The Art of prehistoric man in the Ice Age

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Part of The Carolinian

Title: The Art of prehistoric man in the Ice Age
Creator: Tenazas, Rosa C.
Language: English
Year: 1965
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Fulltext: THE PRIMITIVE HUNTING ART of the Ice Age had no precursors and could be traced as far back as approximately 50,000 years ago. In order to un derstand this primeval art we must learn to know, at least in outline, the geological background of its creators. As a matter of convenience, geologists have divided up the long period of time through which the world has passed into a number of major divisions. These are the Archean, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary. Our Ice Age artists belonged to the last-mentioned division which is mainly characterized by cycles of glaciation, and therefore variously called the Pleistocene, Diluvium, or in plain terms, the Ice Age. The Pleistocene has been divided into prehistoric epochs called the Lower Palaeolithic or Early Old Stone Age, Middle Palaeolithic or Middle Old Stone Age, and Upper Palaeolithic or Late Old Stone Age. During the Pleistocene or Ice Age, vast areas of what is now the continents of Europe and the New World were buried under huge glaciers and ice-fields. Pronounced maxima of glaciation were four: called Guenz, Mindel, Riss and Wuerm, separated by periods of warm intervals. The Ice Age artists appeared in Europe and created their astonishing works when the last glaciation — Wuerm — had just passed its peak and a phase of melting had set in. This period be longs to the prehistoric epoch called Upper Palaeoli thic which, in Western Europe, is divided into four cultural stages namely: Perogordian, Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian. The Abbe Henry Breuil, foremost specialist in Palaeolithic Art, was of the opinion that the major portion of the paintings in Lascaux, one of the famous decorated caves in France, might be assigned to the Aurignacian period. Three prehistoric artistic regions are distinguished in Eu rope, the most splendid of which is what is known as the Franco-Cantabrian province, comprising the northern Spanish and south-western French cave re gions. Findings have shown that some seventy-one decorated caves had been discovered in France, most of them in the Dordogne, Ariege, and Lot depart ments, with thirty-four in Spain. According to the present situation of scientific research, the birthplace of Ice Age art is located within these areas. Here the Palaeolithic artists developed almost every technique of representational art with astonishing skill: engrav ing, executed on stone, bone, and ivory, and painting. Walls and ceilings of caves were covered with varied pictorial designs, ranging from simple color tracings on incised outlines to free painting in one or more colors. By the light of smoking grease lamps or flickering torches, the artists covered the shimmer ing crystalline surfaces of innumerable limestone cave walls with an abundance of animal representa tions. Incised with flint, painted in earth colors, modeled in clay or engraved on bone, antler, and stone, the whole animal world of those times were depicted — mammoth, rhinoceros, bison, reindeer, wild horse, and the first oxen. TECHNOLOGY Evidence has shown that the prehistoric artists sometimes worked with the aid of lamps deep in the recesses of the limestone caves. These stone “lamps” of concave stones and the palettes or saucers on which they prepared their colors have been excavated under the floors of many prehistoric galleries. Polychrome painting was achieved by the use of various ochres, oxide of manganese and carbon, ground on stone Cave painting in Castillo (above). Below is the “sketch sheet” of the hind engraved in bone excavated in Altainitra miles away. Prehistoric Man in the Ice Age l>y ROSA C. P. TENAZAS Aug.-Sept., 1965 THE CAROLINIAN Page Twenty-three Natural irregularity of cave ceiling in Altamira, stimulated prehistoric imagination to improvise the shape of this animal. Natural boss, was utilized of form the hump of a bison. Most of the painted Lascaux animals are pregnant — ob viously related to fertility magic. Cave painting at Niaux, France, shows arrows directed toward the animals — a form of sympathetic magic — to in sure successful hunting. palettes and either applied in powder form by being blown from the mouth or through a tube or mixed with animal grease and applied by means of brushes or soft stumps. There is besides, strong indication of possible “Art Schools” during those times. “Sketch-sheets” of slabs of limestones, bones or horns have been dis covered which contained engravings from which have been copied some of the masterpieces found in cave walls. In the cave of Altamira in north Spain, a stratum of the lower Magdalenian yielded a shoulderblade with the finely engraved head of a hind. The same drawing recurs almost exactly to the last line but on a larger scale on the wall of Castillo several miles away. On the wall of Font-de-Gaume, in the Dordogne, is painted a gigantic old bison with power ful withers. More than two decades after the dis covery of the cave of Font-de-Gaume, the sketch for that bison was found in the cave of Geniere, in the department Ain, about 200 miles away. It has been suggested that the artist, before he began painting, used a stone knife-blade to trace out lines upon the rock surface. It is clear that these engraved lines were first marked out by means of a brush. The lines are so thin that it would have been impracticable to make them with any other instru ment than a brush. Delicate feathers could be fixed into small bones and thus make very useful and handy brushes. The surface was first prepared with fat and oil and then the powdered colors were blown onto this background. The blow pipes of bones utilized for this purpose have been recovered in great num bers from the filling strata of many caves. Powdered fine in mortars, the ochre-crayons have been found in many caves, ranging in tint from quite light to very dark. During excavations such pigments have turned up, neatly arranged in a row, just as a modern painter will arrange his tubes. THE PRESERVATION OF PREHISTORIC PAINTINGS How have these works of art been preserved through the ages? According to experts, it is even temperature inside the caves that has kept prehistoricpaintings throughout these thousands of years. Fur thermore, the nature of the peculiarly hard limestone that make up these caves is such that it permits of the formation of small, thin, transparent particles of calcite which resemble tiny bits of glass. In this way the paintings have become covered, in part at least, with a delicate coating that has maintained them as fresh as when they were made. The brilliance of the colors is especially remarkable which is why it had taken years and a lot of heartache on the part of some discoverers before these works of art could be estab lished as authentic beyond any doubt. WHY THE CAVE PAINTINGS? According to scholars, the basic drive behind the cave art was a sense of the hunter’s dependence on game and on his ability to secure victims. This might be explained as an inclination towards sympathetic magic wherein scenes depicted are of animals struck by deadly missiles, or of animals with wounds oozing with blood from their sides, to insure success in the chase. Art in the Ice Age was essentially in the service of hunting magic, wherein the symbols signifying death spells or magical killing of the animals gave (Continued on page 48) Page Twenty-four THE CAROLINIAN Aug.-Sept., 1965 YOUNG DRIVERS • By REUEL CARILLO YOU WOULD SAY unhesitatingly that young drivers are in a precarious state. Many young men below the driving age have cars of their own already, vicarious feeling nevertheless to fancy how comfortable and relaxing it would be to drive a car of your own. You can’t help being envious of the fact that a friend has a car and you don’t. It is a titillating feeling to imagine yourself in a cozy, dandy car all by yourself able to go anywhere. You’d say to yourself, “now that I have a car I’ll really paint the town red!” You fancy that, but think also of the dreadful accidents met by those reckless, speed-crazy drivers your age. Wouldn’t you say, “It were better if I didn’t have a car at all!” So let us face reality and realize that juvenile delinquency has been increasing rapidly as the num ber of young drivers increase correspondingly. “Now, why should they act wantonly? How ungrateful can they get”, you wonder. Those young drivers take advantage of the love, care, and affection given them by their parents. They are too carefree, too desul tory in their activities. The supposed hope of the Fatherland is becoming the problem of the country. They indulge in sensual pleasures, going from one party to another, crashing parties, and oftentimes figure in altercations, melees, and brawls. Come to think of it, they live on allowances given by their parents, yet they spend money like nobody’s business. I had an Australian friend, and we once talked about college students. He showed me a magazine with a picture of two university students, a boy in short pants, slippers, and t-shirt, and a girl in faded jeans. I asked him why they appeared that way. He told me with dignity that they (Australians) are very particular about the importance of money. He said that their parents can’t keep their children in lavish conditions. When I asked him for a souvenir photo he told me bluntly that they don’t customarily give photos away to friends or acquaintances. He ela borated by saying that if he were to give photographs away, the expense would accumulate to a big amount! I said to myself, “My, what a difference compared to this country of mine. Here, the children are pro vided by the parents with the best, and yet see what the children give in return!” Perhaps these youthful drivers possess a feeling of superiority and aristocracy. But when we con template on their distorted sense of values, we know they will end up worthless. A friend of mine owns a car. He tells me what his father told him when he was given a car for his personal use. He said, “You know my father told me that if I were delinquent and truant in my academic life, I would forfeit the car.” He later pro fessed that it was not the admonition of his father that made him pursue academic excellence, but the thrill of knowing a lot of things. He said it was the feeling that he was still inadequate to stand out as a bright student. But you try to ask another student, a young one, leaning on his Thunderbird, “What are you going to do this weekend? Study for the exam? Be prepared for the reply that he’s going to paint the town with his regular companions. How will their attitude end ? Doubtless they were encouraged with the quest for academic excellence. Despite this encouragement, they still strive for sen sual excellence! But driving young doesn’t really matter. It de pends on the kind of person a young driver is. The next day, you read a column in a newspaper with a headline, “Boy meets accident, seriously hurt.” Of course you think of your carefree friend. And there your imagination really hits the nail on the head. It was him all right! If only he had been more sensible, you say to yourself, this terrible thing would not have happened. So learn a lesson from this. # The Art of Prehistoric ... (Continued from page 24) the hunter a mysterious power over the animal por trayed. There is also strong evidence pointing to the fact that before starting out on an expedition, the hunters performed certain rites or a mock hunt in front of the pictures. In addition to the death spells the hunters also performed fertility or procreation spells. This is shown by the numerous representations of pregnant animals. We see from this the anxiety of those hunters for the replenishment of the stock of game in their territory which was continually diminished by the chase, beasts of prey, and possibly extinction due to disease and other natural catastrophes. Ice Age Art was rooted in a magical mentality or belief. Successful hunting and multiplication of the game constituted the chief concern and creative im pulse of those hunter artists. Helpless as he was to cope with the powers of nature, and ill-equipped to confront the great beasts of his day, primitive man derived from his magical faith a mysterious power and a sense of security. REFERENCES: Carballo, J. The Cave Altamira. Santander, 1961. Clark, Grahamme. World Prehistoric — an Outline, Cambridge, Kuhn, Herbert. On the Tracks of Prehistoric Man. London, 1958. 1962. Maringer, Johannes. The God6 of Prehistoric Man. New York Maringer, Johannes and Hans-Georg Bandi. Art in the Ice Age. London, 1953. Page Forty-eight THE CAROLINIAN Aug.-Sept., 1965