The discovery of an ancient rock painting in a cave in Gibraltar, which scientists believe was made by Neanderthals about 39,000 years ago, has become a real sensation in the scientific world. If the discovery turns out to be true, then history will have to be rewritten, because it turns out that the Neanderthals were not at all primitively stupid savages, as is commonly believed today. In our review, there are a dozen unique rock paintings that were found at different times and made a splash in the world of science.
1. Rock of the white shaman
This 4,000-year-old ancient rock art is located in the lower reaches of the Pecoe River in Texas. The giant image (3.5 m) shows the central figure surrounded by other people performing some rituals. It is assumed that the figure of a shaman is depicted in the center, and the picture itself depicts the cult of some forgotten ancient religion.
2. Kakadu Park
Kakadu National Park is one of the most beautiful places for tourists in Australia. It is especially valued for its rich cultural heritage - the park has an impressive collection of local Aboriginal art. Some of the rock paintings at Kakadu (which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site) are nearly 20,000 years old.
3. Chauvet Cave
Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the south of France. More than 1000 different images can be found in Chauvet Cave, most of them animal and anthropomorphic figures. These are some of the oldest images known to man: their age dates back to 30,000 - 32,000 years. About 20,000 years ago, the cave was filled with stones and it has been preserved in excellent condition to this day.
4. Cueva de El Castillo
In Spain, the "Cave Cave" or Cueva de El Castillo was recently discovered, on the walls of which they found the oldest rock paintings in Europe, their age is 4,000 years older than all the rock paintings that were previously found in the Old World. Most images show handprints and simple geometric shapes, although there are also images of strange animals. One of the drawings, a simple red disk, was made 40,800 years ago. It is assumed that these paintings were made by Neanderthals.
5. Laas Gaal
Some of the most ancient and well-preserved rock paintings on the African continent can be found in Somalia, in the Laas Gaal (Camel Well) cave complex. Despite the fact that they are "only" 5,000 to 12,000 years old, these rock paintings are perfectly preserved. They depict mainly animals and people in ceremonial robes and various decorations. Unfortunately, this remarkable cultural site is not eligible for World Heritage status as it is located in an area where there is constant war.
6. Bhimbetka rock dwellings
The rock dwellings at Bhimbetka represent some of the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. In natural rock shelters, there are paintings on the walls that are about 30,000 years old. These paintings represent the period of development of civilization from the Mesolithic to the end of prehistoric times. The drawings depict animals and people in daily activities such as hunting, religious ceremonies and, interestingly, dancing.
7. Magura
In Bolgari, the rock paintings found in the Magura cave are not very old - they are between 4,000 and 8,000 years old. They are interesting with the material that was used for drawing images - guano (litter) of a bat. In addition, the cave itself was formed millions of years ago and other archaeological artifacts have been found in it, such as the bones of extinct animals (for example, a cave bear).
8. Cueva de las Manos
The "Cave of Hands" in Argentina is famous for its extensive collection of prints and images of human hands. This rock painting dates back to 9,000 - 13,000 years. The cave itself (more precisely, the cave system) was used by ancient people as early as 1,500 years ago. Also in Cueva de las Manos you can find various geometric figures and images of hunting.
9. Altamira Cave
The paintings found in the cave of Altamira in Spain are considered a masterpiece of ancient culture. The stone paintings of the Upper Paleolithic (14,000-20,000 years old) are in exceptional condition. As in the Chauvet cave, a collapse sealed the entrance to this cave about 13,000 years ago, so the images remained in their original form. In fact, these drawings are so well preserved that when they were first discovered in the 19th century, scientists thought they were fake. It took a long time until technology made it possible to confirm the authenticity of the rock art. Since then, the cave has proved so popular with tourists that it had to be closed in the late 1970s as large amounts of carbon dioxide from the breath of visitors began to destroy the painting.
10. Lascaux Cave
This is by far the most famous and most significant collection of rock art in the world. Some of the most beautiful 17,000 year old paintings in the world can be found in this cave system in France. They are very complex, very carefully made and at the same time perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, the cave was closed over 50 years ago due to the fact that under the influence of carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors, the unique images began to collapse. In 1983, a reproduction of a part of the cave called Lasko 2 was discovered.
Of great interest are and. They will be of interest not only to professional historians and art critics, but also to everyone who is interested in history.
Cro-Magnons, who lived on earth 30 thousand years ago, used simple drawings to express their feelings and emotions. But the cave paintings of primitive people cannot be called primitive, since they were created by people with extraordinary artistic talents. Drawings of primitive people in caves are graphic and three-dimensional images, bas-reliefs on the walls. Many such drawings are known today: in France (southwestern part), Spain (its northwestern part), Italy, even in Russia, Serbia and England, there are single copies.
Rock paintings and pictures of primitive people are unique and most often resemble a two-dimensional image. At the same time, techniques that help convey volume began to be used only during the Renaissance. Rock art is replete with images of rhinos, bison, mammoths, deer. Also in the drawings there are hunting scenes, people with arrows and spears are depicted. Occasionally there are drawings of fish, plants, insects. The paints with which the drawings are made do not fade and fully convey the original brightness. It is difficult to imagine a person who has no idea what rock paintings are (photos will help you figure this out).
Where did the first people paint?
The hard-to-reach areas of the caves, located a hundred meters from the surface, were a great place for drawing. This is due primarily to the cult significance of rock paintings, requiring the performance of a certain rite. Such a rite was drawing. Melted and still hot fat of wild animals, bunches of moss or wool were poured into bowls. Then the artist began to work in the light of stone lamps.
What are the cave paintings called?
The rock carvings of the ancients are called petroglyphs (Greek - to cut a stone). There are drawings made in the form of symbols or symbols. The drawings contain a huge amount of valuable information about the life of the representatives of the most ancient population, reveal the traditions and historical events that influenced the ancient man.
Later drawings were made in the form of symbols or symbols. Man initially sought to express thoughts with the help of signs, writing. Painting brought this moment closer, becoming a transitional period between graphic drawings and writing. The images are called pictograms. For example, on the territory of Armenia, archaeologists have discovered inscriptions resembling all known ancient alphabets. The oldest images found here are over 9,000 years old. The cave paintings of primitive people are pictures created by the first people.
Technique and materials
What motivated people to draw? Just the desire to create beauty or the need to perform and capture a special ritual? It was not so easy to make a rock engraving, especially if the paint was applied into deep cuts that the ancient painter carved with a rough cutting tool. It could be a large stone cutter. Such a tool was discovered at the site of the ancient people of Le Roque de Ser. During the period of the Middle and Late Paleolithic, the technique of performing rock art of primitive people is more subtle. The contours of the engravings were carved several times with shallow lines. Even then, hatching and combined painting were used. There are similar images on the tusks and bones of animals that belong to the same period.
Rock paintings, photo in Altamira Cave
The paint of primitive man is all shades of ocher, which were used as a red dye, charcoal and manganese ore. Chalk and bat guano were also used. Future paint was rubbed with bone or stone. The resulting powder was mixed with animal fat. Ancient people even had prototypes of modern tubes. They kept the paints in the hollow parts of animal bones, both sides of which were sealed with a hardened lump of the same animal fat. There were no other colors, such as green or blue.
Bones or sharp sticks, the ends of which were split, served as a brush for primitive artists. Pieces of wool were also used, which were tied to the bone. They first drew the outline, and then painted over. But there are other pictures as well. For example, a handprint that was splattered with paint through a reed.
Ancient people had no idea about the composition or proportions of the body. They drew large predators and tiny mountain goats in their background. But this did not prevent them from creating masterpieces comparable to the modern idea of painting. The accuracy of the transfer of objects and animals is amazing, and the drawings of ancient people in the caves imprinted in stone ancient animals that have long died out. The visual effect was enhanced by the fact that the image was applied to the ledge of the rock.
What did primitive people draw?
Rock paintings of ancient people are a manifestation of emotional and vivid figurative thinking. Not everyone could create such masterpieces, but only those in whose subconscious mind visual images arose. Those who were overwhelmed with bright images transferred them to the plane of the rocks.
There is an assumption that with the help of rock art, visions were transmitted, a person expressed himself and conveyed his life experience. But most scientists adhere to the version of the cult significance of the drawings: they were probably created before the hunt. Thus, a person tried to influence the result, to attract the preferred animal during the hunt.
The disappearance of some animals, climate change led to a serious change in human activity. Now he spent more time raising animals and working the land. There was less time for hunting. This was also reflected in rock art. The drawings were no longer made deep in the cave, but outside. Images of a person were now more and more common. Animals that were domesticated were also depicted in cave engravings (scenes of fox hunting). Schematic drawings spread: triangles, straight or winding lines, a heap of colored spots.
If earlier hunting scenes were most often depicted, now they were also ritual dances, battles, and grazing. There are many such drawings in Spain.
Where can you see rock art?
In France, in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet, drawings were found that date back to about the 18th-15th millennium BC. e. They depict horses, cows, bulls, bears. In Spain, in the cave of Altamira, hunting scenes are depicted by ancient artists so skillfully that if you look at them with a blazing fire, you get the impression of movement of objects. In Africa, there is a whole complex of caves with rock art. This is Laas-Gaal in Somaliland, and Tassilin-Adjer in Algeria. Rock paintings have also been discovered in Egypt (Plovtsov cave), Bulgaria, Bashkiria, Argentina (Cueva de las Manos cave) and many others.
Objects of art or a primitive reflection of reality?
Between primitive "art" and modern it is impossible to put an equal sign. But, considering ancient images, modern art historians rely on the usual formulations, going far beyond the specifics of primitive art. Today in the world of art there is an author of a work, and there is a consumer. Ancient artists created their creations only because they had the ability to draw and felt the need to display the reality around them or significant events. They had no ideas about art or were blurry, but the images that overwhelmed their consciousness found a way out into the world through their creator, who, most likely, the tribesmen considered endowed with supernatural power.
So what is the difference between rock art and ordinary modern art? The only difference is that the first drawings were made by artists of the Paleolithic era, and a rock was used as a canvas. Of course, the phenomenon of creativity is associated with the interaction of all spiritual forces and the release of emotions in a special way. A person could create something new and important for himself, but the realization of this phenomenon occurred gradually. Cro-Magnon lived in a cultural environment in which there was no division into separate areas of activity. And the ancient people did not have leisure in our understanding, since their life was not divided into strict work and rest. The time when a person did not fight for existence, he devoted to the performance of rituals and other actions important for the well-being of the tribe.
Human civilization has come a long way of development and achieved impressive results. Contemporary art is one of them. But everything has its beginning. How did painting originate and who were they - the first artists of the world?
The beginning of prehistoric art - types and forms
In the Paleolithic, primitive art first appears. It took different forms. These were rituals, music, dances and songs, as well as drawing images on various surfaces - rock art of primitive people. This period also includes the creation of the first man-made structures - megaliths, dolmens and menhirs, the purpose of which is still unknown. The most famous of them is Stonehenge in Salisbury, consisting of cromlechs (vertical stones).
Household items, such as jewelry, children's toys, also belong to the art of primitive people.
periodization
Scientists have no doubts about the time of the birth of primitive art. It began to form in the middle of the Paleolithic era, during the existence of the late Neanderthals. The culture of that time is called Mousterian.
Neanderthals knew how to process stone, creating tools. On some objects, scientists found depressions and notches in the form of crosses, forming a primitive ornament. At that time they could not paint yet, but ocher was already in use. Pieces of it were found worn off, like a pencil that was used.
Primitive rock art - definition
This is one of the species. It is an image painted on the surface of the cave wall by an ancient man. Most of these objects were found in Europe, but there are drawings of ancient people in Asia. The main area of distribution of rock art is the territory of modern Spain and France.
Doubts of scientists
For a long time, modern science was not aware that the art of primitive man had reached such a high level. Drawings in the caves were not found until the 19th century. Therefore, when they were first discovered, they were mistaken for falsification.
History of one discovery
Ancient rock art was found by an amateur archaeologist, Spanish lawyer Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola.
This discovery is connected with dramatic events. In the Spanish province of Cantabria in 1868, a hunter discovered a cave. The entrance to it was littered with fragments of crumbling rock. In 1875 it was examined by de Sautuola. At that time, he found only tools. The find was the most common. Four years later, an amateur archaeologist again visited the Altamira cave. On the trip, he was accompanied by a 9-year-old daughter, who discovered the drawings. Together with his friend, the archaeologist Juan Vilanova y Piera, de Sautuola began excavating the cave. Shortly before that, at an exhibition of Stone Age objects, he saw images of bison, surprisingly reminiscent of the cave drawing of an ancient man that his daughter Maria saw. Sautuola suggested that the images of animals found in the Altamira cave belong to the Paleolithic. In this he was supported by Vilanoff-i-Pierre.
Scientists have published the shocking results of their excavations. And then they were accused by the scientific world of falsification. Leading experts in the field of archeology categorically rejected the possibility of finding paintings from the Paleolithic period. Marcelino de Sautuola was accused of the fact that the drawings of ancient people, allegedly found by him, were drawn by a friend of the archaeologist, who was visiting him in those days.
Only 15 years later, already after the death of the man who revealed to the world beautiful examples of the painting of ancient people, his opponents recognized the correctness of Marcelino de Sautuola. By that time, similar drawings in the caves of ancient people were found in Font-de-Gaumes, Trois-Frères, Combarel and Rouffignac in France, Tuc d'Auduber in the Pyrenees and other regions. All of them were attributed to the Paleolithic era. Thus, the honest name of the Spanish scientist, who made one of the most significant discoveries in archeology, was restored.
Mastery of ancient artists
The rock art, the photo of which is presented below, consists of many images of different animals. Among them figurines of bison predominate. Those who first saw the drawings of ancient people found in the area are amazed at how professionally they are made. This magnificent craftsmanship of ancient artists made scientists doubt their authenticity at one time.
Ancient people did not immediately learn how to create accurate images of animals. Drawings have been found that barely outline the contours, so it is almost impossible to know who the artist wanted to portray. Gradually, the skill of drawing became better and better, and it was already possible to quite accurately convey the appearance of the animal.
The first drawings of ancient people can also include handprints found in many caves.
The hand smeared with paint was applied to the wall, the resulting print was outlined in a different color along the contour and enclosed in a circle. According to the researchers, this action had an important ritual significance for the ancient man.
Themes of painting by the first artists
The rock drawing of an ancient man reflected the reality that surrounded him. He displayed what worried him the most. In the Paleolithic, the main occupation and method of obtaining food was hunting. Therefore, animals are the main motif of the drawings of that period. As already mentioned, in Europe, images of bison, deer, horses, goats, bears were found in many. They are not transmitted statically, but in motion. Animals run, jump, frolic and die, pierced by a hunter's spear.
Located in France, there is the largest ancient image of a bull. Its size is more than five meters. In other countries, ancient artists also painted those animals that lived next to them. In Somalia, images of giraffes were found, in India - tigers and crocodiles, in the caves of the Sahara there are drawings of ostriches and elephants. In addition to animals, the first artists painted scenes of hunting and people, but very rarely.
The purpose of the rock paintings
Why the ancient man depicted animals and people on the walls of caves and other objects is not exactly known. Since religion had already begun to form by that time, most likely they had a deep ritual significance. Drawing "Hunting" of ancient people, according to some researchers, symbolized the successful outcome of the fight against the beast. Others believe that they were created by the shamans of the tribe, who went into a trance and tried to gain special power through the image. Ancient artists lived a very long time, and therefore the motives for creating their drawings are unknown to modern scientists.
Paints and tools
To create drawings, primitive artists used a special technique. First, they scratched the image of an animal with a chisel on the surface of a rock or stone, and then applied paint to it. It was made from natural materials - ocher of different colors and black pigment, which was extracted from charcoal. Animal organics (blood, fat, medulla) and water were used to fix the paint. There were few colors at the disposal of ancient artists: yellow, red, black, brown.
Drawings of ancient people had several features. Sometimes they overlapped each other. Often, artists depicted a large number of animals. In this case, the figures in the foreground were depicted carefully, and the rest - schematically. Primitive people did not create compositions, in the vast majority of their drawings - a chaotic pile of images. To date, only a few "paintings" have been found that have a single composition.
During the Paleolithic period, the first painting tools were already created. These were sticks and primitive brushes made from animal fur. Ancient artists also took care of lighting their "canvases". Lamps were found that were made in the form of stone bowls. Fat was poured into them and a wick was placed.
Chauvet cave
She was found in 1994 in France, and her collection of paintings is recognized as the most ancient. Laboratory studies helped determine the age of the drawings - the very first of them were made 36 thousand years ago. Images of animals that lived during the Ice Age were found here. This is a woolly rhinoceros, bison, panther, tarpan (the ancestor of the modern horse). The drawings are perfectly preserved due to the fact that millennia ago the entrance to the cave was filled up.
Now it is closed to the public. The microclimate in which the images are located can disturb the presence of a person. Only its researchers can spend several hours in it. To visit the audience, it was decided to open a replica of the cave not far from it.
Lascaux cave
This is another famous place where drawings of ancient people are found. The cave was discovered by four teenagers in 1940. Now her collection of paintings by ancient artists of the Paleolithic era has 1900 images.
The place has become very popular with visitors. The huge flow of tourists led to damage to the drawings. This happened due to an excess of carbon dioxide exhaled by people. In 1963 it was decided to close the cave to the public. But problems with the preservation of ancient images exist to this day. The microclimate of Lasko was irreversibly disturbed, and now the drawings are under constant control.
Conclusion
The drawings of ancient people delight us with their realism and mastery of execution. Artists of that time were able to convey not only the authentic appearance of the animal, but also its movement and habits. In addition to aesthetic and artistic value, the painting of primitive artists is an important material for the study of the animal world of that period. Thanks to the drawings found in the Chauvet grotto, scientists made an amazing discovery: it turned out that lions and rhinos, the original inhabitants of the hot southern countries, lived in Europe during the Stone Age.
The desire of a person to capture the world around him, events that inspire fear, the hope of being successful in hunting, life, fighting with other tribes, nature, is demonstrated in drawings. They are found all over the world from South America to Siberia. The rock art of primitive people is also called cave painting, since mountain, underground shelters were often used by them as shelters, reliably sheltering from bad weather and predators. In Russia they are called "pisanitsy". The scientific name of the drawings is petroglyphs. After the discovery, scientists sometimes paint over them for better visibility and preservation.
Themes of rock art
Drawings carved on the walls of caves, open, vertical surfaces of rocks, free-standing stones, drawn with charcoal from a fire, chalk, mineral or plant substances, in fact, represent objects of art - engravings, paintings of ancient people. They usually show:
- Figures of large animals (mammoths, elephants, bulls, deer, bison), birds, fish, which were coveted prey, as well as dangerous predators - bears, lions, wolves, crocodiles.
- Scenes of hunting, dancing, sacrifices, war, boating, fishing.
- Images of pregnant women, leaders, shamans in ritual robes, spirits, deities, and other mythical creatures, sometimes attributed by sensationalists to aliens.
These paintings gave scientists a lot to understand the history of the development of society, the animal world, and the Earth's climate change over thousands of years, because the early petroglyphs belong to the eras of the late Paleolithic, Neolithic, and the later ones to the Bronze Age. For example, the periods of domestication of the buffalo, wild bull, horse, and camel were determined in this way in the history of the use of animals by humans. Unexpected discoveries were the confirmation of the facts of the existence of bison in Spain, woolly rhinos in Siberia, prehistoric animals on the great plain, which today is a huge desert - the Central Sahara.
Discovery history
Often this discovery is attributed to the Spanish amateur archaeologist Marcelino de Sautuola, who found magnificent drawings in the cave of Altamira in his homeland at the end of the 19th century. There, rock art, applied with charcoal and ocher, which primitive people have, was so good that it was long considered a fake and a hoax.
In fact, such drawings by that time had long been known throughout the world, with the exception of Antarctica. Thus, rock art sites along the banks of the rivers of Siberia and the Far East have been known since the 17th century and have been described by famous travelers: the scientists Spafariy, Stallenberg, and Miller. Therefore, the discovery in the Altamira cave and the hype that followed is just an example of successful, albeit unintentional, propaganda in the scientific world.
famous drawings
Picture galleries, "photo exhibitions" of ancient people, striking the imagination with the plot, variety, quality of details:
- Magura Cave (Bulgaria). Animals, hunters, ritual dances are depicted.
- Cueva de las Manos (Argentina). The "Cave of Hands" depicts the left hands of the ancient inhabitants of this place, hunting scenes, painted in red-white-black colors.
- Bhimbetka (India). People, horses, crocodiles, tigers and lions "mixed" here.
- Serra da Capivara (Brazil). Hunting, scenes of rituals are depicted in many caves. The oldest drawings are at least 25 thousand years old.
- Laas-Gaal (Somalia) - cows, dogs, giraffes, people in ceremonial clothes.
- Chauvet cave (France). Opened in 1994. The age of some drawings, including mammoths, lions, rhinos, is about 32 thousand years.
- Kakadu National Park (Australia) with images made by the ancient natives of the mainland.
- Newspaper Rock (USA, Utah). Native American heritage, with an unusually high concentration of designs on a flat rocky cliff.
Rock art in Russia has a geography from the White Sea to the banks of the Amur, Ussuri. Here are a few of them:
- White Sea petroglyphs (Karelia). More than 2 thousand drawings - hunting, battles, ritual processions, people on skis.
- Shishkinsky pisanitsy on the rocks in the upper reaches of the Lena River (Irkutsk region). More than 3 thousand different drawings were described in the middle of the 20th century by Academician Okladnikov. A convenient path leads to them. Although it is forbidden to climb there, this does not stop those who want to see the drawings up close.
- Petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan (Khabarovsk Territory). This place was an ancient Nanai camp. The drawings show scenes of fishing, hunting, shaman masks.
It must be said that the rock art of primitive people in different places differs significantly in terms of preservation, plot scenes, and the quality of execution by ancient authors. But to see them at least, and if you're lucky in reality, it's like looking into the distant past.
September 12, 1940 Four French teenagers accidentally stumble upon a narrow hole formed after a fall of a pine tree, which was struck by lightning. They decided that this was the exit from the underground passage leading to the nearby ruins of the castle, and hoped to find a treasure there. But when they got inside and saw huge drawings on the walls, they realized that this was not just an underground passage, and they reported their find to the teacher. This is how the Lascaux cave was discovered. 
All the walls of the cave were completely covered with amazing drawings of animals - bulls, bison, rhinos, horses, deer, even a unicorn, painted with ocher, soot and marl (rock, like clay) and circled in dark contours. Some of the drawings were real size!
The scientist A. Breil spent several months in this cave, making all kinds of measurements and studying primitive painting. At first, art historians doubted the authenticity of the drawings, but a thorough examination rejected all suspicions of forgery, and the age of the images was estimated at 15,000 years.
Very soon, many tourists began to come to the Lasko cave, and soon scientists noticed that the drawings were slowly beginning to collapse. This was due to the excess carbon dioxide exhaled by the people who visited the caves. Soon, tourists were no longer allowed into the Lasko cave and it was mothballed, and a copy of it, Lasko II, was created next to it. It is a concrete structure, inside of which the petroglyphs of selected parts of Lascaux were faithfully reproduced.
Osya and I really liked that on the official website you can take a virtual tour of the cave. In some places you can stop, zoom in on the drawing, examine it and read a short text about it (there is no Russian language on the site, but there is English). Here is the site: http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/02_00.xml
The figures of animals are drawn mainly in profile, in motion. Interestingly, when several animals of different sizes and different colors accumulate in one scene at once, and at the same time they are drawn so that one figure overlaps another, then a cartoon feeling is created if you move the window on the site. Probably, the same effect will be if you move next to these drawings with a lantern in your hands, it's a pity that we can't check :)
There is only one image of a man on the walls of the cave: here you can see four figures combined into one compositional space - a bison pierced by a spear, a lying man, a small bird and a fuzzy silhouette of a receding rhinoceros. The bison stands in profile, but his head is turned towards the viewer. The man is depicted schematically, as in children's drawings. Everything is drawn with a thick black line and not filled with color. Scientists are still arguing what exactly is depicted in this picture: did the bison kill a man, and did the nasorok inflict a mortal wound on the bison? Or is it the other way around?
I showed Osa just such a picture and told that the paints were then mineral. The basis of black paint was manganese, and red - iron oxide. Pieces of minerals were ground into powder on stone slabs, or on animal bones, for example, on a bison shoulder blade. This colored powder was kept in hollowed out bones or leather pouches worn on the belt.
This picture shows an image of a huge bull. The figure of the right bull is the largest rock art in the world, its length is 5.2 meters.
To make it clearer what five meters is, we measured this distance in the apartment and figured out how huge the bull was.
Interestingly, in the Lascaux cave there is an image of a mythical animal - a unicorn:
But this big black bull, 3.71 meters long, is interesting in that it was painted with paint sprayed through a special tube:
What you can do if the child is interested in these drawings:
- you can take craft paper, wrinkle it properly (we didn’t guess right away, but when we came across a crumpled piece of wrapping paper, Osya himself noticed that it turns out to be more textured and the surface resembles the surface of a stone) and hang it on the wall to draw memorable ones on it figures in charcoal, sanguine or multi-colored pastel. And you can paint if the child does not want to get his hands dirty. Most importantly, do not forget to cover the floor around.
And you can make natural paints - from clay and berries, and paint animals with them. And then make a contour separately with charcoal.
You can also try painting with homemade brushes. Offer the child a small stick, some grass/flower stems, and some string. Will he guess what to do with them? And if you cut off the top layer from the sponge for washing dishes, then you can play that this is the skin of an animal that ancient people used to paint over a large area of the picture. Shall we try?
To draw drawings, you can simply sit on a table or on the floor, or you can imagine that we are in a cave and draw on its walls and vaults. Once, when we were playing primitive people, we pasted over the place under the table with paper, and Osya left the rock carvings lying on his back.
This time we hung the drawings under the desk, then Osya filled up the entrance to the "cave" with cushions from the sofa, and we played as if we ourselves were walking and unexpectedly found such a treasure - a cave with ancient rock paintings. In the evening, when it was already dark, we turned off the light and climbed into the cave with flashlights and candles and looked at the images on the walls.
