Today I'm going to talk about The Stone Age.


Specially of art.

Stone Age Artists
This is clear in the cave art, sculptures, paintings and engravings of the Upper Palaeolithic Age, from about 40,000 to 12,000 BC, especially in the decorated caves in France and Spain. These were executed by the earlier representatives of homo sapiens, and not infrequently they occur on the walls of deep and tortuous limestone caverns, often in nooks and crannies and obscure positions none too easy to reach.
To make a first-hand study of this very important aspect of prehistoric religion the best centre is Les Eyzies on the banks of the Vezere in the Dordogne, within easy reach of which are a number of the principal examples, such as that known as Font-de-Gaume, less than a kilometre and a half from the village. A little further along the Sarlat road in the valley of the Beune is a long subterranean tunnel called Les Combarelles with a number of engravings. Not far away at Laussel a rock-shelter contained a frieze depicting an obese nude female carved on a block of stone, apparently in an advanced stage of pregnancy and holding in her right hand what seems to be the horn of a bison. The figure had been covered with red ochre to increase- its life-giving properties and female potency. Some 48 kilometres up-stream from Lez Eyzies the recently discovered cave at Lascaux near Montignac, about which more will be said later. important are the regions of Ariege in the Pyrenees and San-tander in northern Spain.
In several of the more popular decorated caves the installation of electric lighting has made it possible to get a better view of the remarkable polychrome paintings and the less accessible figures than ever before, but with disastrous effects upon them at Lascaux. Moreover, it has destroyed the numinous atmosphere, the aura of awe and wonder, and the conditions in which they were originally fashioned, obscuring their purpose and significance. Thus, at Font-de-Gaume in a sacred chamber beyond a stalactite barrier at the end of the cave there is the figure of a woolly rhinoceros in red ochre high up on a narrow crevice, together with engravings of a lion and horses. It would appear that the prehistoric artist could only have done these while standing on the shoulders of an assistant, having only a flickering lamp burning marrow or fat with a wick of moss. It is inconceivable that this was done merely for aesthetic reasons as 'art for art's sake' on an almost vertical wall 3 metres (10 feet) above the floor.


In the photograf you can see the cave painting.