Cave Paintings & Rock Art

Cro-Magnon man, for whatever reason, painted marvelous and astonishing paintings on rock walls, deep within caves. Paintings were added, until a cave might have hundreds of different paintings, by many different painters.  Most cave paintings focused on hunters and animals.

COLOR: Early man used natural colors. You may have heard that they used charcoal to create these paintings. Actually, most art was not made with charcoal, but rather with mineral pigments, such as iron oxide (red ochre) or black manganese. They drew stick figures for people, but the animals were well drawn, and usually filled in with natural colors, to give them even more shape and substance.

DANGER: When you think cave, you might think of a big place, with high ceilings. Not so. In order to reach the places where cave paintings have been found, Cro-Magnon man had to crawl on his belly, through mazes of narrow, dark tunnels, by the light of a flicking torch or a spoon-like oil lamp (which had to be hand carried and balanced carefully to hold the burning oil in the rounded part of the spoon - while crawling along on your belly), and carrying the paints he had carefully prepared, with no idea if he might run into, oh .. a cave lion or a bear, on the way. Certainly he wasn't decorating his home, as these marvelous paintings were hidden deep within the darkest portions of the cave.

The other thing found in cave paintings, besides stick figures of people and well drawn animals, are stencils of hands. It would appear that Cro-Magnon man, after crawling on his belly and creating his addition to these cave walls of art, then put his hand against the cave wall, and outlined it with charcoal or paint. What were they saying? (I was here? I made this?) Was this a way to sign their art? Or to prove they had achieved their ... mission? It's not easy to figure out because not all paintings include a stenciled handprint.

Why did early man seek out these caves, to add their paintings to the many others that had been painted in the cave before them? And why such dark, secret, hidden places? It might have been one of Cro-Magnon man's recreational activities. It might have had something to do with their religion or their rites of manhood. Nobody knows! It's a fascinating mystery.

Like many discoveries, the existence of cave paintings was discovered accidentally. The caves in Lascaux, France were found around 1940, during World War II, by some kids. They stumbled across the entrance to a cave that had been hidden by the roots of a tree. If you would like to see some of these cave paintings, go here!

Once people knew these paintings existed, people went looking for more such caves, and found them! There are probably more caves with cave paintings yet to be found! Wouldn't it be neat to discover such a cave? But, be careful. Caves can be very dangerous places. If you find a cave, it would be wise (very wise!) to get some adult help, before you go tearing inside, and find yourself in some very serious trouble.

Cave paintings let us learn about the lives of people long ago.
People painted animals and even painted outlines of their hands. 

Take a look ...

The Cave at Lascaux

Virtual Tour of Cave Paintings 

From Cave Art to Your Art

Prehistoric Art (power point)