Essay On Paleolithic Art

It is impossible to imagine life outside of the one we live in today. When you start to learn about other time periods, our ancestors, and the technology they used during their time, you can’t help but to wonder. It appears that art played a huge role in our history. It dates back to around 30, 000 BCE(p.15) Historians refer to this period as The Old stone Age, which is also known as the Paleolithic period. Supposedly, it is the most important era in art History (p.15) Our ancestors often painted on or carved into cave walls; recording their environment and what they viewed as important during their lifetime (p.15). The concept of recording began with them (p.15) Other art forms include, simple shell necklaces to human and animal forms in ivory, clay, and stone to monumental …show more content…
These include the Chauvet Cave and the caves at Lascaux which is the most famous of them all (p.15). One noteworthy aspect of the Lascaux murals is where man makes one of his earliest appearances in prehistoric art. (p.23) Old Stone Age Humans were obsessed with illustrating animals. Mainly bulls and horses, and other animals there are now extinct. In fact, Paleolithic painters and sculptors depicted humans infrequently, and men almost never (p.16). Many have Speculated and theorized why those images and carvings where so important to prehistoric people. One ideas included that prehistoric hunters attributed magical properties to the images they painted and sculpted (P.21). Some have even hypothesized that rituals or dances were performed in front of the images to improve the hunters’ luck, or to assure the survival of the herds (p.21). Other scholars have suggested that they serve as teaching tools to instruct new hunters (p.21). Some suggested that Paleolithic humans believed they had animal ancestors, and some were just for mere decoration (p.21). The truth is, no one really knows the story behind this prehistoric