces of Altamira
Visiting the cave of Altamira and examined her rock painting, famous artist Pablo Picasso exclaimed: "After Altamira, all the decline! Neither of modern artists I could not write a similar! " He was admired by the expression of drawings, their composition, selection of paints, a subtle taste of an ancient painter, knowledge of proportions and features of animal movement. To Altamira, no one even suspected that the people of the Stone Age were able to create the most real masterpieces of painting. It was in this cave that the very first drawings of the late Paleolithic times (35-10 thousand BC) were discovered (35-10 thousand BC).
This cave, located 30 km from the city of Santander (Cantabria), in 1868 she accidentally discovered a shepherd. True, nothing special, except bones and animal horns, he did not yet find. In 1875, the cave first visited the Count de Savtol, he managed to detect only the stone tools of the Paleolithic man, but there was nothing sensational in this discovery. In 1879, the Count decided to inspect the cave once again, took a 6-year-old daughter Maria. It was she who showing his finger into the cave ceiling, suddenly shouted: "Bulls, bulls!" Her father laughed, but still raised his eyes to the ceiling and froze from amazement: there were huge colorful figures of bison. Some of them, an ancient artist depicted on the spot, others in dynamics - with inclined horns rushing to the enemy. The graph began to carefully inspect the ceiling and the walls of the cave, and he managed to detect a number of drawings made by black, brown and red paints.
Animal drawings were made with high skill and great realism. Savtuol published a message about his find, but the scientific world met him with an obvious distrust. It ended in that the drawings of the Altair cave were recognized by fake and for a while they forgot about them. The opening of Savtoole was remembered in 1895, when the French archaeologist Emil Rivière found the drawings of a primitive person on the walls of the La Mut cave in Dordon. After this find, scientists have begun a thorough examination of walls and ceilings of all the caves known for that period. In dozens of caves in Spain and France managed to detect rock painting.
Some drawings hid the stalagmites, others were covered with limestone crust, but it was clear that they were very ancient, and there could be no talk about any fake. After that, scientists paid close attention to the 270-meter cave of Altamira and its unique drawings. Researchers came to the conclusion that their age is about 20 thousand years. In 1902, alas, after the death of the recorder of the Count de Savtole, the rock painting Altamira was recognized as genuine. The cave began to visit numerous tourists, therefore, due to the violation of the microclimate, the ancient drawings began to collapse. Altamira had to close to visit, only scientists began to start at a limited time. Next to the cave organized the museum complex, in 2001 they opened precise copy Panel Big Plafon, since then tourists, without breaking the cave, can see what tens of millennia are hidden in it.
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Human civilization has passed a long way of development and reached impressive results. Modern Art - one of them. But everything has its beginning. How did painting and who they were - the first artists of the world?
Start of prehistoric art - species and forms
In Paleolitis, primitive art appears for the first time. It had different forms. These were rituals, music, dancing and songs, as well as deposition of images on a different surface - skatal painting primitive people. This period also includes the creation of the first man-made structures - megaliths, dolmen and mengirov, the appointment of which is still unknown. The most famous one is Stonehenge in Salisbury, consisting of cromlekh (vertical stones).
Life objects, such as decorations, children's toys, also belong to the art of primitive people.
Periodization
Scientists have no doubt about the time of birth primitive art. It began to form in the middle of the Paleolithic era, during the existence of late Neanderthals. The culture of the time is called Mustian.
Neanderthals could handle stone, creating tools of labor. On some subjects, scientists have found deepening and notches in the form of crosses forming a primitive ornament. In that era, they could not yet draw, but the hur was already used. Her pieces were found, like a pencil, which was used.
Primitive rock painting - definition
This one of the views is an image applied to the paint on the surface of the wall of the cave ancient man. Most of all such objects found in Europe, but there are drawings of ancient people and in Asia. The main area of \u200b\u200bthe spread of rock painting is the territory modern Spain and France.
Doubts of scientists
For a long time modern science It was not known that the art of primitive person has reached such high level. The drawings in the caves were not found until the XIX century. Therefore, when they were first discovered, they were accepted for falsification.
The story of one discovery
Ancient rock painting was found by an archaeologist-lover, a Spanish lawyer Minens Sans de Sautola.
This discovery is associated with dramatic events. In the Spanish province of Cantabria in 1868, the hunter discovered the cave. The entrance to it was littered with the wreckage of the dressed breed. In 1875, he examined de Sautola. That time he found only the tools of labor. Nakhodka was the most common. After four years, the amateur archaeologist visited the Altair cave again. At the trip, he was accompanied by a 9-year-old daughter who found pictures. Together with her friend, the archaeologist Juan Vilanova-I-Pierre, de Southuola took up the excavation of the cave. Shortly before that at the exhibition of the Stone Age items, he saw images of bison, surprisingly resembling that skatal figure Ancient man who saw his daughter Maria. Soutouol suggested that animal images found in the Altimar cave belong to Paleolithic. This was supported by Vilanov and Pierre.
Scientists have published shocking results of their excavations. And immediately were accused scientific world in falsification. Leading experts in the field of archeology categorically rejected the possibility of finding painting of Paleolithic time. Marcelino de Sautola was accused of the fact that the drawings of ancient people allegedly found them were drawn by a friend of the archaeologist who gave to him in those days.
Only in 15 years, after the death of a person who opened the world, the beautiful samples of painting of ancient people, his opponents recognized the right point of Marcelino de Sautola. By that time, such drawings in the caves of ancient people were found in the background de Gom, Troua-Friend, Kombarel and Ruffignac in France, Bay D'Suber in Pyrenees and other regions. All of them were attributed to the Epoch of Paleolithic. Thus, the honest name of the Spanish scientist who committed one of the noticeable discoveries in archeology was restored.
The skill of the ancient artists
The rock painting, which is presented below, consists of a variety of images of different animals. Among them are the figures of bison. Those who first saw the drawings of ancient people found in amazing how professionally they are made. This magnificent craftsmanship of ancient artists and forced once to domestic scientists in their authenticity.
Ancient people did not immediately have learned how to create accurate images of animals. Pictures were found on which the contours are barely planned, so it is almost impossible to know who the artist wanted to portray. Gradually, the drawing skill was becoming better, and it was already possible to quite accurately convey the appearance of the animal.
To the first drawings of ancient people, you can also attribute handprints found in many caves.
The hand-smeared hand was applied to the wall, the resulting impression was in different color along the contour and consisted in the circle. According to researchers, this action had an important ritual value for an ancient person.
Theme painting first artists
The rocky drawing of an ancient person reflected the reality that surrounded him. He referred what worried him most. In Paleolitis, the main occupation and method of food production was hunting. Therefore, animals - chief motif Pictures of that period. As already mentioned, in Europe were discovered in a variety of images of bison, deer, horses, goats, bears. They are not static, but in motion. Animals run, jump, frolic and die, pierced by a hunter's spear.
In the territory of France, there is a largest ancient image of a bull. Its size is more than five meters. In other countries, ancient artists also painted those animals that lived next to them. Images of giraffes were found in Somalia, in India - tigers and crocodiles, in the caves of Sahara there are drawings of ostriches and elephants. In addition to animals, the first artists painted the scenes of hunting and people, but extremely rare.
Purpose of rock paintings
Why the ancient man depicted animals and people on the walls of the caves and other objects is definitely unknown. As a religion has already begun to form, most likely, they had a deep ritual meaning. The drawing of the "hunt" of ancient people, according to part of the researchers, symbolized a successful outcome of the fight against the beast. Others believe that they were created by the shamans of the tribe, which included in the trance and trying through the image to get special strength. Ancient artists lived a long time ago, and therefore the motives of creating drawings with modern scientists are unknown.
Paints and tools
For creating drawings, primitive artists used a special technique. At first they scratched the image of the animal on the surface of the cliff or stone, and then applied to it paint. It was made from natural materials - Ohry different colors and a black pigment, which was mined from charcoal. For fixing, paints used the organic animals (blood, fat, brainstuffs) and water. Flowers at the disposal of ancient artists was small: yellow, red, black, brown.
The drawings of the ancient people had several features. Sometimes they lay down on each other. Often artists depicted a large number of animals. In this case, the figures on foreground Depicted carefully, and the rest are schematically. Primitive people No compositions were created, in the overwhelming majority of their drawings - a chaotic journey of images. Today, only a few "paintings" are found, which have a single composition.
During the Paleolithic period, the first painting tools have already been created. These were sticks and primitive brushes made of animal fur. Ancient artists took care of the coverage of their "canvases". Lamps were found, which were made in the form of stone plates. They poured fat and put wicks.
Cave Shaw.
It was found in 1994 in France, and her collection of painting was recognized as the most ancient. Laboratory studies helped determine the age of drawings - the very first of them were made 36 thousand years ago. Images of animals who lived in glacial period. It is woolly rhino, Bizon, Panther, Tarpan (ancestor modern horse). The drawings are greatly preserved due to the fact that the millennia ago the entrance to the cave was littered.
Now it is closed for visiting. The microclimate in which the images are located may disrupt the presence of a person. Only its researchers can conduct several hours. To visit the audience, it was decided to open the replica of the cave not far from it.
Cave lacco
This is another famous place where the drawings of the ancient people are found. The cave was found by four teenagers in 1940. Now her collection of painting ancient artists of the Paleolithic era includes 1900 images.
The place has become very popular with visitors. A huge flow of tourists led to damage to the drawings. This happened due to the overaction of carbon dioxide exhaled by people. In 1963, it was decided to close the cave for visits. But problems with the preservation of ancient images exist to this day. Microclimate LASCO was irreversibly broken, and now the drawings are under constant control.
Conclusion
The drawings of ancient people admire us with their realism and skill of execution. Artists of that time were able to convey not only a reliable appearance of the animal, but also his movement and habits. Besides aesthetic I. artistic valueThe painting of primitive artists is an important material for studying the animal world of that period. Thanks to the shaw drawing found in the grotto, scientists have made an amazing discovery: it turned out that lions and rhinos, the original inhabitants of hot southern countriesIn the era of the Stone Age, they lived in Europe.