INTERPRETING VISUAL EVIDENCE

Prehistoric art provides some of the best direct evidence for the thoughts and experiences of humans who lived prior to the invention of writing (which, as we’ll see in Chapter 2, has only been around for 5,000 years). Paintings showing the outlines of hands, images of animals, and even hunting scenes adorn the walls of caves across Afro-Eurasia, put there by humans over tens of thousands of years.

The artwork in Chauvet Cave in southwestern France may be the oldest in Europe, dating to about 35,000 years ago. In the two images below from Chauvet Cave, the repeated and overlapping images of horses and lions convey perspective, movement, and speed. In central India, cave paintings at Bhimbetka date to as long as 30,000 years ago; the painting reproduced here includes several herds of different types of animals. Other images from this site painted over thousands of years include humans dancing and even having sex. In a cave complex in Argentina, humans over generations used pipes fashioned from bone to blow black, white, red, yellow, and purple pigments at their hands pressed against the cave walls, leaving reverse-stenciled handprints that proclaimed “I was here” more than 7,000 years ago. Cave paintings from other areas like Lascaux in southeastern France (20,000 years old), Altamira in Spain (17,000 years old), and Tassili-n-Ajjer in North Africa (8,000 years old) provide similar insights into the artists’ lives.

In addition to making paintings, early humans carved figurines. Small female figurines, often with emphasized breasts and genitalia, have been found at Willendorf in Austria, Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, Cernavoda in Romania, and Malta in Siberian Russia. These figurines, carved from limestone, mammoth tusk, and reindeer horn, also range from about 35,000 to 8,000 years old. The figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, found in Germany, dates to more than 35,000 years ago. This 2.4-inch carving may have been worn as an amulet. The 6-inch Venus of Willendorf from more than 25,000 years ago wears only a headdress (or braided hairstyle) and rests her arms across her breasts. The apparent continuity in both the cave art and figurines across thousands of years is striking.

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

1. Based on these cave paintings and figurines, what types of subjects did humans in the prehistoric period depict in their art? Why do you think they chose those subjects?
2. Compare these paintings and figurines. Given that there was not likely any interaction between the communities that produced them, what do you think might account for the similarities and differences?
3. Imagine an artist in a dark cave, painting with plant-made pigments by the light of a flickering torch; or a man or woman spending a hundred hours to carve a figurine from limestone. What might spur the creation of such artworks? How does this art change your understanding of the hunting and gathering lifestyle?