Spanish Cave Paintings

[Aberdeen]

I found this story on the Archeology News Network. I hadn't realized there were that many surviving ancient cave paintings. But if they're not being guarded and preserved properly, they probably won't survive too much longer.

"Archaeologists in eastern Spain have discovered 12 prehistoric rock paintings depicting hunting scenes from 7,000 years ago. The site's location is being kept a secret until the necessary security precautions are in place. Town hall representatives in the Valencian municipality of Vilafranca announced the finding on Tuesday, the first of its kind and importance for many years in the region. Although archaeologists are still searching the area for more rock paintings, their work has already unveiled detailed depictions of prehistoric hunting; including bulls, goats and archers chasing them down. The site’s location is being kept a secret until the necessary security precautions are in place. Last April, a 5,000 year-old rock painting in southern Spain was destroyed by thieves who tried to steal the Unesco World Heritage-listed artwork by chipping it off the cave wall where it was housed. There are several hundred sites along Spain's Mediterranean seaboard where prehistoric paintings have been found, the largest group in Europe according to Unesco. "A lot of these places are abandoned and need greater supervision," Fae president José Antonio Berrocal told The Local. "Although there is legislation protecting these sites in theory, there is a lack of political will," he added. "Obviously you can't have policemen stationed in every cave, but we need a system of continuous monitoring with officers coming around periodically to monitor the situation," the cave expert explained. "In some cases, closing off those caves may be the only option to protect world heritage paintings," he added. The Spanish rock sites display "a critical phase of human development...in paintings whose style and subject matter are unique," Unesco says on its website."

 

[Fire Haired14]

It must have been Cardiel farmers or hunter gatherers like La Brana-1 who made those rock paintings. Detailed depictions of humans may finally solve the mystery of what skin tone Mesolithic European hunter gatherers had.

Cave paintings from Iberia known as Levantine art, have depictions of men with dark brown or black hair, beards, long hair, and dark brown skin.

This might confirm that stone age European hunter gatherers did have dark brown skin, like most people expected.

They look alot like the reconstruction of La Brana-1.

It is hard to believe that Mesolithic Europeans who take up over 50% of the ancestry of northeast Europeans and were literally pure Europeans, had deep brown skin, very dark hair, and mainly blue eyes. I bet European light skin one way or another descends from EEF, and that light hair+even lighter skin+revival of light eyes evolved after the Neolithic in the main ancestors of all north Europeans.

 

[bicicleur 2]

It must have been Cardiel farmers or hunter gatherers like La Brana-1 who made those rock paintings. Detailed depictions of humans may finally solve the mystery of what skin tone Mesolithic European hunter gatherers had.

Cave paintings from Iberia known as Levantine art, have depictions of men with dark brown or black hair, beards, long hair, and dark brown skin.

This might confirm that stone age European hunter gatherers did have dark brown skin, like most people expected.

They look alot like the reconstruction of La Brana-1.

It is hard to believe that Mesolithic Europeans who take up over 50% of the ancestry of northeast Europeans and were literally pure Europeans, had deep brown skin, very dark hair, and mainly blue eyes. I bet European light skin one way or another descends from EEF, and that light hair+even lighter skin+revival of light eyes evolved after the Neolithic in the main ancestors of all north Europeans.

this type of cave painting make me think of paintings in the Sahara

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassili_n'Ajjer#Prehistoric_art

it is the origin of the Berber tribes

just before arrival of cardial people some Berber tribes are supposed to have entered Iberia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Almagra_pottery

it would explain the presence of E-M81 in Iberia

 

[Fire Haired14]

The painting i showed is not Mesolithic, it dates to 4,000-2,000BC. Plus that may not be its original coloring. How stupid were pre historic people? How hard was it for them to simply paint themselves? How could there be so many known cave paintings in Europe, yet not one detailed painting of a human?

 

[bicicleur 2]

The painting i showed is not Mesolithic, it dates to 4,000-2,000BC. Plus that may not be its original coloring. How stupid were pre historic people? How hard was it for them to simply paint themselves? How could there be so many known cave paintings in Europe, yet not one detailed painting of a human?

they used only in colours they had readily available

the techniques appear to be different from the paleolithic art and so the painters may be different people

rock paintings are difficult to date

where did you get this 4-2000 BC date ? this is quite recent

 

[ebAmerican]

The painting i showed is not Mesolithic, it dates to 4,000-2,000BC. Plus that may not be its original coloring. How stupid were pre historic people? How hard was it for them to simply paint themselves? How could there be so many known cave paintings in Europe, yet not one detailed painting of a human?

That has always puzzled me as well. They can paint fairly accurate animals, but their human figures are very primitive (pun).

I'm an artist, so I understand the concepts of painting and drawing from a professional perspective (pun). I'm on a role!

The only thing I can figure is that it was a religious choice. I believe most of these cave painting were intended for shaman use. Maybe representing humans to realistically trapped the intended person in some type of limbo or some other ancestor or shamanistic purpose.

I don't think they were stupid or incapable.

 

[Aberdeen]

The painting i showed is not Mesolithic, it dates to 4,000-2,000BC. Plus that may not be its original coloring. How stupid were pre historic people? How hard was it for them to simply paint themselves? How could there be so many known cave paintings in Europe, yet not one detailed painting of a human?

Wrong. While there's been a lot of debate about the exact date of cave paintings in eastern Spain, and some may date from as late as 3500 B.C., most of them are generally considered to be Mesolithic. None of them were as recent as 2000 B.C., AFAIK. And, as bicicleur said, they painted with the colours they had, so the colour of the humans in those paintings doesn't indicate the actual skin colour of the people who did the paintings. And no, pre-historic people obviously weren't too stupid to paint themselves if they could paint other things accurately. There must have been some sort of taboo against depicting the human figure when the earliest European cave paintings were made, a taboo that was apparently no longer in force at a later date.

 

[LeBrok]

They are using only one or two colour dye in these paintings. If they used much richer palette of colours we could have expected to see more realistic skin tone representation.

 

[Gracchus]

There are two types in post-Paleolithic Art (rock paintings) on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian peninsula during 6-5th millennium BC: Levantine Art and Schematic Art, both lived at the same time.
Levantine art is typical of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies, especially representing human figures, men armed with bows and hunting scenes. women appear bare chest and flared skirts.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barran...viewer/Archivo:Valltorta_(escena_de_caza).png

lot of animals appear, being famous bulls (aurochs), which later would inspire Pablo Picasso:

http://www.celtiberia.net/verimg.asp?id=2173

Caugth the attention some representations of scenes of war between two groups of hunters, for some, it would be war scenes between hunter-gatherers and farmers, we would be at other ritual scenes:

http://www.cuevascastellon.uji.es/imagen/ares_doguespinturas.gif

The schematic art is the art of farmers, and found parallels in the cardium pottery of agricultural peoples of the time:

http://juancarlosisla.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/vasija-de-la-cova-de-lor.jpg
http://senderosesotericos.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/petracos2.jpg

Sorry, for my english.

 

[Gracchus]

More fight scenes between archers, perhaps "natural resource wars" between farmers and hunter-gatherers?

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehis...iewer/Archivo:Morella_(combate-de-arquero.png

 

[Aberdeen]

Some researchers have argued that some of the "Levantine" cave paintings could be from as late as the Neolithic. However, even it that's true, the paintings were probably created by Mesolithic survivors, IMO.

 

[Angela]

Very interesting thread, Aberdeen. Thanks. I find their art very beautiful, especially in the way that they portray movement.

 

[LeBrok]

Very interesting thread, Aberdeen. Thanks. I find their art very beautiful, especially in the way that they portray movement.

I agree. They were all painted by real artists, ancient Picassos and M. Angelos.

 

[Gracchus]

I send more beautiful pictures of Levantine art:
Mesolithic archer, maybe the man of La Bra?a, it would be like this: long hair, wear pants and leg guards, carrying bow and arrows in his hand:

http://cazadores-recolectores.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/el-analisis-de-pigmentos-en-aragon-otra.html


Other Mesolithic hunter, wounded by arrows, trying to escape his enemy, highlights its feathered headdress, perhaps representing the chief of a tribe or clan:

http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/v2/obras/19311.htm


A man suspended by ropes tries to collect wild honey,the bees appear around it:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuevas_de_la_Araña#mediaviewer/Archivo:Cueva_arana.svg

 

[Aberdeen]

One of the reasons these paintings fascinate me is the complexity of thought behind them. I think it's obvious that the creators of these paintings understood the idea of capturing the essence of a person or an action, and considered that to be more important than the "accurate" depiction of the person, animal or object being portrayed. To me, it's a reminder that our ancient ancestors were every bit as intelligent as we are, they just hadn't yet created complex technology for their brains to use.

 

[epoch]

That has always puzzled me as well. They can paint fairly accurate animals, but their human figures are very primitive (pun).

I'm an artist, so I understand the concepts of painting and drawing from a professional perspective (pun). I'm on a role!

The only thing I can figure is that it was a religious choice. I believe most of these cave painting were intended for shaman use. Maybe representing humans to realistically trapped the intended person in some type of limbo or some other ancestor or shamanistic purpose.

I don't think they were stupid or incapable.

I recently read a book about the aboriginal population of Australia, by Josephine Flood, which detailed that once a person died his or her name should not be mentioned for a long while. The British authorities that wanted to investigate alleged massacres then returned with no witnesses willing to witness, simply because in such a case they had to mention the names of the victims. The taboo was that strong.