CAVE ART

Cave Art
 Generally,
the numerous paintings
and engravings found in European
caves and shelters dating back to
the Ice Age (Upper Paleolithic),
roughly between 40,000 and 14,000
years ago.
 Altamira in Spain.
 The first painted cave
acknowledged as being
Paleolithic (Stone Age).
 The art discovered was deemed
by experts to be the work of
modern humans (Homo sapiens).
Altamira: bison
Cave painting of bison, c. 15,000 BCE; in Altamira cave, near Santander, Spain.
A. Held/J.P. Ziolo, Paris
Most cave art consists of paintings made
with either red or black pigment.

Reds - iron oxides

(hematite)
Blacks - Manganese
dioxide and charcoal
Sculptures
 Clay statues of bison in the Tuc
d’Audoubert cave in 1912
 Statue of a bear in the Montespan cave in
1923, both located in the French Pyrenees.
 Carved walls were discovered in the
shelters of Roc-aux-Sorciers (1950) in
Vienne and of Cap Blanc (1909) in
Dordogne.
 Engravings were made with fingers on soft
walls or with flint tools on hard surfaces in a
number of other caves and shelters.
Flint tools/stone tools
 Representations in caves, painted,
carved, engraved, or molded include:
 Few humans, but sometimes human heads or genitalia appear in
isolation.
 Hand stencils and handprints are characteristic of the earlier
periods, as in the Gargas cave in the French Pyrenees.
 Animal figures always constitute the majority of images in caves
from all periods.
 During the earliest millennia, the species most often represented,
(Chauvet–Pont-d’Arc cave in France), were cave lions, mammoths,
woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears.
 Later on, horses, bison, aurochs, cervids, and ibex became
prevalent, as in the Lascaux and Niaux caves. (Birds and fish were
rarely depicted.)
 Geometric signs are always numerous.
Ice Age Art
 Discovered in late December 1994 by three French spelunkers
(cave explorers).
 Jean-Marie Chauvet
 the cave's figures displayed great skill, a mastery of several
painting techniques, and a whole range of ways of showing
perspective.
 therefore the paintings and engravings here belonged to some
of the later stages of the last Ice Age, from more than 20,000 to
perhaps 12,000 years ago.
 However, when charcoal from three figures—two “fighting”
rhinos and a bison—underwent radiocarbon analysis, it
produced dates of 30,000 to 20,000 years ago, far older than
expected and the earliest direct date for any paintings in the
world.
Ancient Artists

 The people who produced these paintings and other

works were Stone Age hunter-gatherers, some of the
earliest of modern humans.
 it is believed that the early people incorporated
certain caves into their seasonal visits to different parts
of Europe. However, very little is known about the
social structures or culture of these peoples, sometimes
referred to as Cro-Magnon.
 Experts view the cave art as perhaps the only way to
learn more about these ancestors of present-day
Europeans.
Cave art is generally considered to have a
symbolic or religious function, sometimes both.
 created within the framework of
shamanic beliefs and practices- a
shaman would enter a trance state
and send his or her soul into the
otherworld to make contact with
the spirits and try to obtain their
benevolence.
Angono petroglyphs
 Discovered in 1965,
 Believed to be the oldest known artworks in the
Philippines. Dating to the third millennium B.C.,
 They are a collection of 127 figural carvings
engraved on the wall of a shallow cave of
volcanic tuff.
 In 1973, they were declared a National Cultural
Treasure, and in 1985 were listed on the World
Inventory of Rock Art.
Measures taken to protect the cave:
 Caves were cleared of invasive vegetation.
 A drainage system was installed to prevent
accumulation of water during heavy rain,
 A caretaker was assigned to protect the site from
vandals.
 Threats were assessed, recommended and
implemented other measures such as environmental
monitoring and the construction of a viewing deck,
pathway, and fence to enable visitors to enjoy
seeing the caves and petroglyphs, but affording
appropriate protection to the fragile historic
carvings.
Lamanoc Island, Anda
Lamanoc is regarded as a
mystical island and
also dubbed as the “cradle of
civilization” of the province.
 Since pre-colonial times, it has been a holy spot,
where local priests and medicine men,
called baylan or tambalan, made their offerings to
nature spirits, or diwata, who where believed to
reside here, and where called upon to provide a
bountiful harvest or good catch.
 These practices continued long after the Spanish
had converted the islands to Catholism, with people
mixing their ancestral believes with the new
teachings.
Boat coffins

Pre-historic graffiti –
people used hematite (red
iron oxide) pigments, found
in the hills of barangay
Katipunan, to painted on
the walls using fingers
 REFERENCES
 Clottes, J. (2018). Cave Art.
https://www.britannica.com/art/cave-painting
 Angono Petroglyphs. (2017). World Monuments
Fundhttps://www.wmf.org/project/angono-
petroglyphs
 (2 March 2014). A Mystical tour to Lamanoc Point
of Anda, Bohol.
https://www.bohol.ph/article381.html
 Bahn, P. G. (1993-2008).The Mystery of Ice Age Art
 Microsoft ® Encarta. © Microsoft Corporation.