Rock paintings of ancient people. Cave painting

Around the world, speleologists deep caves Ah find confirmation of the existence of ancient people. Rock paintings have been perfectly preserved for many millennia. There are several types of masterpieces - pictograms, petroglyphs, geoglyphs. Important monuments of human history are regularly included in the World Heritage Register.

Usually on the walls of caves there are common subjects, such as hunting, battle, images of the sun, animals, human hands. People in ancient times attached sacred meaning to paintings; they believed that they were helping themselves in the future.

Images were applied various methods and materials. For artistic creativity animal blood, ocher, chalk and even bat guano were used. A special type of painting is ashlar painting; they were carved into stone using a special chisel.

Many caves have not been sufficiently studied and are limited in visiting, while others, on the contrary, are open to tourists. However, most of the precious cultural heritage disappears unattended, without finding its researchers.

Below is a short excursion into the world of the most interesting caves with prehistoric rock paintings.

Magura Cave, Bulgaria

It is famous not only for the hospitality of its residents and the indescribable flavor of the resorts, but also for its caves. One of them, with the sonorous name Magura, is located north of Sofia, near the town of Belogradchik. The total length of the cave galleries is more than two kilometers. The cave halls are colossal in size, each of them is about 50 meters wide and 20 meters high. The pearl of the cave is a rock painting made directly on the surface covered with bat guano. The paintings are multi-layered; there are a number of paintings from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods. The drawings of ancient homo sapiens depict figures of dancing villagers, hunters, many strange animals, and constellations. The sun, plants, and tools are also represented. Here begins the story of the festivities of the ancient era and the solar calendar, scientists assure.

Cueva de las Manos Cave, Argentina

The cave with the poetic name Cueva de las Manos (from Spanish - “Cave of Many Hands”) is located in the province of Santa Cruz, exactly one hundred miles from the nearest settlement - the city of Perito Moreno. The rock painting art in the 24-meter-long and 10-meter-high hall dates back to the 13th to 9th millennia BC. Amazing picture on limestone it is a three-dimensional canvas decorated with traces of hands. Scientists have built a theory about how the amazingly clear and clear handprints turned out. Prehistoric people took a special composition, then took it into their mouths, and blew it forcefully through a tube onto a hand placed against the wall. In addition, there are stylized images of humans, rheas, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, the process of hunting and observations of the sun.

Bhimbetka cliff dwellings, India

Enchanting offers tourists not only the delights of oriental palaces and charming dances. In north central India there are huge rock formations of weathered sandstone with many caves. Ancient people once lived in natural shelters. About 500 dwellings with traces of human habitation remain in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Indians named the rock dwellings Bhimbetka (after the hero of the epic Mahabharata). The art of the ancients here dates back to the Mesolithic era. Some of the paintings are insignificant, and some of the hundreds of images are very typical and striking. 15 rock masterpieces are available for contemplation by those who wish. Mainly, patterned ornaments and battle scenes are depicted here.

Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil

Both rare animals and venerable scientists find shelter in the Serra da Capivara National Park. And 50 thousand years ago, our distant ancestors found shelter here in caves. Presumably, this is the oldest community of hominids in South America. The park is located near the town of San Raimondo Nonato, in the central part of the state of Piaui. Experts counted more than 300 here archaeological sites. The main surviving images date back to 25-22 millennium BC. The most amazing thing is that extinct bears and other paleofauna are painted on the rocks.

Laas Gaal cave complex, Somaliland

The Republic of Somaliland recently separated from Somalia in Africa. Archaeologists in this area are interested in the Laas Gaal cave complex. Here you can see rock paintings from the 8th-9th and 3rd millennium BC. On the granite walls of majestic natural shelters scenes of life and everyday life of the nomadic people of Africa are depicted: the process of grazing livestock, ceremonies, playing with dogs. The local population does not attach importance to the drawings of their ancestors, and uses the caves, as in the old days, for shelter during the rain. Many of the studies have not been properly studied. In particular, problems arise with the chronological reference of masterpieces of Arab-Ethiopian ancient rock paintings.

Rock art of Tadrart Acacus, Libya

Not far from Somalia, in Libya, there are also rock paintings. They are much earlier, dating back almost to the 12th millennium BC. The last of them were applied after the birth of Christ, in the first century. It is interesting to observe, following the drawings, how the fauna and flora changed in this area of ​​the Sahara. First we see elephants, rhinoceroses and fauna typical of a rather humid climate. Also interesting is the clearly visible change in the lifestyle of the population - from hunting to sedentary cattle breeding, then to nomadism. To reach Tadrart Akakus, you need to cross the desert east of the city of Ghat.

Chauvet Cave, France

In 1994, while walking, by chance, Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the cave that later became famous. She was named after the speleologist. In the Chauvet cave, in addition to traces of the life activity of ancient people, hundreds of wonderful frescoes were discovered. The most amazing and beautiful of them depict mammoths. In 1995, the cave became a state monument, and in 1997, 24-hour surveillance was introduced here to prevent damage to the magnificent heritage. Today, in order to take a look at the incomparable rock art of the Cro-Magnons, you need to obtain special permission. In addition to mammoths, there is something to admire; here on the walls there are handprints and fingerprints of representatives of the Aurignacian culture (34-32 thousand years BC)

Kakadu National Park, Australia

In fact, the famous Cockatoo parrot is the name of the Australian national park it does not matter. The Europeans simply mispronounced the name of the Gaagudju tribe. This nation is now extinct, and there is no one to correct the ignorant. The park is home to Aboriginal people who have not changed their way of life since the Stone Age. For thousands of years, Indigenous Australians have been involved in rock painting. Pictures were painted here already 40 thousand years ago. In addition to religious scenes and hunting, there are stylized stories in drawings about useful skills (educational) and magic (entertaining). Among the animals depicted are the extinct marsupial tigers, catfish, and barramundi. All the wonders of the Arnhem Land plateau, Colpignac and the southern hills are located 171 km from the city of Darwin. in the 35th millennium BC, it was the early Paleolithic. They left strange rock paintings in the Altamira cave. Art artifacts on the walls of the huge cave date back to both the 18th and 13th millennia. In the last period, polychrome figures, a peculiar combination of engraving and painting, and the acquisition of realistic details became interesting. The famous bison, deer and horses, or rather, their beautiful images on the walls of Altamira, often end up in textbooks for middle school students. The Altamira Cave is located in the Cantabria region.

Lascaux Cave, France

Lascaux is not just a cave, but a whole complex of small and large cave halls located in the south of France. Not far from the caves is the legendary village of Montignac. The paintings on the cave walls were painted 17 thousand years ago. And they still amaze with their amazing forms, akin to modern graffiti art. Scholars especially value the Hall of the Bulls and the Palace Hall of the Cats. It’s easy to guess what prehistoric creators left there. In 1998, the rock masterpieces were almost destroyed by mold caused by an improperly installed air conditioning system. And in 2008, Lascaux was closed to preserve more than 2,000 unique drawings.

Rock paintings of ancient people

Ancient civilizations were not very developed in terms of their knowledge of chemistry and physics. Perhaps because of this, many mystical theories appeared, the deification of natural phenomena; great importance was attached to the death of a person, his departure to another world. Cave paintings of ancient people can tell us about much of what happened in their lives. On the walls they depicted agricultural activities, military rituals, gods, and priests. In a word, everything that their world consisted of and depended on.

IN Ancient Egypt The tombs and pyramids are full of rock paintings. In the tombs of the pharaohs, for example, it was customary to depict their entire life path from birth to death. With all the details, the rock paintings describe the funeral celebrations, etc.

The most primitive drawings show that man, from his very appearance, was drawn to art; he wanted to forever remember some moments of life. In hunting, primitive people saw a special beauty; they sought to depict the grace and strength of animals.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome also left a lot of rock evidence reminding us of their existence. The thing is that they already had a developed written language - their drawings are much more interesting, from the point of view of studying everyday life, than ancient graffiti.

The Greeks loved to write down wise sayings, or cases that seemed instructive or funny to them. The Romans noted in rock paintings the valor of soldiers and the beauty of women, despite the fact that Roman civilization was practically a copy of Greek, Roman graffiti is not distinguished by either the sharpness of thought or the dexterity of its transmission.

With the development of society, wall art also developed, moving from civilization to civilization, and giving it a unique flavor. Each society and civilization leaves its mark in history, similar to the one that leaves an inscription on a clean wall.

Primitive (or, in other words, primitive) art geographically covers all continents except Antarctica, and in time - the entire era of human existence, preserved by some peoples living in remote corners of the planet to this day.

Most ancient paintings were found in Europe (from Spain to the Urals).

Well preserved on the walls of the caves - the entrances turned out to be tightly blocked thousands of years ago, the same temperature and humidity were maintained there.

Not only wall paintings have been preserved, but also other evidence of human activity - clear traces of the bare feet of adults and children on the damp floor of some caves.

Causes of origin creative activity and functions of primitive art. Human need for beauty and creativity.

Beliefs of the time. The man portrayed those whom he revered. People of that time believed in magic: they believed that with the help of paintings and other images they could influence nature or the outcome of the hunt. It was believed, for example, that it was necessary to hit a drawn animal with an arrow or spear in order to ensure the success of a real hunt.

Periodization

Paleolithic

The most early works Primitive art dates back to the late Paleolithic. 35 – 10 thousand BC
Scientists are inclined to believe that naturalistic art and the depiction of schematic signs and geometric figures arose simultaneously.
Pasta drawings. Impressions of a person's hand and a random interweaving of wavy lines pressed into damp clay by the fingers of the same hand.

The first drawings from the Paleolithic period (ancient Stone Age, 35–10 thousand BC) were discovered at the end of the 19th century. Spanish amateur archaeologist Count Marcelino de Sautuola three kilometers from his family estate, in the Altamira cave.

It happened like this:
“The archaeologist decided to explore a cave in Spain and took his little daughter with him. Suddenly she shouted: “Bulls, bulls!” The father laughed, but when he raised his head, he saw huge painted figures of bison on the ceiling of the cave. Some of the bison were depicted standing still, others rushing at the enemy with inclined horns. At first, scientists did not believe that primitive people could create such works of art. It was only 20 years later that numerous works of primitive art were discovered in other places and the authenticity of cave paintings was recognized.”

Paleolithic painting

Fragment. Buffalo. Altamira Cave. Spain. Late Paleolithic. The caves were illuminated with lamps and reproduced from memory. Not primitivism, but highest degree stylization. When the cave was opened, it was believed that this was an imitation of hunting - the magical meaning of the image. But today there are versions that the goal was art. The beast was necessary for man, but he was terrible and difficult to catch.

Fragment. Bull. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Beautiful brown shades. Tense stop of the beast. They used the natural relief of the stone and depicted it on the convexity of the wall.

Fragment. Bison. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Transition to polychrome art, darker strokes.

Cave of Font de Gaume. France

Grazing deer. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
Perspective image of horns. Deer at this time (the end of the Madeleine era) replaced other animals.

Fragment. Buffalo. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
The hump and crest on the head are emphasized. The overlap of one image with another is a polypsest. Detailed study. Decorative solution for the tail. Picture of houses.

Wolf. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.

Nio's Cave. France

Horse. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Depicted already with 4 legs. The silhouette is outlined with black paint, and the inside is retouched with yellow. The character of a pony-type horse.

Stone ram. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic. Partially contoured image, the skin is drawn on top.

Deer. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.

Buffalo. Nio. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Most of the images include bison. Some of them are shown wounded, with black and red arrows.

Buffalo. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.

Lascaux Cave

Lascaux Cave. France.
Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era, 18 - 15 thousand years BC).
Called the primitive Sistine Chapel. Consists of several large rooms: rotunda; main gallery; passage; apse.
Colorful images on the calcareous white surface of the cave.
The proportions are greatly exaggerated: large necks and bellies.
Contour and silhouette drawings. Clear images without aliasing. A large number of male and female signs (rectangle and many dots).

Hunting scene. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.
Genre image. A bull killed by a spear gored a man with a bird's head. There’s a bird on a stick nearby—maybe his soul.

Buffalo. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.

Horse. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.

Mammoths and horses. Kapova cave. Ural.
Late Paleolithic.

KAPOVA CAVE- to the South. m Ural, on the river. White. Formed in limestones and dolomites. The corridors and grottoes are located on two floors. The total length is over 2 km. On the walls - Late Paleolithic scenic images mammoths, rhinoceroses

Paleolithic sculpture

Relief

Everyone knows the wonderful French writer Prosper Merimee, the author of the fascinating novel "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX", "Carmen" and other romantic stories, but few people know that he served as a security inspector historical monuments. It was he who handed over this record in 1833 to the historical museum of Cluny, which was just being organized in the center of Paris. It is now kept in the Museum of National Antiquities (Saint-Germain en Lay).
Later, a cultural layer of the Upper Paleolithic era was discovered in the Chaffo Grotto. But then, just as it was with the painting of the Altamira cave, and with other visual monuments of the Paleolithic era, no one could believe that this art was older than ancient Egyptian. Therefore, such engravings were considered examples of Celtic art (V-IV centuries BC). Only at the end of the 19th century, again, like cave paintings, were they recognized as the most ancient after they were found in the Paleolithic cultural layer.

The figurines of women are very interesting. Most of these figurines are small in size: from 4 to 17 cm. They were made from stone or mammoth tusks. Their most noticeable distinguishing feature is their exaggerated “plumpiness”; they depict women with overweight figures.

"Venus with a Cup" Bas-relief. France. Upper (Late) Paleolithic.
Goddess of the Ice Age. The canon of the image is that the figure is inscribed in a rhombus, and the stomach and chest are in a circle.

Sculpture- mobile art.
Almost everyone who has studied Paleolithic female figurines, with varying degrees of detail, explains them as cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., reflecting the idea of ​​motherhood and fertility.

"Venus of Willendorf". Limestone. Willendorf, Lower Austria. Late Paleolithic.
Compact composition, no facial features.

"The Hooded Lady from Brassempouy." France. Late Paleolithic. Mammoth bone.
Facial features and hairstyle have been worked out.

In Siberia, in the Baikal region, a whole series of original figurines of a completely different stylistic appearance was found. Along with the same overweight figures of naked women as in Europe, there are figurines of slender, elongated proportions and, unlike European ones, they are depicted dressed in tight, most likely fur clothes, similar to “overalls”.
These are finds from the Buret sites on the Angara and Malta rivers.

conclusions
Rock painting. Features of the pictorial art of the Paleolithic are realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm.
Small plastic.
The depiction of animals has the same features as in painting (realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm).
Paleolithic female figurines are cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., they reflect the idea of ​​motherhood and fertility.

Mesolithic

After the glaciers melted, the familiar fauna disappeared. Nature becomes more pliable to humans. People become nomads.
With a change in lifestyle, a person’s view of the world becomes broader. He is not interested in an individual animal or a random discovery of cereals, but in the active activity of people, thanks to which they find entire herds of animals and fields or forests rich in fruits.
This is how the art of multi-figure composition arose in the Mesolithic, in which it was no longer the beast, but man, who played the dominant role.
Changes in the field of art:
The main characters of the image are not an individual animal, but people in some action.
The task is not in a believable, accurate depiction of individual figures, but in conveying action and movement.
Multi-figure hunts are often depicted, scenes of honey collection, and cult dances appear.
The character of the image changes - instead of realistic and polychrome, it becomes schematic and silhouetted. Local colors are used - red or black.

A honey collector from a hive, surrounded by a swarm of bees. Spain. Mesolithic.

Almost everywhere where planar or volumetric images era of the Upper Paleolithic, there seems to be a pause in the artistic activity of people of the subsequent Mesolithic era. Perhaps this period is still poorly studied, perhaps the images made not in caves, but in the open air, were washed away by rain and snow over time. Perhaps among the petroglyphs, which are very difficult to date accurately, there are those dating back to this time, but we do not yet know how to recognize them. It is significant that small plastic objects are extremely rare during excavations of Mesolithic settlements.

Of the Mesolithic monuments, literally a few can be named: Stone Tomb in Ukraine, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zaraut-Sai in Uzbekistan, Shakhty in Tajikistan and Bhimpetka in India.

In addition to rock paintings, petroglyphs appeared in the Mesolithic era.
Petroglyphs are carved, carved, or scratched rock images.
When carving a design, ancient artists used a sharp tool to knock down the upper, darker part of the rock, and therefore the images stand out noticeably against the background of the rock.

In the south of Ukraine, in the steppe there is a rocky hill made of sandstone rocks. As a result of severe weathering, several grottoes and canopies were formed on its slopes. In these grottoes and on other planes of the hill, numerous carved and scratched images have been known for a long time. In most cases they are difficult to read. Sometimes images of animals are guessed - bulls, goats. Scientists attribute these images of bulls to the Mesolithic era.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. General view and petroglyphs. Mesolithic.

South of Baku, between the southeastern slope of the Greater Caucasus Range and the shores of the Caspian Sea, there is a small Gobustan plain (country of ravines) with hills in the form of table mountains composed of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. On the rocks of these mountains there are many petroglyphs of different times. Most of them were discovered in 1939. Large (more than 1 m) images of female and male figures made with deep carved lines received the greatest interest and fame.
There are many images of animals: bulls, predators and even reptiles and insects.

Kobystan (Gobustan). Azerbaijan (territory of the former USSR). Mesolithic.

Grotto Zaraout-Qamar
In the mountains of Uzbekistan, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, there is a monument widely known not only among archaeological specialists - the Zaraut-Kamar grotto. The painted images were discovered in 1939 by local hunter I.F. Lamaev.
The painting in the grotto is made with ocher of different shades (from red-brown to lilac) and consists of four groups of images, which include anthropomorphic figures and bulls.

Here is the group in which most researchers see bull hunting. Among the anthropomorphic figures surrounding the bull, i.e. There are two types of “hunters”: figures in clothes that flare out at the bottom, without bows, and “tailed” figures with raised and drawn bows. This scene can be interpreted as a real hunt by disguised hunters, and as a kind of myth.

The painting in the Shakhty grotto is probably the oldest in Central Asia.
“I don’t know what the word Shakhty means,” writes V.A. Ranov. “Perhaps it comes from the Pamir word “shakht,” which means rock.”

In the northern part of Central India, huge cliffs with many caves, grottoes and canopies stretch along river valleys. A lot of rock carvings have been preserved in these natural shelters. Among them, the location of Bhimbetka (Bhimpetka) stands out. Apparently these picturesque images date back to the Mesolithic. True, we should not forget about the unevenness in the development of cultures different regions. The Mesolithic of India may be 2-3 millennia older than in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Some scenes of driven hunts with archers in the paintings of the Spanish and African cycles are, as it were, the embodiment of the movement itself, taken to the limit, concentrated in a stormy whirlwind.

Neolithic

Neolithic- New Stone Age, the last stage of the Stone Age.
Periodization. The entry into the Neolithic is timed to coincide with the transition of culture from the appropriating (hunters and gatherers) to the producing (farming and/or cattle breeding) type of economy. This transition is called the Neolithic Revolution. The end of the Neolithic dates back to the time of the appearance of metal tools and weapons, that is, the beginning of the Copper, Bronze or Iron Age.
Different cultures entered this period of development at different times. In the Middle East, the Neolithic began around 9.5 thousand years ago. BC e. In Denmark, the Neolithic dates back to the 18th century. BC, and among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori - the Neolithic existed back in the 18th century. AD: Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori used polished stone axes. Some peoples of America and Oceania have still not completely transitioned from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

The Neolithic, like other periods of the primitive era, is not a specific chronological period in the history of mankind as a whole, but characterizes only the cultural characteristics of certain peoples.

Achievements and activities
1. New features public life of people:
- The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
- At the end of the era, in some places (Foreign Asia, Egypt, India), a new formation of class society took shape, that is, social stratification began, the transition from a tribal-communal system to a class society.
- At this time, cities begin to be built. Jericho is considered one of the most ancient cities.
- Some cities were well fortified, which indicates the existence of organized wars at that time.
- Armies and professional warriors began to appear.
- We can quite say that the beginning of the formation of ancient civilizations is associated with the Neolithic era.

2. The division of labor and the formation of technologies began:
- The main thing is that simple gathering and hunting as the main sources of food are gradually being replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding.
The Neolithic is called the “age of polished stone.” In this era, stone tools were not just chipped, but already sawed, ground, drilled, and sharpened.
- Among the most important tools in the Neolithic is the ax, previously unknown.
spinning and weaving developed.

Images of animals begin to appear in the design of household utensils.

Ax in the shape of a moose head. Polished stone. Neolithic. Historical Museum. Stockholm.

A wooden ladle from the Gorbunovsky peat bog near Nizhny Tagil. Neolithic. State Historical Museum

For the Neolithic forest zone, fishing became one of the leading types of economy. Active fishing contributed to the creation of certain reserves, which, combined with hunting animals, made it possible to live in one place all year round.
The transition to a sedentary lifestyle led to the appearance of ceramics.
The appearance of ceramics is one of the main signs of the Neolithic era.

The village of Catal Huyuk (Eastern Turkey) is one of the places where the most ancient examples of ceramics were found.

Cup from Ledce (Czech Republic). Clay. Bell Beaker culture. Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone Age).

Monuments of Neolithic painting and petroglyphs are extremely numerous and scattered over vast territories.
Clusters of them are found almost everywhere in Africa, eastern Spain, in the territory former USSR- in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, on Lake Onega, near the White Sea and in Siberia.
Neolithic rock art is similar to Mesolithic, but the subject matter becomes more varied.

"Hunters". Rock painting. Neolithic (?). Southern Rhodesia.

For approximately three hundred years, the attention of scientists has been captivated by a rock known as the Tomsk Pisanitsa.
“Pisanitsa” are images painted with mineral paint or carved on the smooth surface of walls in Siberia.
Back in 1675, one of the brave Russian travelers, whose name, unfortunately, remained unknown, wrote down:
“Before reaching the fortress (Verkhnetomsk fortress), on the edges of the Tom River there lies a large and high stone, and on it are written animals, and cattle, and birds, and all sorts of similar things...”
Real scientific interest to this monument arose already in the 18th century, when, by decree of Peter I, an expedition was sent to Siberia to study its history and geography. The result of the expedition was the first images of Tomsk writing published in Europe by the Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the trip. These images were not an exact copy of the Tomsk writing, but conveyed only the most general outlines of the rocks and the placement of drawings on it, but their value lies in the fact that on them you can see drawings that have not survived to this day.

Images of Tomsk writing made by the Swedish boy K. Shulman, who traveled with Stralenberg across Siberia.

For hunters, the main source of subsistence was deer and elk. Gradually, these animals began to acquire mythical features - the elk was the “master of the taiga” along with the bear.
The image of a moose belongs to the Tomsk Pisanitsa the main role: Shapes are repeated many times.
The proportions and shapes of the animal’s body are absolutely faithfully conveyed: its long massive body, hump on the back, heavy large head, characteristic protrusion on the forehead, swollen upper lip, bulging nostrils, thin legs with cloven hooves.
Some drawings show transverse stripes on the neck and body of moose.

On the border between the Sahara and Fezzan, on the territory of Algeria, in a mountainous area called Tassili-Ajjer, bare rocks rise in rows. Now this region is dried up by the desert wind, scorched by the sun and almost nothing grows in it. However, the Sahara used to have green meadows...

- Sharpness and precision of drawing, grace and elegance.
- Harmonic combination of shapes and tones, the beauty of people and animals depicted with a good knowledge of anatomy.
- Swiftness of gestures and movements.

The small plastic arts of the Neolithic, like painting, acquire new subjects.

"The Man Playing the Lute." Marble (from Keros, Cyclades, Greece). Neolithic. National Archaeological Museum. Athens.

The schematism inherent in Neolithic painting, which replaced Paleolithic realism, also penetrated into small plastic art.

Schematic image of a woman. Cave relief. Neolithic. Croisard. Department of the Marne. France.

Relief with a symbolic image from Castelluccio (Sicily). Limestone. OK. 1800-1400 BC National Archaeological Museum. Syracuse.

conclusions

Small plastic:
- New stories appear.
- Greater mastery of execution and mastery of craft and material.

Achievements

Mesolithic
- microliths, bow, canoe

Neolithic
- Early Neolithic
> > agriculture, cattle breeding
- Late Neolithic
>> ceramics

Chalcolithic (Copper Age)
- metallurgy, horse, wheel

Bronze Age

Bronze was much easier to process than stone; it could be cast into molds and polished. Therefore, in the Bronze Age, all kinds of household items were made, richly decorated with ornaments and of high artistic value. Ornamental decorations consisted mostly of circles, spirals, wavy lines and similar motifs. Special attention paid attention to jewelry - they were large in size and immediately caught the eye.

Megalithic architecture

The term “megalith” comes from the Greek words “megas” - “large”; and "lithos" - "stone".

Megalithic architecture owes its appearance to primitive beliefs. Megalithic architecture is usually divided into several types:
1. A menhir is a single vertical stone, more than two meters high.
On the Brittany Peninsula in France, the so-called fields stretch for kilometers. menhirov. In the language of the Celts, the later inhabitants of the peninsula, the name of these stone pillars several meters high means “long stone”.
2. Trilith is a structure consisting of two vertically placed stones and covered with a third.
3. A dolmen is a structure whose walls are made of huge stone slabs and covered with a roof made of the same monolithic stone block.
Initially, dolmens served for burials.
Trilith can be called the simplest dolmen.
Numerous menhirs, trilithons and dolmens were located in places that were considered sacred.
4. Cromlech is a group of menhirs and trilithes.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. Anthropomorphic menhirs. Bronze Age.

Stonehenge. Cromlech. England. Bronze Age. 3 – 2 thousand BC Its diameter is 90 m, it consists of stone blocks, each of which weighs approx. 25 tons. It is curious that the mountains from where these stones were delivered are located 280 km from Stonehenge.
It consists of trilithons arranged in a circle, inside a horseshoe of trilithons, in the middle there are blue stones, and in the very center there is a heel stone (on the day of the summer solstice the luminary is exactly above it). It is assumed that Stonehenge was a temple dedicated to the sun.

Age of Iron (Iron Age)

In the steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, pastoral tribes created the so-called animal style at the end of the Bronze and beginning of the Iron Age.

"Deer" plaque. 6th century BC Gold. Hermitage Museum. 35.1x22.5 cm. From the mound in the Kuban region. The relief plate was found attached to a round iron shield in the chief's burial. An example of zoomorphic art ("animal style"). The deer's hooves are made in the form of a "big-beaked bird."
There is nothing accidental or superfluous - a complete, thoughtful composition. Everything in the figure is conditional and extremely truthful and realistic.
The feeling of monumentality is achieved not by size, but by the generality of the form.

Panther. Badge, decoration of a shield. From a mound near the village of Kelermesskaya. Gold. Hermitage Museum.
Age of Iron.
Served as a decoration for the shield. The tail and paws are decorated with figures of curled up predators.

Iron Age

Age of Iron. The balance between realism and stylization is broken in favor of stylization.

Cultural connections with Ancient Greece, the countries of the ancient East and China contributed to the emergence of new subjects, images and visual means in the artistic culture of the tribes of southern Eurasia.

Scenes of a battle between barbarians and Greeks are depicted. Found in the Chertomlyk mound, near Nikopol.

Zaporozhye region Hermitage Museum.

conclusions

Prehistoric rock art is the most abundant evidence available of humanity's first steps in the fields of art, knowledge and culture. It is found in most countries of the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, and in a wide variety of places - from deep caves to mountain heights.

Several tens of millions of rock paintings and artistic motifs have already been discovered, and more are being discovered every year. This solid, enduring, cumulative monument of the past is clear evidence that our distant ancestors developed complex social systems.

Some common false claims about the origins of art had to be rejected at their very beginning. Art, as such, did not arise suddenly; it developed gradually with the enrichment of human experience. By the time the famous cave art appeared in France and Spain, artistic traditions are believed to have already been fairly developed, at least in South Africa, Lebanon, Eastern Europe, India and Australia, and, no doubt, in many other regions that are still should be investigated accordingly.

When did people first decide to generalize reality? This is an interesting question for art historians and archaeologists, but it also has broad interest given that the idea of ​​cultural primacy has an influence on the formation of ideas about racial, ethnic and national value, even on fantasy. For example, the claim that art originated in the caves of Western Europe encourages the creation of myths about European cultural superiority. Secondly, the origins of art should be considered closely related to the emergence of other purely human qualities: the ability to create abstract ideas and symbols, to communicate in top level, develop self-image. Apart from prehistoric art, we have no real evidence from which to conclude the existence of such abilities.

BEGINNINGS OF ART

Artistic creativity was considered an example of “impractical” behavior, that is, behavior that seemed to have no practical purpose. The oldest clear archaeological evidence of this is the use of ocher or red iron ore (hematite), a red mineral dye removed and used by people several hundred thousand years ago. These ancient people also collected crystals and patterned fossils, colorful and unusual shape gravel. They began to distinguish between ordinary, everyday objects and unusual, exotic ones. They apparently developed ideas about a world in which objects could be classified into different classes. Evidence first appears in South Africa, then in Asia and finally in Europe.

The oldest known cave painting was made in India two or three hundred thousand years ago. It consists of cup-shaped depressions and a sinuous line chiseled into the sandstone of the cave. Around the same time, on various kinds of portable objects (bone, teeth, tusks and stones) found at sites primitive man, simple linear signs were made. Sets of clustered carved lines first appear in the central and Eastern Europe, they acquire a certain improvement, which makes it possible to recognize individual motifs: scribbles, crosses, arcs and sets of parallel lines.

This period, which archaeologists call the Middle Paleolithic (somewhere between 35,000 and 150,000 years ago), was decisive for the development of human mental and cognitive abilities. This was also the time when people acquired seafaring skills and groups of colonists could make journeys of up to 180 km. Regular sea navigation obviously required improvement of the communication system, that is, language.

People of this era also mined ocher and flint in several world regions. They began to build large joint houses out of bones and put stone walls inside the caves. And most importantly, they created art. In Australia, some examples of rock art were born 60,000 years ago, that is, during the era of human settlement of the continent. In hundreds of places there are objects believed to be of older origin than the art of Western Europe. But during this era, rock art also appeared in Europe. The oldest example of it that is known to us is a system of nineteen cup-like signs in a cave in France, carved on a stone slab, covering the site of a child’s burial.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this era is the cultural unanimity that reigned in the world at that time in all regions of settlement. Despite differences in tools, no doubt due to differences in environment, cultural behavior was remarkably resilient. The use of ocher and an expressively monotonous set of geometric marks indicate the existence of a universal artistic language between archaic homo sapiens, including European Neanderthals and others that we know about from fossil remains.

Figured images (sculptures) arranged in a circle first appeared in Israel (about 250-300 thousand years ago), in the form of modified natural forms, then in Siberia and central Europe (about 30-35 thousand years ago), and only then in Western Europe. Around 30,000 years ago, rock art became richer in intricate finger marks made into the soft surfaces of caves in Australia and Europe, and stenciled images of palms in France. Two-dimensional images of objects began to appear. The oldest examples, created approximately 32,000 years ago, come from France, followed by South African paintings (Namibia).

About 20,000 years ago (very recently in terms of human history) significant differences begin to form between cultures. Late Paleolithic people in Western Europe began fine traditions in both the sculptural and graphic arts of ritual and decorative consumption. Somewhere around 15,000 years ago, this tradition led to the appearance of such famous masterpieces, such as painting in the caves of Altamira (Spain) and Lescaut (France), as well as the appearance of thousands of elaborately carved figurines from stone, tusks, bone, clay and other materials. This was the time of the finest multicolored works of cave art, drawn or embossed by a certain hand of master craftsmen. However, the development of graphic traditions in other regions was not easy.

In Asia, forms of geometric art, developing, formed very perfect systems, some reminiscent of official records, others - mnemonic emblems, original texts designed to refresh the memory.

Beginning around the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, rock art gradually expanded beyond the caves. This was dictated not so much by the search for new, better places, but (there is almost no doubt here) by the survival of rock art through selection. Rock art is well preserved in the permanent conditions of deep limestone caves, but not on rock surfaces, which are more open to destruction. Thus, the unquestioned spread of rock art at the end of the Ice Age does not indicate an increase in artistic production, but rather the crossing of the threshold of what ensured good preservation.

On every continent beyond Antarctica, rock art now shows diversity artistic styles and cultures, the progressive growth of the ethnic diversity of humanity on all continents, as well as the development of major religions. Even the last one historical stage the development of mass migrations, colonization and religious expansion - thoroughly reflected in rock art.

DATING

There are two main forms of rock art, petroglyphs (carving) and pictors (painting). Petroglyphic motifs were created by carving, gouging, chasing or grinding rock surfaces. In pictographs, additional substances, usually paint, were applied to the rock surface. This difference is very important; it determines approaches to dating.

The methodology for scientific dating of rock art has only been developed within the last fifteen years. Therefore, it is still in its “infancy” stage, and the dating of almost all of the world’s rock art remains in poor condition. This, however, does not mean that we have no idea about his age: there are often all kinds of landmarks that allow us to determine the approximate or at least probable age. Sometimes you are lucky enough to determine the age of a rock painting quite accurately, especially when the paint contains organic substances or microscopic inclusions that allow dating due to the radioactive carbon isotope present in them. Careful evaluation of the results of such an analysis can determine the date quite accurately. On the other hand, dating petroglyphs remains extremely difficult.

Modern methods rely on determining the age of mineral deposits that may have been deposited on rock art. But they only allow you to determine the minimum age. One way is to analyze microscopic organic matter, interspersed with such mineral layers; laser technology can be successfully used here. Today, only one method is suitable for determining the age of the petroglyphs themselves. It is based on the fact that the mineral crystals, chipped when gouging out petroglyphs, initially had sharp edges, which became blunt and rounded over time. By determining the rate of such processes on nearby surfaces whose age is known, the age of the petroglyphs can be calculated.

Several archaeological methods can also help the dating matter a little. If, for example, the rock surface is covered with archaeological layers of mud whose age can be determined, they can be used to determine the minimum age of petroglyphs. They often resort to comparison of stylistic manners in order to determine the chronological framework of rock art, although not very successfully.

Much more reliable are the methods of studying rock art, which often resemble the methods of forensic science. For example, the components of paint can tell how it was made, what tools and admixtures were used, where the dyes were taken from, and the like. Human blood, used as a bonding agent during the Ice Age, has been found in Australian rock art. Australian researchers also discovered up to forty layers of paint superimposed on each other in different places, indicating constant redrawing of the same surface over a long period of time. Like the pages of a book, these layers convey to us the history of the use of surfaces by artists of many generations. The study of such layers is just beginning and can lead to a real revolution in views.

Pollen found on brush fibers in the paint of cave paintings indicates what crops were grown by the ancient artists' contemporaries. In some French caves, characteristic paint recipes were determined by their chemical composition. Using charcoal dyes, often used for drawings, even the type of wood burned into charcoal was determined.

The study of rock art has become a separate scientific discipline, and is already used by many other disciplines, from geology to semiotics, from ethnology to cybernetics. His methodology involves expressiveness using electronic images of colors of very damaged, almost completely faded drawings; a wide range of specialized description methods; microscopic studies of traces left by tools and scanty sediments.

VULNERABLE MONUMENTS

Methods for preserving prehistoric monuments are also being developed and increasingly used. Copies of rock art are made (fragments of an object or even the entire object) to prevent damage to the originals. Yet many of the world's prehistoric sites are in constant danger. Acid rain dissolves the protective mineral layers that cover many petroglyphs. All the rapid flows of tourists, urban sprawl, industrial and mining development, even unskilled research contribute to the dirty work of shortening the age of invaluable artistic treasures.

For many years, modern civilization had no idea about any objects of ancient painting, but in 1879, the Spanish amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, along with his 9-year-old daughter, during a walk, accidentally came across the Altamira cave, the arches of which were decorated with many drawings of ancient people - a find that had no analogues greatly shocked the researcher and prompted him to study it closely.

1. White Shaman's Rock

This 4,000-year-old ancient rock art is located in the lower Peco River in Texas. The giant image (3.5 m) shows the central figure surrounded by other people performing some kind of rituals. It is assumed that the figure of a shaman is depicted in the center, and the picture itself depicts the cult of some forgotten ancient religion.

2. Kakadu Park

Kakadu National Park is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Australia. It is especially valued for its rich cultural heritage - the park contains an impressive collection of local Aboriginal art. Some of the rock paintings at Kakadu (which were included in the fund world heritage UNESCO) is almost 20,000 years old.

3. Chauvet Cave

Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the south of France. More than 1000 different images can be found in the Chauvet Cave, most of them are animals and anthropomorphic figures. These are some of the oldest images known to man: their age dates back to 30,000 - 32,000 years. About 20,000 years ago, the cave was filled with stones and has remained in excellent condition to this day.

4. Cueva de El Castillo

In Spain, the “Castle Cave” or Cueva de El Castillo was recently discovered, on the walls of which they found the oldest cave paintings in Europe, their age is 4,000 years older than anyone else rock paintings, which were previously found in the Old World. Most of the images feature handprints and simple geometric shapes, although there are also images of strange animals. One of the drawings, a simple red disk, was made 40,800 years ago. It is assumed that these paintings were made by Neanderthals.

5. Laas Gaal

Some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings on the African continent can be found in Somalia, at the Laas Gaal (Camel Well) cave complex. Despite the fact that their age is “only” 5,000 - 12,000 years, these rock paintings are perfectly preserved. They depict mainly animals and people in ceremonial clothing and various decorations. Unfortunately this one is wonderful cultural site cannot receive World Heritage status because it is located in an area constantly at war.

6. Bhimbetka Cliff Dwellings

The cliff dwellings at Bhimbetka represent some of the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. In natural rock shelters on the walls there are drawings that are about 30,000 years old. These paintings represent the period of development of civilization from the Mesolithic to the end of prehistoric times. The paintings depict animals and people engaged in daily activities such as hunting, religious ceremonies and, interestingly, dancing.

7. Magura

In Bulgaria, the rock paintings found in the Magura Cave are not very old - they are between 4,000 and 8,000 years old. They are interesting because of the material that was used to apply the images - bat guano (droppings). In addition, the cave itself was formed millions of years ago and other archaeological artifacts have been found in it, such as the bones of extinct animals (for example, the cave bear).

8. Cueva de las Manos

The "Cave of Hands" in Argentina is famous for its extensive collection of prints and images of human hands. This rock painting dates back to 9,000 - 13,000 years. The cave itself (more precisely, the cave system) was used by ancient people 1,500 years ago. Also in Cueva de las Manos you can find various geometric shapes and images of hunting.

9. Altamira Cave

The paintings found in the Altamira Cave in Spain are considered masterpieces of ancient culture. The stone painting from the Upper Paleolithic period (14,000 - 20,000 years old) is in exceptional condition. As in Chauvet Cave, a landslide sealed the entrance to this cave about 13,000 years ago, so the images remained intact. In fact, these drawings are so well preserved that when they were first discovered in the 19th century, scientists thought they were fakes. It took a long time until technology made it possible to confirm the authenticity of rock art. Since then, the cave has proven so popular with tourists that it had to be closed in the late 1970s because large amounts of carbon dioxide from visitors' breath began to destroy the paintings.

10. Lascaux Cave

It is by far the best known and most significant collection of rock art in the world. Some of the most beautiful 17,000-year-old paintings in the world can be found in this cave system in France. They are very complex, very carefully made and at the same time perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, the cave was closed more than 50 years ago due to the fact that, under the influence of carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors, the unique images began to collapse. In 1983, a reproduction of part of the cave called Lascaux 2 was discovered.