Hunting of primitive people for animals drawing. Primitive rock painting

Rock art of Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, USA.

Similar ancient historical monuments are not concentrated somewhere in one place, but scattered throughout the planet. Petroglyphs were not found at the same time; sometimes the discoveries of different drawings are separated by significant periods of time.

At times, on the same rocks, scientists find drawings from different millennia. There are similarities between a variety of rock paintings, so it seems as if in ancient times there was a single ancestral culture and universal knowledge associated with it. Thus, many of the figures in the drawings have the same features, although their authors knew nothing about each other - they were separated by an enormous distance and time. However, the similarity in the images is systematic: in particular, the heads of the gods always emit light. Although cave drawings have been studied for about 200 years, they still remain a mystery.

It is believed that the first images of mysterious creatures were rock paintings on Mount Hunan, China (picture above). They are about 47,000 years old. These drawings supposedly depict early contacts with unknown creatures, perhaps guests from extraterrestrial civilizations.

These drawings were found on the territory National Park called Sera Da Capivara in Brazil. Experts claim that the paintings were created about twenty-nine thousand years ago:

Interesting cave paintings dating back over 10,000 years were recently discovered in the state of Chhattisgarh, India:

This cave painting dates back to approximately 10,000 BC and is located in Val Camonica, Italy. The drawn figures look like two creatures wearing protective suits, and their heads emit light. They hold strange devices in their hands:

As following example You can cite a rock carving of a luminous man, which is located 18 km west of the city of Navoi (Uzbekistan). At the same time, a shining figure sits on a throne, and the figures standing near it wear something similar to protective masks on their faces. The kneeling man in the lower part of the picture does not have such a device - he is at a considerable distance from the luminous figure and, apparently, does not need such protection.

Tassil-Adjer (River Plateau) - the largest monument rock art Sugars. The plateau is located in the southeastern part of Algeria. The oldest petroglyphs of Tassil-Adjer date back to the 7th millennium BC. And the latest - the 7th century AD. Drawings on the plateau were first noticed in 1909:

An image dating to approximately 600 BC, from Tassilin-Adjer. The drawing shows a creature with different eyes, a strange petal hairstyle and a shapeless figure. More than a hundred similar “gods” were found in caves:

These frescoes, found in the Sahara Desert, depict a humanoid creature in a spacesuit. Frescoes are 5 thousand years old:

Australia is isolated from other continents. However, on the Kimberley Plateau (northwest Australia) there are entire galleries of petroglyphs. And here all the same motifs are present: gods with similar faces and with a halo of rays around their heads. The drawings were first discovered in 1891:

These are images of Vandina, the goddess of the sky, in a halo of shining rays.

Rock art at Puerta del Canyon, Argentina:

Sego Canyon, Utah, USA. The most ancient petroglyphs appeared here more than 8,000 years ago:

"Skala-newspaper" there, in Utah:

"Alien", Arizona, USA:

California, USA:

Alien image. Kalbak-Tash, Altai, Russia:

"Sun Man" from the Karakol Valley, Altai:

Another of the many petroglyphs of the Italian Val Camonica valley in the Southern Alps:

Rock paintings of Gobustan, Azerbaijan. Scientists date the oldest drawings to the Mesolithic era (about 10 thousand years ago:

Ancient rock paintings in Niger:

Onega petroglyphs at Cape Besov Nos, Russia. The most famous of the Onega petroglyphs is Bes, its length is two and a half meters. The image is crossed by a deep crack, dividing it exactly into two halves. A “gap” into another, otherworldly world. Within a kilometer radius of Bes, satellite navigation often fails. The clock also behaves unpredictably: it can run forward, it can stop. Scientists can only guess what this anomaly is connected with. The ancient figure is cut by an Orthodox cross. Most likely, it was hollowed out on top of the demonic image by the monks of the Murom Monastery in the 15th–16th centuries. To neutralize the devil's power:

Petroglyphs of Tamgaly, Kazakhstan. Rock paintings abound in a variety of subjects, and the most common of them depict divine sun-headed creatures:

White Shaman Rock in the Lower Canyon, Texas. According to experts, the age of this seven-meter image is more than four thousand years. The White Shaman is believed to be hiding the secrets of an ancient vanished cult:

Rock paintings of giant people from South Africa:

Mexico. Veracruz, Las Palmas: cave paintings depicting creatures in spacesuits:

Rock paintings in the valley of the Pegtymel River, Chukotka, Russia:

The twin gods fight with battle axes. One of the petroglyphs found in Tanumschede, western Sweden (the drawings are painted red in the modern period):

Among the petroglyphs on the Litsleby rock massif, a gigantic (2.3 m tall) image of a god with a spear (possibly Odin) dominates:

Sarmysh-say gorge, Uzbekistan. Numerous ancient rock paintings of people in strange clothes were found in the gorge, some of which can be interpreted as images of “ancient astronauts”:

Rock paintings of the Hopi Indians in Arizona, USA, depicting certain creatures - kachina. The Hopi considered these mysterious kachinas to be their heavenly teachers:

In addition, there are many ancient rock paintings either solar symbols, or some objects resembling aircraft.

Rock paintings from San Antonio Cave, Texas, USA.

This ancient rock art discovered in Australia depicts what looks like a ship. space aliens. At the same time, the image may well mean something quite understandable.

Something resembling a rocket taking off. Kalbysh Tash, Altai.

Petroglyph depicting a UFO. Bolivia.

UFO from a cave in Chhattisgarh, India

Petroglyphs of Lake Onega depict cosmic, solar and moon signs: circles and semicircles with outgoing lines-rays, in which modern man both the radar and the spacesuit will clearly see. Moreover - TV.

Rock art, Arizona, USA

Petroglyphs of Panama

California, USA

Guanche rock paintings, Canary Islands

Ancient images of the mystical symbol of the spiral are found throughout the world. These cave paintings were once created by Indians in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA.

Rock art, Nevada, USA

One of the drawings discovered in a cave on the island of Youth, off the coast of Cuba. In it one can find great similarities with the structure solar system, where there is an image of eight planets with their largest satellites.

These petroglyphs are located in Pakistan, in the Indus River Valley:

Once upon a time, a highly developed Indian civilization existed in these places. It was from her that these ancient images carved on stones remained. Take a closer look - don't you think these are mysterious vimanas - flying chariots from ancient Indian myths?

Friends, where and how did it all start?

Maybe when ancient man Did you see your footprint in the sand?
Or, when you ran your finger along the ground, you realized that it was a fingerprint?
Or maybe when our ancestors learned to control the “fiery beast” (fire) by running the burnt end of a stick over a stone?

In any case, it is clear that a person has always been curious and even our ancestors, leaving primitive drawings on rocks and stones, wanted to convey their feelings to each other.

Exploring drawings of ancient people, it is obvious that in the process of evolution, their drawings also improved, moving from primitiveness to more complex images of people and animals.

It is known that archaeologists have found in Africa, in the Sibudu cave, rock paintings made by ancient people 49 thousand years ago! The drawings were drawn with ocher mixed with milk. Primitive people Ocher was used even earlier, about 250 thousand years ago, but the presence of milk in the paint was not found.

This find was strange in that the ancient people who lived 49 thousand years ago did not yet have livestock, which means they obtained milk by hunting animals. In addition to ocher, our ancestors used charcoal or burnt roots, crushed into powder, limestone.

Everyone knows Ancient Egypt paintings most popular. The history of Ancient Egyptian civilization goes back about 40 centuries! This civilization reached great heights in architecture, papyrus writing, and graphic drawings and other images.

Existence Ancient Egypt began 3000 BC. e. and ended in the 4th–7th centuries. ad.

The Egyptians loved to decorate almost everything with painting: tombs, temples, sarcophagi, various household items and dishes, statues. For paints they used: limestone (white), soot (black), iron ore (yellow and red), copper ore (blue and green).

Painting ancient egypt was meaningful, depicting people, for example, dead, providing them with services in the afterlife.

They believed in afterlife and believed that life was just an interval to another, more interesting life. Therefore, after death, the deceased was glorified in images.

No less fascinating ancient drawings and frescoes of other civilizations - Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.

Greco-Roman antiquity began in the 7th century BC and ended in the 6th century AD. The Romans learned from the ancient Greeks how to paint walls on wet plaster.

So, for example, for paints, colored minerals mixed with egg white and animal glue. And after drying, such a fresco was covered melted wax.

But here ancient Greeks knew where The best way conservation bright colors. The plaster they used contained lime and dried to form a clear, thin film of calcium. It was this film that made the fresco durable!

Wall frescoes ancient Greece have reached our days, thousands of years later, perfectly preserved in the same bright and rich color, as when they were created.

Previously called fresco paintings on wet plaster. But in our time, any wall painting can be called a fresco, regardless of the technique of its execution.

In general, wall paintings or frescoes belong to monumental painting. And it has to do with me direct relation. It is alfrey painting, that is, wall painting, that is my main specialization, which I studied at private school in the south of France.

You can see my works in the section >>> <<<

In the Middle Ages in Kievan Rus the walls of the cathedrals were painted with beautiful frescoes. For example, in 2016 I visited the Sofia Kyiv nature reserve in Kyiv. And in the most beautiful cathedral, founded in 1037 by the Grand Duke of Kyiv Yaroslav the Wise, wall frescoes have been preserved on the walls (the total area of ​​the frescoes is 3000 sq. m.)

The main composition in the cathedral is portrait of the family of Yaroslav the Wise on three walls. But only portraits of the prince’s sons and daughters have survived and are well preserved. The huge frescoes, painted in the 11th century, certainly made a strong impression on me.

Also already in Middle Ages (period V – XV centuries) They used not only walls, but also wooden surfaces (for painting) for painting. For such works tempera paints were used. This paint, of course, is considered one of the oldest types of paint and was used to paint pictures until the 15th century.

Until one day Dutch painter Van Eyck did not introduce widespread use oil based paints in Europe

Tempera- These are water-based paints. Coloring powder diluted with water and chicken yolk. The history of this type of paint goes back more than 3000 years.

Sandro Botticelli/Sandro Botticelli. Left Portrait of a young woman 1480-1485, 82 x 54 cm, Frankfurt. On right Annunciation 1489-1490, tempera on wood, 150 x 156 cm, Florence

For example, in ancient Egypt sarcophagi of the pharaohs They painted it with tempera.

But they began to use canvas instead of a wooden board for painting in Western European countries only at the beginning of the 16th century. Florentine and Venetian painters painted on canvas in significant quantities.

In Russia, canvases began to be used as a basis for painting even later, only from the second half of the 17th century. But that is another story…. Or rather

So, by showing curiosity and doing a little analysis, you can trace the ways of human self-expression from primitive drawing to the true creations of the Middle Ages!!! Of course, this is not a scientific article, but only the opinion of one curious artist who likes to drip and drip into the labyrinths of the human mind.

Friends, to the articlenot lost among many other articles on the Internet,save it to your bookmarks.This way you can return to reading at any time.

Ask your questions below in the comments, I usually answer all questions quickly

However, the unique paintings are closed to the public in order to protect the fragile “paintings” from damage, which can be caused by the slightest changes in temperature and humidity, as well as light penetration. Even archaeologists are allowed to stay in the cave for only a few hours. One of the lucky ones who managed to admire the oldest example of cave art was the German director Werner Herzog. Together with four assistants, he made a 3D documentary film, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” By the way, the film crew had to obtain permission from the French Minister of Culture himself and film in a limited time using equipment that does not emit heat. This film is perhaps the only way to look into the Chauvet Cave.

2. Newspaper Rock, USA

40 km northwest of the city of Monticello in the US state of Utah there is an amazing rock on which one of the most impressive collections of petroglyphs per square meter is concentrated. Due to the abundance of drawings, the stone art panel resembles a newspaper page that can be read.

It was allegedly “printed” by the ancient Indians of the pre-Columbian culture Fremont and Anasazi. Scientists believe that the story told on the “Newspaper Rock” was “carved” both in the prehistoric period and after meeting the Europeans. Judging by the numerous depictions of animals such as bison, wild boars and mammoths, the history of the stone “newspaper” tells of hunting, the domestication of horses and bulls, as well as the invention of the wheel and tools.

In total, Newspaper Rock contains about 650 different images of animals, people and symbols. However, in the ancient “newspaper” it was never possible to find an answer as to why a relatively small site was chosen for so many petroglyphs.

3. Cueva de las Manos, Argentina

Literally, the “Cave of Hands” (from Spanish Cueva de las Manos) has preserved on its stone walls the prints of hundreds of hands, mostly left ones. It is located in the south of Argentina in the province of Santa Cruz (163 km from the city of Perito Moreno) in the valley of the Pinturas River.

Of the approximately 800 cave paintings, more than 90% depict the left palm. Photo by: Marianocekowski.

At first glance, splayed palms look very modern, as if someone sprayed a can of spray paint on a stencil. In fact, the cave paintings were allegedly created between 13,000 and 9,000 years ago. By the way, scientists suggest that this rock “autograph” was left by spraying paint around a palm applied to the wall.

Probably in his right hand the artist held bone tubes for spraying dye. The left one, accordingly, served in kind. Most of the hands are on the entrance stone - as if they are welcoming someone entering a Patagonian cave. There is an opinion that the image of hands meant the transition to adulthood, so the palms of teenage boys are imprinted on the walls of this place revered by the ancestors of the Indians.

In addition to images of hands, the cave contains drawings of animals, such as rhea ostriches and guanacos (a kind of llama), as well as hieroglyphic inscriptions. Photo credit: Joanbanjo.

4. Altamira, Spain

Many call the cave, located in northern Spain, the “Sistine Chapel of primitive art.” Its walls are painted with unique rock “paintings” from the Paleolithic era. The age of the drawings depicted on the walls and ceiling of Altamira (from Spanish “La cueva de Altamira”) is about 20 thousand years.

Due to the large flow of tourists, the drawings began to collapse. To preserve the rock art, Altamira was closed to the public. In 2001In the museum complex located next to the cave, copies of the panels of the Great Plafond were discovered, which can be admired without harming the fragile petroglyphs.

Located 30 km from the city of Santander (Cantabria), it was discovered in 1879 by the Spanish lawyer and amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. More precisely, it is he who is credited with the discovery of rock paintings. Marcelino had explored Altamira before (in 1875), and before him, a local shepherd reported unusual ancient finds (tools, bones, antlers) found in the cave. One fine day, when Sautuola took his 6-year-old daughter Maria with him to the excavations, luck smiled on him. The girl was extremely inquisitive and was the first to see the rock painting of a bison. This is how the world learned about a 270-meter cave, the vaults of which are replete with polychrome images of animals and human palms.

It is noteworthy that ancient artists used charcoal and ocher to add color, and wall relief to add volume. Many scientists questioned the authenticity of the primitive painting and accused Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola of forgery. And only after the death of the discoverer, in 1902, the world recognized the uniqueness of Altamira.

5. Alta, Norway

Petroglyphs found near the Arctic Circle in the city of Alta in the 1970s prove that the area was presumably inhabited by people between 4200 and 500 BC. From them, about five thousand amazing rock paintings remained at 45 archaeological sites.

The largest and only one open to the public is located 4 km from the city of Alta. About 3,000 images, which are located in the open air, have been included in the World Heritage List. By the way, this is the only UNESCO site of the prehistoric period in Norway. Petroglyphs tell how the ancient ancestors of the Scandinavians fished (an image of a fisherman holding a large fish in his hands), hunted (scenes showing how hunters drove herds of deer into the water, where they were more vulnerable, and overtook them with spears) and rested (dance scenes). In addition, many petroglyphs depict religious rituals, such as shamanic rituals with a tambourine.

6. Kalbak-Tash, Russia

The complex of rock compositions Kalbak-Tash (Tyalbak-Tash) is located on the right bank of the Chui River at the 723rd kilometer of the Chuisky tract between the villages of Inya and Iodro. This tract is the largest accumulation of petroglyphs in the Altai Mountains, its length is about 10 km. The Altai gallery contains over 5,000 drawings and runic inscriptions.

Animal motifs - the most popular in Kalbak-Tash. Most often in the tract there are images of bulls, deer, wolves, leopards and other animals common in Altai. Photo by: Zouave M.

Kalbak-Tash was an ancient sanctuary for people of different centuries: from the Neolithic (VI-IV thousand years BC) to the ancient Turkic era (VII-X centuries BC). In addition to Scythian images of animals, people and hunting scenes, in the Kalbaktash sanctuary there are also family family signs of tamga dating back to the ancient Turkic era, as well as ritual scenes depicting shamans with their animal companions ker-tyutpas, transporting their owners to the underworld.

The Kalbak-Tash tract is part of the Chui-Oozy natural and economic park, a specially protected natural area of ​​the Altai Republic. Photo by: Zouave M.

Which drawing is the oldest? Probably it should be drawn on an old, worn-out piece of papyrus, which is now kept in some museum under certain temperature conditions. But time will not be kind to such a drawing even under the most optimal storage conditions - after several thousand years it will inevitably turn into dust. But destroying rock, even over several tens of thousands of years, is a difficult task even for all-consuming time. Perhaps, in those distant times, when man had just begun to live on Earth and huddled not in houses built with his own hands, but in caves and grottoes created by nature, he found time not only to get food for himself and keep the fire going, but also to create?

Indeed, cave paintings dating back to several tens of thousands of years BC can be found in some caves scattered across different parts of the planet. There, in a dark and cold confined space, the paint retains its properties for a long time. Interestingly, the first cave paintings were found in 1879 - relatively recently by historical standards - when archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, walking with his daughter, wandered into the cave and saw numerous drawings decorating its roof. Scientists around the world at first did not believe in the amazing discovery, but studies of other caves around confirmed that some of them really served as a refuge for ancient man and contain traces of his stay, including drawings.

To determine their age, archaeologists radiocarbon date the particles of paint that were used to paint the images. After analyzing hundreds of drawings, experts saw that rock art existed ten, twenty, and thirty thousand years ago.

This is interesting: By “arranging” the found drawings in chronological order, experts saw how rock art changed over time. Starting with simple two-dimensional images, artists of the distant past improved their skills, first adding more detail to their creations, and then shadows and volume.

But the most interesting thing, of course, is the age of the rock paintings. The use of modern scanners when exploring caves reveals to us even those rock paintings that are already indistinguishable to the human eye. The record of the antiquity of the found image is constantly updated. How deeply were we able to penetrate into the past by exploring the cold stone walls of caves and grottoes? To date, the cave boasts the oldest rock paintings El Castillo, located in Spain. It is believed that the most ancient rock paintings were discovered in this cave. One of them, the depiction of a human palm by spraying paint onto a hand leaning against a wall, is of particular interest.

Since traditional radiocarbon dating would give too wide a scatter in the readings, to more accurately determine the age of the images, scientists used the method of radioactive decay of uranium, measuring the amount of decay products in the stalactites formed over thousands of years on top of the picture. It turned out that the age of the rock paintings is about 40,800 years, making them the most ancient on Earth among those discovered so far. It is quite possible that they were not even painted by homo sapience, but by a Neanderthal.

But El Castillo Cave has a worthy competitor: caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. To determine the age of the local drawings, scientists examined the age of the calcium deposits that formed on top of them. It turned out that calcium deposits appeared no less 40,000 years ago, which means that the rock paintings cannot be younger. Unfortunately, it is not possible to more accurately determine the age of the ancient artist’s creations. But we know one thing for sure: in the future, humanity will face even more ancient and amazing discoveries.

Illustration: Image of a bison in a cave in Altamira, Spain. About 20,000 years old

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Traditionally, rock paintings are called petroglyphs, this is the name given to all images on stone from ancient times (Paleolithic) up to the Middle Ages, both primitive cave hewn paintings and later ones, for example, on specially installed stones, megaliths or “wild” rocks.

Such monuments are not concentrated somewhere in one place, but are widely scattered across the face of our planet. They were found in Kazakhstan (Tamgaly), in Karelia, in Spain (Altamira cave), in France (Fond-de-Gaume, Montespan caves, etc.), in Siberia, on the Don (Kostenki), in Italy, England, Germany, in Algeria, where gigantic multicolor paintings of the Tassilin-Ajjer mountain plateau in the Sahara, among the desert sands, were recently discovered and created a sensation throughout the world.

Despite the fact that cave paintings have been studied for about 200 years, they still remain a mystery.

According to the generally accepted theory of evolution, primitive man remained a primitive hunter-gatherer for many tens of thousands of years. And then he suddenly had a real insight, and he began to draw and carve mysterious symbols and images on the walls of his caves, rocks and mountain crevices.

Oswald O. Tobisch, a man of generous and varied talents, spent 30 years studying more than 6,000 cave paintings, trying to reconstruct some logical system that unites them. When you get acquainted with the conclusions of his research and numerous comparative tables, it literally takes your breath away. Tobish traces the similarities of a variety of rock paintings, so that it seems as if in ancient times there was a single proto-culture and universal knowledge associated with it.

Of course, millions and millions of cave paintings did not appear at the same time; very often (but not always) they are separated by many millennia. In other cases, drawings were created on the same rocks over several millennia.

Nevertheless, it is a striking fact that many rock paintings in various parts of the world arose almost simultaneously. Everywhere, be it Toro Muerto (Peru), where tens of thousands of rock paintings were found, Val Carmonica (Italy), the vicinity of the Karakoram Highway (Pakistan), the Colorado Plateau (USA), the Paraibo region (Brazil) or southern Japan, almost identical symbols and figures. Of course, I cannot help but note that each individual place has its own, strictly localized types of images that cannot be found anywhere else, but this in no way clears up the mystery of the striking similarity of the remaining drawings.

If you consider all these images with all their attributes and symbols, you get the amazing impression that the sound of the same trumpet suddenly rang out across all continents: “Remember: the gods are those who are surrounded by rays!” These “gods” are in most cases depicted as much larger than other little men. Their heads are almost always surrounded or crowned with a halo or halo, as if shining rays are emanating from them. In addition, ordinary people are always depicted at a respectful distance from the "gods"; they kneel before them, prostrate themselves on the ground, or raise their hands to them.

Oswald Tobisch, a specialist in rock paintings who has traveled all over the world, with his tireless efforts has come even closer to solving this ancient mystery: “Perhaps this striking similarity in the images of deities is explained by “internationalism”, incredible by our standards today, and the humanity of that era, quite perhaps still remained in the powerful force field of the “primordial revelation” of the one and all-powerful Creator?

Rock paintings of the Hopi Indians in Arizona, USA

Similar examples of the creativity of ancient peoples can be found all over the world. In Altai there are rock portraits of humanoid creatures in spacesuits, created 4 - 5 thousand years ago. In Central America - launching “spaceships”. They are depicted on some Mayan tombs dating back about 1,300 years. In Japan, bronze figurines from the 4th century BC are found dressed in helmets and overalls. In the mountains of Tibet there are “flying saucers” drawn 3000 years ago. Entire galleries of monsters with antennas on their heads, tentacles instead of arms and mysterious weapons are “exhibited” for us, our descendants, to see in caves, on plateaus and in the mountains in Peru, the Sahara, Zimbabwe, Australia, France, Italy.
Huge figures and small people next to them.

The history textbook says that primitive man wanted to somehow express himself and realize his primitive creativity with what was at hand. This is how rock paintings appeared on rocks in deep caves.

But just how primitive were our ancestors? And was everything as simple as we imagine a few thousand years ago? The drawings from primitive art collected in this article may make you think about something.