On September 12, 1940, rock paintings were found in the famous Lascaux cave in France, which is called the Sistine Chapel of prehistoric painting. There are several more places where you can find impressive art of primitive people.
Lascaux cave, France
This is one of the largest and most important paleontological monuments on the planet. There are no other caves with such a large number of rock paintings. In addition to the impressive number of inscriptions, it is also surprising how well they are preserved. The plots of the cave are standard for painting of that period: these are drawings of animals, people, tools.
The cave is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and is closed to tourists. The fact is that due to the presence of people in Lascaux, the fragile natural balance was disturbed, which allowed these inscriptions to exist for many millennia. Now the walls of the cave are treated by scientists every few weeks, removing constantly multiplying bacteria and algae from the rock. For tourists to visit, Lascaux 2 Cave was created, located two hundred meters from the original cave and consisting of reproductions.
Kapova Cave, Russia
The cave is located on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the Shulgan-Tash reserve, has a length of about three kilometers. It was formed in limestone, in a karst massif. A small lake flows into the cave, the water in which is undrinkable and is used exclusively for healing baths.
The drawings on the walls of the Kapova cave were discovered in the mid-fifties by the Soviet zoologist Ryumin. They were applied with the help of ocher, and their age is about eighteen thousand years. This colossal number is hard to imagine: creativity and the desire to create something new made a person draw even before the existence of civilization, religion, science, language. The place, unlike the Lascaux cave, is fully accessible to tourists.
Altamira Cave, Spain
This cave, discovered in 1789, is also quite famous for the fact that, like Lascaux, it uses the technique of polychrome painting: that is, the drawings have color. An interesting nuance is that the natural contours of the walls are used to create a three-dimensional effect.
By the way, you can find drawings not only on the walls, but also on the ceiling. After several closures of the cave due to the fact that mold appeared in the drawings from dampness, in 2011 visits were resumed again.
Tamgaly tract, Kazakhstan
In this place in the Anrakay mountains, 170 kilometers from Alma-Ata, there was once a sanctuary of ancient people. Here you can see images of deities, animals and people: married couples, warriors, hunters.
In total, there are about two thousand drawings. Most of the inscriptions scientists attribute to the Bronze Age. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is open-air and open to the public.
Newspaper Rock, USA
This place is located in the southeast of Utah, literally its name is translated as "newspaper stone". Its peculiarity is the collection of petroglyphs, which was created by the Indians in the prehistoric period. It still remains unclear why such a large number of petroglyphs are drawn on such a small area.
Which drawing is the oldest? It must probably be drawn on an old, dilapidated piece of papyrus, which is now kept in some museum under certain temperature conditions. But time will not spare such a drawing even under the most optimal storage conditions - in a few thousand years it will inevitably turn into dust. But destroying the rock, albeit in a few tens of thousands of years, is a difficult task even for the all-devouring time. Perhaps, in those distant times, when a person only began to live on Earth and huddled not in houses built by his own hands, but in caves and grottoes created by nature, he found time not only to get his own food and maintain a fire, but also to create?
Indeed, rock paintings dating back several tens of thousands of years BC can be found in some caves scattered around the world. There, in a dark and cold enclosed space, the paint retains its properties for a long time. Interestingly, the first rock paintings were found in 1879 - relatively recent by historical standards - when the archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, walking with his daughter, wandered into the cave and saw numerous drawings that adorned its vault. Scientists around the world did not believe in the amazing find at first, but studies of other caves around the world confirmed that some of them really served as a refuge for an ancient person and keep traces of his stay, including drawings.
To determine their age, archaeologists radiocarbon analyze the particles of paint that were used to paint the images. After analyzing hundreds of drawings, experts saw that rock art existed ten, and twenty, and thirty thousand years ago.
This is interesting: Having “arranged” the found drawings in chronological order, the experts saw how the rock art changed over time. Starting with simple two-dimensional images, the artists of the distant past improved their skills, adding more details to their creations, and then shadows and volume.
But the most interesting, of course, is the age of the rock paintings. The use of modern scanners in the study of caves reveals for us even those rock paintings that are already indistinguishable to the human eye. The record of antiquity of the found image is constantly updated. How deep were we able to penetrate into the past, exploring the cold stone walls of caves and grottoes? To date, the cave boasts the oldest cave paintings. El Castillo located in Spain. It is believed that the most ancient rock paintings were found in this cave. One of them - the image of a human palm by spraying paint on a hand leaning against a wall - is of particular interest.
The oldest drawing to date, age ~ 40,800 years. Cave of El Castillo, Spain. Since traditional radiocarbon analysis would have given too much variation in the readings, to more accurately determine the age of the images, scientists used the method of radioactive decay of uranium, measuring the amount of decay products in stalactites formed over thousands of years on top of the picture. It turned out that the age of the rock carvings is about 40,800 years, which makes them the most ancient on Earth among those discovered at the moment. It is quite possible that they were not even painted by homo sapience, but by a Neanderthal.
But the El Castillo cave has a worthy competitor: the caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. To determine the age of the local drawings, scientists examined the age of calcium deposits formed on top of them. It turned out that calcium deposits appeared no less 40,000 years ago, which means that the cave paintings cannot be younger. Unfortunately, it is not possible to more accurately determine the age of the works of the ancient artist. But one thing we know for sure: in the future, even more ancient and amazing finds await humanity.
Illustration: image of a bison in the cave of Altamira, Spain. Age around 20,000 years
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Rock paintings of ancient people
The ancient civilizations were not too developed, regarding their knowledge in the field of chemistry and physics. Perhaps because of this, many mystical theories appeared, the deification of natural phenomena, great importance was attached to the death of a person, his departure to another world. The rock paintings of ancient people can tell us a lot about what happened in their lives. On the walls they depicted agricultural activities, military rituals, gods, priests. In a word, everything that their world consisted of and depended on.
In ancient Egypt, tombs and pyramids are filled with rock paintings. In the tombs of the pharaohs, for example, it was customary to depict their entire life path from birth to death. In full detail, the cave paintings describe burial celebrations, etc.
The most primitive drawings show that a person from his very appearance was drawn to art, he wanted to remember some moments of life forever. In hunting, primitive people saw a special beauty, they sought to portray the grace and strength of animals.
Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome also left a lot of rock evidence to remind us of their existence. The thing is that they already had developed writing - their drawings are much more interesting, from the point of view of studying everyday life, than ancient graffiti.
The Greeks loved to write down wise sayings, or cases that seemed to them instructive, funny. The Romans noted in the cave paintings the valor of soldiers, the beauty of women, despite the fact that the Roman civilization was practically a copy of the Greek, Roman graffiti does not differ in the sharpness of thought or the dexterity of its transmission.
With the development of society, wall art also developed, passing from civilization to civilization, and giving it a unique shade. Each society, civilization leaves its mark in history, similar to the one that leaves an inscription on a clean wall.
Ancient rock paintings (petroglyphs) are found all over the world and have one thing in common, they describe animals, including those that are no longer found on earth. Many of these drawings are so well-preserved that experts thought they were fake at first glance. However, after careful examination, the images were found to be genuine. Below is a list of ten well-preserved prehistoric rock paintings.
Chauvet cave
A cave located near the commune of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, in the valley of the Ardèche River in southern France. Contains the earliest known and best preserved rock art in the world dating from the Aurignacian era (36,000 years ago). The cave was discovered on December 18, 1994 by three cavers - Eliette Brunel, Christian Hillaire and Jean-Marie Chauvet. The drawings in the cave depict various animals from the Ice Age.
Magura Cave
Magura is a cave located near the village of Rabisha in the Vidin region, Bulgaria. In the cave, bones of a cave bear, cave hyena and other animals were found. And on its walls you can see drawings from different historical periods. They mainly depict female figures, hunters, animals, plants, the sun and stars.
The find includes about 5,000 Aboriginal drawings on rocks in Kakadu National Park, Australia. Most of the paintings were created around 2000 years ago. Interestingly, they depict not only animals such as white sea bass, catfish, kangaroos, rock couscous and others, but also their bones (skeletons).
Tadrart-Acacus
Tadrart Acacus is a mountain range in the Ghat Desert in western Libya, part of the Sahara. The massif is known for its prehistoric rock art, which spans the period 12000 BC. e. - 100 AD e. and reflects the cultural and natural changes in the area. The drawings depict animals such as giraffes, elephants, ostriches, camels and horses, as well as people in various situations of daily life, such as dancing and playing musical instruments.
Serra da Capivara is a national park located in the northeastern part of Brazil in the eastern state of Piauí. The park contains many caves containing examples of prehistoric art. The drawings, in great detail, depict animals and trees, as well as hunting scenes. A well-known site in the park, Pedra Furada contains the oldest remnants of human activity on the continent that have significantly altered the idea of American settlement. In order to preserve numerous prehistoric exhibits and drawings, the Brazilian government created this national park.
Lascaux Cave is located in the southwest of France and is famous for its rock paintings dating back to the Paleolithic period. The cave contains about 2,000 drawings, which can be grouped into three main categories: animals, human figures, and abstract signs. The cave is one of the places on the planet where you will not be allowed.
The Bhimbetka Rock Dwellings is an archaeological site of over 600 rock shelters located in Raisen District, Madhya Pradesh, India. These shelters contain the earliest traces of human activity in India; according to archaeologists, some of them could have been inhabited more than 100 thousand years ago. Most of the drawings are in red and white and depict animals such as crocodiles, lions, tigers and others.
Laas Gaal
Laas Gaal is a cave complex located on the outskirts of the city of Hargeisa in Somalia. Known for its well-preserved rock art. The drawings date back to the ninth - third millennium BC. e. and depict mostly cows, humans, giraffes, wolves, or dogs.
Altamira Cave is located near the city of Santillana del Mar, Cantabria in Spain. It was accidentally discovered in 1879 by amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. This great archaeological discovery is known for its ancient rock paintings of the Upper Paleolithic era (35 - 12 thousand years ago), which depict bison, horses, wild boars, human palm prints and more.
Cueva de las Manos
Cueva de las Manos is a cave located in southern Argentina, in the province of Santa Cruz, in the Pinturas river valley. Known for archaeological and paleontological finds. First of all, these are rock paintings depicting human hands, the oldest of which date back to the ninth millennium BC. e. The left hands of teenage boys are depicted on the walls of the cave. This fact suggested that these images were part of an ancient rite. In addition to hands, the walls of the cave depict guanacos, rhea, cats and other animals, as well as hunting scenes for them.
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Friends, where and how did it all start?
Maybe when an ancient man saw his footprint in the sand?
Or, when you ran your finger along the ground, did you realize that you get a fingerprint?
Or maybe when our ancestors learned to control the “fiery beast” (fire) by passing the burnt end of the stick over the stone?
In any case, it is clear that man has always been curious and even our ancestors, leaving primitive drawings on rocks and stones, wanted to convey their feelings to each other.
Exploring drawings of ancient people, it is obvious that in the process of evolution, their drawings also improved, moving from primitive to more complex images of people and animals.
It is known that archaeologists have found in Africa, in the Sibudu cave, rock paintings made by ancient people 49 thousand years ago! The drawings were painted with ocher mixed with milk. Primitive people used ocher even earlier, about 250 thousand years ago, but the presence of milk in the paint was not found.
This find was strange in that the ancient people who lived 49 thousand years ago did not yet have livestock, which means they got milk by hunting the beast. In addition to ocher, our ancestors used charcoal or burnt roots, crushed into powder, limestone.
Everyone knows murals of ancient egypt most popular. The history of the Ancient Egyptian civilization has about 40 centuries! This civilization reached great heights in architecture, the writing of papyri, as well as graphic drawings and other images.
Existence ancient egypt began 3000 BC. e. and ended IV-VII centuries. ad.
The Egyptians loved to decorate almost everything with paintings: tombs, temples, sarcophagi, various household trifles and utensils, statues. For paints used: limestone (white), soot (black), iron ore (yellow and red), copper ore (blue and green).
The painting of ancient Egypt was meaningful, depicting people, for example, the dead, rendering services to them in the afterlife. 
They believed in an afterlife and believed that life was just a gap to another, more interesting life. Therefore, after death, the deceased was glorified in images.
No less fascinating ancient drawings and frescoes of other civilizations - Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.
Greco-Roman antiquity began in the 7th century BC and ended in the 6th century AD. The Romans spied on the ancient Greeks to make wall paintings on wet plaster.
So, for example, for paints, colored minerals mixed with egg white and animal glue. And after drying, such a fresco was covered melted wax.
But here ancient Greeks knew a much better way to preserve bright colors. The plaster they used contained lime and, when dried, formed a transparent, thin film of calcium. It was this film that made the fresco durable!
Wall frescoes of ancient Greece have survived to this day, millennia later, perfectly preserved in the same bright and saturated color as when they were created.
Previously, a fresco was called painting work on wet plaster. But in our time, any wall painting can be called a fresco, regardless of the technique of its execution.
In general, wall paintings or frescoes belong to monumental painting. And it has a direct bearing on me. It is alfrey painting, that is, wall painting, that is my main specialization, which I studied at a private school in the south of France.
You can see my work in the section >>> <<<
In the Middle Ages in Kievan Rus the walls of the cathedrals were painted with beautiful frescoes. So, for example, in 2016 I visited the Sophia Kyiv Reserve in Kyiv. And in the most beautiful cathedral, founded in 1037 by the Grand Duke of Kyiv Yaroslav the Wise, wall frescoes have been preserved on the walls (the total area of frescoes is 3000 sq. m.)
The main composition in the cathedral - family portrait of Yaroslav the Wise on three walls. But only portraits of the sons and daughters of the prince have survived and are well preserved. The huge frescoes painted in the 11th century, of course, made a strong impression on me.
Also already in Middle Ages (period V - XV centuries) used for painting not only walls, but also surfaces made of wood (for painting). Tempera paints were used for such works. This paint, of course, is considered one of the oldest types of paints and was used to paint pictures until the 15th century.
Until one day Dutch painter Van Eyck not widely used oil based paints in Europe
Tempera These are water based paints. Coloring powder diluted with water and chicken yolk. The history goes back more than 3000 years to this type of paint.
Sandro Botticelli / Sandro Botticelli. Left Portrait of a young woman 1480-1485, 82 x 54 cm , Frankfurt. On right Annunciation 1489-1490, tempera on wood, 150 x 156 cm, Florence
For example, in ancient Egypt sarcophagi of the pharaohs painted with tempera.
But to use canvas, instead of a wooden board for writing pictures, in the countries of Western Europe began only at the beginning of the 16th century. Florentine and Venetian painters painted in significant quantities on canvas.
In Russia, canvases as the basis for painting began to be used even later, only from the second half of the 17th century. But that is another story…. Or rather
So, showing curiosity and making a little analysis, you can trace the ways of human self-expression from a primitive drawing to true creations of the Middle Ages !!! Of course, this is not a scientific article, but only the view of one curious artist who likes to dig and dig in the labyrinths of the human mind.
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