In my latest overlong video we take a deep dive into the intricacies, mysteries and controversies of Paleolithic Cave art, examining how it was made, if it changed over time, and why it was made in the first place. Its pretty cool.
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#Paleolithic #Archaeology #History
38 Comments
General Sources:
Clottes (2010) Cave Art. Phaidon Press.
Clottes (2016) What is Paleolithic Art? Cave Paintings and the Dawn of Human Creativity. University of Chicago Press.
Bahn (2016) Images of the Ice Age. Third Edition. Oxford University Press.
Bahn (2024) Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe. Third Edition. Archaeopress.
Lorblanchet & Bahn (2017) The First Artists: In Search of the World’s Oldest Art. Thames & Hudson.
David (2017) Cave Art. Thames & Hudson.
Clottes & Lewis-Williams (1998) The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance Magic in the Painted Caves (English Translation). Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers.
Chauvet et al. (1996). Chauvet Cave. The Discovery of the World’s Oldest Paintings. Thames & Hudson.
Aujoulat (2005) The Splendour of Lascaux. Thames & Hudson.
Leroi-Gourhan (1967) Treasures of Prehistoric Art. Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers.
Scarre et al. (2018) The Human Past. Fourth Edition. Thames & Hudson, pg. 137-148.
Minvielle (1972) Sur les chemins de la prehistoire. Denoel (original text in French).
Murray (2007) Milestones in Archaeology: A Chronological Encyclopedia, ABC CLIO, pg. 191-193, 223-226, 263-265.
Madariaga de la Campa (2001) Sanz de Sautuola and the Discovery of the Caves of Altamira. Fundación Marcelino Botín
de Sautuola (1976) Escritos Y Documentos. Insititucion Cultural de Cantabria.
Academic Papers:
Brumm et al. (2021) Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi. Science Advances, 7(3), eabd4648.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648
Oktaviana et al. (2024) Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago. Nature, 631, 814-818.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07541-7
Majkić et al. (2017) A decorated raven bone from the Zaskalnaya VI (Kolosovskaya) Neanderthal site, Crimea. PLOS One, 12(3), e0173435.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173435
Henshilwood et al. (2011) A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 334(6053), pg. 219-222.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1211535
Flanders & Key (2023) The West Tofts handaxe: A remarkably average, structurally flawed, utilitarian biface. Journal of Archaeological Science, 160, 105888.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440323001681
Pike et al. (2012) U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain. Science, 336(6087), pg. 1409-1413.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1219957
Hoffmann et al. (2018) U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art. Science, 359(6378), 912-915.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aap7778
Floss (2015) The Oldest Portable Art: the Aurignacian Ivory Figurines from the Swabian Jura (Southwest Germany). Palethnologie, 7, 315-329.
https://journals.openedition.org/palethnologie/888#:~:text=Four%20cave%20sites%20in%20the,are%20known%20from%20the%20region.
Hurel (2017) Les peintures préhistoriques de la grotte d’Altamira à Santillane (original text in Spanish). Bibnum.
https://journals.openedition.org/bibnum/709
Clottes et al. (1990b) La préparation des peintures magdaléniennes des cavernes ariégeoises (original text in French). Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, 87(6), pg. 170-92
https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1990_num_87_6_10434
Couraud (1982) Techniques de peintures prehistoriques (original text in French). Experiences. Couleur. Revue du Centre Frangais de la Couleur, 19, pg. 3-6.
Couraud (1988) Pigments utilises en prehistoire, provenance, preparation, mode d"utilisation (original text in French). L 'Anthropologie, 92(1), pg. 7-28.
Halverson (1987) Art for Art's Sake in the Paleolithic. Current Anthropology, 28(1), pg. 63-88.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2743113
Garrido (1978) Les matériaux de peinture de la caverne d'Altamira (original text in French). COM Committee for Conservation 5th Triennial Meeting Zagreb Yugoslavia 1-8 October 1978.
https://www.icom-cc-publications-online.org/3884/Les-materiaux-de-peinture-de-la-caverne-dAltamira
Galeta et al. (2014) Is sex estimation from handprints in prehistoric cave art reliable? A view from biological and forensic anthropology. Journal of Archaeological Science, 45, pg. 141-149.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440314000363#:~:text=Sex%20estimation%20of%20prehistoric%20handprints,does%20not%20generalise%20across%20populations.
Fernández-Navarro et al. (2022) Visualizing childhood in Upper Palaeolithic societies: Experimental and archaeological approach to artists’ age estimation through cave art hand stencils, Journal of Archaeological Science, 140, 105574.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440322000322
Lasheras (2014) The Altamira Cave. In ‘Cantabrian Pleiostocene Art’, pg. 615-627.
https://www.rockartscandinavia.com/images/articles/altamiraa9.pdf
Dupont et al. (2007) Invasion of the French Paleolithic painted cave of Lascaux by members of the Fusarium solani species complex. Mycologia, 99(4), pg. 526–533.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15572536.2007.11832546
Fritz & Tosello (2015) From Guesture to Myth: Artists’ techniques on the walls of Chauvet Cave. In ‘Aurignacian Genius: Art, Technology and Society of the First Modern Humans in Europe, Proceedings of the International Symposium’, pg. 281-314.
https://journals.openedition.org/palethnologie/876
Quiles et al. (2016) A high-precision chronological model for the decorated Upper Paleolithic cave of Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, Ardèche, France. PNAS, 113(17), pg. 4670-4675.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1523158113
Great video! And good ASMR😴🤭😂
Shouldn't the method used in Sulawesi help out in the Chauvet dispute? It is more accurate than carbon dating and non disruptive to the art. They are also quite eager to try it out on other caves. It would end any discussion immediately.
aww man! I was all ready to be like "I'm going to use the example of the cave paintings' dating system anytime I hear someone try to tell me big science never changes its mind" and then I got to the end… wah wah. Looking forward to the follow up video!
Damn that ending, biggest cliffhanger since 36 KYA! (or is it really 36 KYA???)
Will your next video technically count as YouTube drama? Do you have rival YouTubers who will do a reaction or clapback video? Also, where does one get so many cave art t-shirts?
You are wearing less tweed than your voice conjured for me.
1:25:11 Oh no, Paleolithic Punpun
Gonna take me two weeks to get through this video. I turn it on and 5 minutes later I’m out cold.
I'm enjoying the little bits of humor dotted throughout! It's not overwhelming, just enough for the occasional chuckle.
Also when I think of cave paintings, I think of Cunk on Earth when she mentioned that the artists are "almost certainly dead."
The lions get very reverential, the san people of Botswana developed actual peace accords so tight that cubs and kids were completely safe from attack, even if alone and at night! Tribute in the form of the occasional zebra leg would help firm up the peace, 2 intelligent species elected peace over endless the endless cycle of brutal violence.
The lions were painted with 5 fingers to show the strength of the bond the san felt between our species as brothers who can proudly emphasise mutual respect and their negotiation for less fear and new trust
The lions and the San people really reaching. Peace accords, got me thinking!
Our ancestors, we're a formidable band able to inflict serious sudden death on most of the species that we meet.
Peace makes sense as predators. Can relax!
What I most want to know is how someone looked at something and then drew it so well after walking away into a dark cave. So impressive!
I can imagine with bears, sharing the ,river,the salmon run.
A bank side for bears¹ the other for us..
By accounts the short faced bear wouldn't be able to resist tearing our faces off!
They said Hackneys murder mile was a high risk. Yet constant fear isn't an option, agents will generally Generate, so they can be friends…
I believe the san made peace with lions..the san don't herd livestock..deals off for non gatherer hunters..it makes logic to me
Writing prompt: Caves were early art colleges and the art masters went to visit all of them to take their specific art courses. Ooh! Or maybe art itself was seen as magic, in the same way that language was seen as magic in other cultures. If you were born with “magic” they sent you off to cave college!
But seriously this was great thank you!
Thank you. Love this content
I just came into the rabbithole of researching dutch (the Netherlands) history and mythologie and I was wondering if you would be interested in doing an episode on that. I think it's amazing that they think because of all the water the people lived in trees. I wonder what you could find and find interesting enough to put in the video.
I think when folks argue about "sensory deprivation" and other "trances" forget the key feeling you get from creating art. Making art gives you a very specific notion of being totally focused and also totally free. Yeah, drugs can help. It's like they didn't even talk to artists when they came up with these theories.
I agree there is no one reason for all these artworks. Just as I make art for different reasons than other artists I know.
"Outdated reconstruction", cuts to image of homies doing graffiti 😂
Timelines of art development is a bit silly. Art style is mostly a cultural phenomenon, for example Greeks and Egyptians knew how to draw perspective, there is enough evidence for that, but they did choose not to use it for whatever reason. There were not many people around in the paleolithic, and some are just more talented than others. There can be cultural taboos to paint humans, maybe they believed it steals your soul, something still widespread today. Maybe the paintings captured the spirit of the animal so it is easier to hunt or something like that. However, how art started and why is still very interesting. Why do we have the desire to decorate stuff? Could just be a byproduct of evolving advanced planning after all.
Did I just listen to an idiot with a PhD in Analytical Chemistry drone on for two hours about ice age cave art? Darn right I did! 😁
Time stamp 12:00
All place where the NEGROS LIVED.
All TRUTH WILL BE REVEALED
Here to reiterate that:
a. Cave art is really interesting and in some ways this info helped me to feel closer and further from other artists. This feeling I have whenever I want to grab a pencil and doodle my silly little sketches have been felt by a lot of people throughout millennia.
b. Charles is indeed handsome.
Thanks for your efforts.
This is overrated. If I didnt have Internet, TV or a house, I would probably be painting something in a cave. Go to any public toilet, you will see what people paint in the walls when they are bored.
Amazing video, ❤
Why are the people in the thumbnail non-white?
People talk shot about graffiti like it isnt paying homage to where we all came from
These early humans had better art skills than me
Thanks!
Thank you! It really grinds my gears when people look at ancient art and think of it as "That's neat, but isn't good. So primitive."
Cave painting is hard as hell. I've given it a shot before, using natural pigments and ingredients to make various colors, then attempting to paint them on a rock face with my hand and a small wad of grass. My result was significantly worse than the crazy wonders people could create tens of thousands of years ago.
There's a misconception that ancient humans' primitive level makes them somehow lesser than us in intellect, creativity, or complex thought about the world in abstract ways. In reality, there is zero difference between you now and the first of our species that appeared over 300,000 years ago. They had the same brain as us. The only difference is that we have the advantage of countless generations that innovated things for us to benefit from. Early humans didn’t have that luxury.
Art was potentially one of the most important developments in our history. Social group development, communication, recording events, emotional expression… all of it is thanks to these fascinating ancient people. To write it off as though it's poorly made drives me crazy
3:26 😂mine too
Lovely video, although a bit heavy on the make-up 🙂
Just image how many beautiful artworks were not preserved by caves and simply lost to time
I read "Cover art" at first and for a brief moment thought this was about now forgotten art of physical game box covers. Then I saw the channel name and it prompted me to re-read the title carefully.
I'm not sure whether I am disappointed or not by this development.
the "rubbish" is no "rubbish". its a hide after skinning the animal.
Too some extent they were the internet of their time. Telling us what we could eat and what predators to compete with. Eventually the Bronze Age pre Viking cultures used them to declare status and at least types of ships if not counts of man power (that’s where the questions begin)
Bruh I like the video , but it's not that hard to make a cave painting in the wild. Just grab some charcoal and you'll go a long way. I would argue most people have this knowledge
After Picasso had seen the art of the Lascaux cave, he said "We have invented nothing". Or did he?