All over the world, speleologists in deep caves are finding confirmation of the existence of ancient people. Rock paintings have been perfectly preserved for many millennia. There are several types of masterpieces - pictograms, petroglyphs, geoglyphs. Important monuments of human history are regularly included in the World Heritage Register.
Usually on the walls of caves there are common subjects, such as hunting, battle, images of the sun, animals, human hands. People in ancient times attached sacred meaning to paintings; they believed that they were helping themselves in the future.
Images were applied various methods and materials. For artistic creativity animal blood, ocher, chalk and even bat guano were used. A special type of painting is ashlar painting; they were carved into stone using a special chisel.
Many caves have not been sufficiently studied and are limited in visiting, while others, on the contrary, are open to tourists. However, most of the precious cultural heritage disappears unattended, without finding its researchers.
Below is small excursion into the world of the most interesting caves with prehistoric rock paintings.
Ancient rock paintings.
Bulgaria is famous not only for the hospitality of its residents and the indescribable flavor of its resorts, but also for its caves. One of them, with the sonorous name Magura, is located north of Sofia, near the town of Belogradchik. The total length of the cave galleries is more than two kilometers. The halls of the cave are colossal in size, each of them is about 50 meters wide and 20 meters high. The pearl of the cave is a rock painting made directly on the surface covered with bat guano. The paintings are multi-layered; there are a number of paintings from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods. The drawings of ancient homo sapiens depict figures of dancing villagers, hunters, many strange animals, and constellations. The sun, plants, and tools are also represented. Here begins the story of the festivities of the ancient era and the solar calendar, scientists assure.
The cave with the poetic name Cueva de las Manos (from Spanish - “Cave of Many Hands”) is located in the province of Santa Cruz, exactly one hundred miles from the nearest settlement- the city of Perito Moreno. The rock painting art in the hall, 24 meters long and 10 meters high, dates back to the 13th to 9th millennia BC. This amazing painting on limestone is a voluminous canvas decorated with hand traces. Scientists have built a theory about how the amazingly clear and clear handprints turned out. Prehistoric people took a special composition, then took it into their mouths, and blew it forcefully through a tube onto a hand placed against the wall. In addition, there are stylized images of humans, rheas, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, the process of hunting and observations of the sun.
Enchanting India offers tourists not only the delights of oriental palaces and charming dances. In north central India there are huge rock formations of weathered sandstone with many caves. Ancient people once lived in natural shelters. About 500 dwellings with traces of human habitation remain in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Indians named the rock dwellings Bhimbetka (after the hero of the Mahabharata epic). The art of the ancients here dates back to the Mesolithic era. Some of the paintings are insignificant, and some of the hundreds of images are very typical and striking. 15 rock masterpieces are available for contemplation by those who wish. Mainly, patterned ornaments and battle scenes are depicted here.
IN national park Both rare animals and venerable scientists find shelter in the Serra da Capivara. And 50 thousand years ago, our distant ancestors found shelter here in caves. Presumably, this is the oldest community of hominids in South America. The park is located near the town of San Raimondo Nonato, in the central part of the state of Piaui. Experts have counted more than 300 archaeological sites here. The main surviving images date back to 25-22 millennium BC. The most amazing thing is that extinct bears and other paleofauna are painted on the rocks.
The Republic of Somaliland recently separated from Somalia in Africa. Archaeologists in this area are interested in the Laas Gaal cave complex. Here you can see rock paintings from the 8th-9th and 3rd millennium BC. On the granite walls of majestic natural shelters scenes of life and everyday life of the nomadic people of Africa are depicted: the process of grazing livestock, ceremonies, playing with dogs. The local population does not attach importance to the drawings of their ancestors, and uses the caves, as in the old days, for shelter during the rain. Many of the studies have not been properly studied. In particular, problems arise with the chronological reference of masterpieces of Arab-Ethiopian ancient rock paintings.
Not far from Somalia, in Libya, there are also rock paintings. They are much earlier, dating back almost to the 12th millennium BC. The last of them were applied after the birth of Christ, in the first century. It is interesting to observe, following the drawings, how the fauna and flora changed in this area of the Sahara. First we see elephants, rhinoceroses and fauna typical of a rather humid climate. Also interesting is the clearly visible change in the lifestyle of the population - from hunting to sedentary cattle breeding, then to nomadism. To get to Tadrart Akakus, you need to cross the desert east of the city of Ghat.
In 1994, while walking, by chance, Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the cave that later became famous. She was named after the speleologist. In the Chauvet cave, in addition to traces of the life activity of ancient people, hundreds of wonderful frescoes were discovered. The most amazing and beautiful of them depict mammoths. In 1995, the cave became a state monument, and in 1997, 24-hour surveillance was introduced here to prevent damage to the magnificent heritage. Today, in order to take a look at the incomparable rock art of the Cro-Magnons, you need to obtain special permission. In addition to mammoths, there is something to admire; here on the walls there are handprints and fingerprints of representatives of the Aurignacian culture (34-32 thousand years BC)
In fact, the name of the Australian national park has nothing to do with the famous Cockatoo parrots. The Europeans simply mispronounced the name of the Gaagudju tribe. This nation is now extinct, and there is no one to correct the ignorant. The park is home to Aboriginal people who have not changed their way of life since the Stone Age. For thousands of years, Indigenous Australians have been involved in rock painting. Pictures were painted here already 40 thousand years ago. In addition to religious scenes and hunting, there are stylized stories in drawings about useful skills (educational) and magic (entertaining). Among the animals depicted are the extinct marsupial tigers, catfish, and barramundi. All the wonders of the Arnhem Land plateau, Colpignac and the southern hills are located 171 km from the city of Darwin.
It turns out that the first homo sapiens reached Spain in the 35th millennium BC, this was the early Paleolithic. They left strange rock paintings in the Altamira cave. Artistic artifacts on the walls of the huge cave date back to both the 18th and 13th millennia. In the last period, polychrome figures, a peculiar combination of engraving and painting, and the acquisition of realistic details became interesting. The famous bison, deer and horses, or rather, their beautiful images on the walls of Altamira, often end up in textbooks for middle school students. The Altamira Cave is located in the Cantabria region.
Lascaux is not just a cave, but a whole complex of small and large cave halls located in the south of France. Not far from the caves is the legendary village of Montignac. The paintings on the cave walls were painted 17 thousand years ago. And to this day they amaze with their amazing forms, akin to contemporary art graffiti. Scholars especially value the Hall of the Bulls and the Palace Hall of the Cats. It’s easy to guess what prehistoric creators left there. In 1998 rock masterpieces Almost destroyed by mold caused by an improperly installed air conditioning system. And in 2008, Lascaux was closed to preserve more than 2,000 unique drawings.
PhotoTravelGuide
Primitive (or, in other words, primitive) art geographically covers all continents except Antarctica, and in time - the entire era of human existence, preserved by some peoples living in remote corners of the planet to this day.
Most ancient paintings were found in Europe (from Spain to the Urals).
Well preserved on the walls of the caves - the entrances turned out to be tightly blocked thousands of years ago, the same temperature and humidity were maintained there.
Not only wall paintings have been preserved, but also other evidence of human activity - clear traces of the bare feet of adults and children on the damp floor of some caves.
Causes of origin creative activity and functions of primitive art. Human need for beauty and creativity.
Beliefs of the time. The man portrayed those whom he revered. People of that time believed in magic: they believed that with the help of paintings and other images they could influence nature or the outcome of the hunt. It was believed, for example, that it was necessary to hit a drawn animal with an arrow or spear in order to ensure the success of a real hunt.
Periodization
Now science is changing its opinion about the age of the earth and the time frame is changing, but we will study according to the generally accepted names of periods.1. Stone Age
1.1 Ancient stone Age– Paleolithic. ... up to 10 thousand BC
1.2 Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic. 10 – 6 thousand BC
1.3 New Stone Age - Neolithic. From 6th to 2nd thousand BC
2. Bronze Age. 2 thousand BC
3. Age of Iron. 1 thousand BC
Paleolithic
Tools were made of stone; hence the name of the era - the Stone Age.1. Ancient or Lower Paleolithic. up to 150 thousand BC
2. Middle Paleolithic. 150 – 35 thousand BC
3. Upper or Late Paleolithic. 35 – 10 thousand BC
3.1 Aurignac-Solutrean period. 35 – 20 thousand BC
3.2. Madeleine period. 20 – 10 thousand BC The period received this name from the name of the La Madeleine cave, where paintings dating back to this time were found.
The earliest works of primitive art date back to the Late Paleolithic. 35 – 10 thousand BC
Scientists are inclined to believe that naturalistic art and the depiction of schematic signs and geometric figures arose simultaneously.
Pasta drawings. Impressions of a person's hand and a random interweaving of wavy lines pressed into damp clay by the fingers of the same hand.
The first drawings from the Paleolithic period (ancient Stone Age, 35–10 thousand BC) were discovered at the end of the 19th century. Spanish amateur archaeologist Count Marcelino de Sautuola three kilometers from his family estate, in the Altamira cave.
It happened like this:
“The archaeologist decided to explore a cave in Spain and took his little daughter with him. Suddenly she shouted: “Bulls, bulls!” The father laughed, but when he raised his head, he saw huge painted figures of bison on the ceiling of the cave. Some of the bison were depicted standing still, others rushing at the enemy with inclined horns. At first, scientists did not believe that primitive people could create such works of art. It was only 20 years later that numerous works of primitive art were discovered in other places and the authenticity of cave paintings was recognized.”
Paleolithic painting
Altamira Cave. Spain.Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era 20 - 10 thousand years BC).
On the vault of the Altamira cave chamber there is a whole herd of large bison located close to each other.
Bison panel. Located on the ceiling of the cave. Wonderful polychrome images contain black and all shades of ocher, rich colors, applied somewhere densely and monochromatically, and somewhere with halftones and transitions from one color to another. A thick paint layer up to several cm. In total, 23 figures are depicted on the vault, if you do not take into account those of which only outlines have been preserved.
Fragment. Buffalo. Altamira Cave. Spain. Late Paleolithic. The caves were illuminated with lamps and reproduced from memory. Not primitivism, but highest degree stylization. When the cave was opened, it was believed that this was an imitation of hunting - the magical meaning of the image. But today there are versions that the goal was art. The beast was necessary for man, but he was terrible and difficult to catch.
Fragment. Bull. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Beautiful brown shades. Tense stop of the beast. They used the natural relief of the stone and depicted it on the convexity of the wall.
Fragment. Bison. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Transition to polychrome art, darker strokes.
Cave of Font de Gaume. France
Late Paleolithic.Silhouette images, deliberate distortion, and exaggeration of proportions are typical. On the walls and vaults of the small halls of the Font-de-Gaume cave there are at least about 80 drawings, mostly bison, two undisputed figures of mammoths and even a wolf.
Grazing deer. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
Perspective image of horns. Deer at this time (the end of the Madeleine era) replaced other animals.
Fragment. Buffalo. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
The hump and crest on the head are emphasized. The overlap of one image with another is a polypsest. Detailed study. Decorative solution for the tail. Picture of houses.
Wolf. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
Nio's Cave. France
Late Paleolithic.Round hall with drawings. There are no images of mammoths or other animals of glacial fauna in the cave.
Horse. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Depicted already with 4 legs. The silhouette is outlined with black paint, and the inside is retouched with yellow. The character of a pony-type horse.
Stone ram. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic. Partially contoured image, the skin is drawn on top.
Deer. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Buffalo. Nio. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Most of the images include bison. Some of them are shown wounded, with black and red arrows.
Buffalo. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Lascaux Cave
It so happened that it was the children, and quite accidentally, who found the most interesting cave paintings in Europe:“In September 1940, near the town of Montignac, in the southwest of France, four high school students set off on an archaeological expedition they had planned. In place of a tree that had long been uprooted, there was a hole in the ground that aroused their curiosity. There were rumors that this was the entrance to a dungeon leading to a nearby medieval castle.
There was another smaller hole inside. One of the guys threw a stone at it and, judging by the sound of the fall, concluded that it was quite deep. He widened the hole, crawled inside, almost fell, lit a flashlight, gasped and called others. From the walls of the cave in which they found themselves, some huge animals were looking at them, breathing such confident power, sometimes seeming ready to turn into rage, that they felt terrified. And at the same time the power of these animal images was so majestic and convincing that they felt as if they were in some kind of magical kingdom.”
Lascaux Cave. France.
Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era, 18 - 15 thousand years BC).
Called the primitive Sistine Chapel. Consists of several large rooms: rotunda; main gallery; passage; apse.
Colorful images on the calcareous white surface of the cave.
The proportions are greatly exaggerated: large necks and bellies.
Contour and silhouette drawings. Clear images without aliasing. A large number of male and female signs (rectangle and many dots).
Hunting scene. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.
Genre image. A bull killed by a spear gored a man with a bird's head. There’s a bird on a stick nearby—maybe his soul.
Buffalo. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.
Horse. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.
Mammoths and horses. Kapova cave. Ural.
Late Paleolithic.
KAPOVA CAVE- to the South. m Ural, on the river. White. Formed in limestones and dolomites. The corridors and grottoes are located on two floors. The total length is over 2 km. On the walls are Late Paleolithic paintings of mammoths and rhinoceroses
Paleolithic sculpture
Art of small forms or mobile art (small plastic art)An integral part of the art of the Paleolithic era consists of objects that are commonly called “small plastic”.
These are three types of objects:
1. Figurines and other three-dimensional products carved from soft stone or other materials (horn, mammoth tusk).
2. Flattened objects with engravings and paintings.
3. Reliefs in caves, grottoes and under natural canopies.
The relief was embossed with a deep outline or the background around the image was cramped.
Relief
One of the first finds, called small plastic, was a bone plate from the Chaffo grotto with images of two fallow deer:
Deer crossing the river. Fragment. Bone carving. France. Late Paleolithic (Magdalenian period).
Everyone knows the wonderful French writer Prosper Merimee, the author of the fascinating novel "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX", "Carmen" and other romantic stories, but few people know that he served as a security inspector historical monuments. It was he who handed over this record in 1833 to the historical museum of Cluny, which was just being organized in the center of Paris. It is now kept in the Museum of National Antiquities (Saint-Germain en Lay).
Later, a cultural layer of the Upper Paleolithic era was discovered in the Chaffo Grotto. But then, just as it was with the painting of the Altamira cave, and with other visual monuments of the Paleolithic era, no one could believe that this art was older than ancient Egyptian. Therefore, such engravings were considered examples of Celtic art (V-IV centuries BC). Only at the end of the 19th century, again, like cave paintings, were they recognized as the most ancient after they were found in the Paleolithic cultural layer.
The figurines of women are very interesting. Most of these figurines are small in size: from 4 to 17 cm. They were made from stone or mammoth tusks. Their most noticeable distinguishing feature is their exaggerated “plumpiness”; they depict women with overweight figures.
"Venus with a Cup" Bas-relief. France. Upper (Late) Paleolithic.
Goddess of the Ice Age. The canon of the image is that the figure is inscribed in a rhombus, and the stomach and chest are in a circle.
Sculpture- mobile art.
Almost everyone who has studied Paleolithic female figurines, with varying degrees of detail, explains them as cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., reflecting the idea of motherhood and fertility.
"Venus of Willendorf". Limestone. Willendorf, Lower Austria. Late Paleolithic.
Compact composition, no facial features.
"The Hooded Lady from Brassempouy." France. Late Paleolithic. Mammoth bone.
Facial features and hairstyle have been worked out.
In Siberia, in the Baikal region, a whole series of original figurines of a completely different stylistic appearance was found. Along with the same overweight figures of naked women as in Europe, there are figurines of slender, elongated proportions and, unlike European ones, they are depicted dressed in thick, most likely fur clothes, similar to “overalls”.
These are finds from the Buret sites on the Angara and Malta rivers.
conclusions
Rock painting. Features of the pictorial art of the Paleolithic are realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm.
Small plastic.
The depiction of animals has the same features as in painting (realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm).
Paleolithic female figurines are cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., they reflect the idea of motherhood and fertility.
Mesolithic
(Middle Stone Age) 10 - 6 thousand BCAfter the glaciers melted, the familiar fauna disappeared. Nature becomes more pliable to humans. People become nomads.
With a change in lifestyle, a person’s view of the world becomes broader. He is not interested in an individual animal or a random discovery of cereals, but in the active activity of people, thanks to which they find entire herds of animals and fields or forests rich in fruits.
This is how the art of multi-figure composition arose in the Mesolithic, in which it was no longer the beast, but man, who played the dominant role.
Changes in the field of art:
The main characters of the image are not an individual animal, but people in some kind of action.
The task is not in a believable, accurate depiction of individual figures, but in conveying action and movement.
Multi-figure hunts are often depicted, scenes of honey collection, and cult dances appear.
The character of the image changes - instead of realistic and polychrome, it becomes schematic and silhouetted. Local colors are used - red or black.
A honey collector from a hive, surrounded by a swarm of bees. Spain. Mesolithic.
Almost everywhere where planar or three-dimensional images of the Upper Paleolithic era were discovered, there seems to be a pause in the artistic activity of people of the subsequent Mesolithic era. Maybe this period is still poorly studied, maybe the images made not in caves, but on outdoors, over time, washed away by rain and snow. Perhaps among the petroglyphs, which are very difficult to date accurately, there are those dating back to this time, but we do not yet know how to recognize them. It is significant that small plastic objects are extremely rare during excavations of Mesolithic settlements.
Of the Mesolithic monuments, literally a few can be named: Stone Tomb in Ukraine, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zaraut-Sai in Uzbekistan, Shakhty in Tajikistan and Bhimpetka in India.
In addition to rock paintings, petroglyphs appeared in the Mesolithic era.
Petroglyphs are carved, carved, or scratched rock images.
When carving a design, ancient artists used a sharp tool to knock off the upper, darker part rock, and therefore the images stand out noticeably against the background of the rock.
In the south of Ukraine, in the steppe there is a rocky hill made of sandstone rocks. As a result of severe weathering, several grottoes and canopies were formed on its slopes. In these grottoes and on other planes of the hill, numerous carved and scratched images have been known for a long time. In most cases they are difficult to read. Sometimes images of animals are guessed - bulls, goats. Scientists attribute these images of bulls to the Mesolithic era.
Stone grave. South of Ukraine. General view and petroglyphs. Mesolithic.
South of Baku, between the southeastern slope of the Greater Caucasus Range and the shores of the Caspian Sea, there is a small Gobustan plain (country of ravines) with hills in the form of table mountains composed of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. On the rocks of these mountains there are many petroglyphs of different times. Most of them were discovered in 1939. Large (more than 1 m) images of female and male figures made with deep carved lines received the greatest interest and fame.
There are many images of animals: bulls, predators and even reptiles and insects.
Kobystan (Gobustan). Azerbaijan (territory of the former USSR). Mesolithic.
Grotto Zaraout-Qamar
In the mountains of Uzbekistan, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, there is a monument widely known not only among archaeological specialists - the Zaraut-Kamar grotto. The painted images were discovered in 1939 by local hunter I.F. Lamaev.
The painting in the grotto is made with ocher of different shades (from red-brown to lilac) and consists of four groups of images, which include anthropomorphic figures and bulls. 
Here is the group in which most researchers see bull hunting. Among the anthropomorphic figures surrounding the bull, i.e. There are two types of “hunters”: figures in clothes that flare out at the bottom, without bows, and “tailed” figures with raised and drawn bows. This scene can be interpreted as a real hunt by disguised hunters, and as a kind of myth.
The painting in the Shakhty grotto is probably the oldest in Central Asia.
“I don’t know what the word Shakhty means,” writes V.A. Ranov. “Perhaps it comes from the Pamir word “shakht,” which means rock.”
In the northern part of Central India, huge cliffs with many caves, grottoes and canopies stretch along river valleys. A lot of rock carvings have been preserved in these natural shelters. Among them, the location of Bhimbetka (Bhimpetka) stands out. Apparently these picturesque images date back to the Mesolithic. True, we should not forget about the unevenness in the development of cultures different regions. The Mesolithic of India may be 2-3 millennia older than in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Some scenes of driven hunts with archers in the paintings of the Spanish and African cycles are, as it were, the embodiment of the movement itself, taken to the limit, concentrated in a stormy whirlwind.
Neolithic
(New Stone Age) from 6 to 2 thousand BC.Neolithic- New Stone Age, the last stage of the Stone Age.
Periodization. The entry into the Neolithic coincides with the transition of culture from the appropriating (hunters and gatherers) to the producing (farming and/or cattle breeding) type of economy. This transition is called the Neolithic Revolution. The end of the Neolithic dates back to the time of the appearance of metal tools and weapons, that is, the beginning of the Copper, Bronze or Iron Age.
Different cultures entered this period of development in different time. In the Middle East, the Neolithic began around 9.5 thousand years ago. BC e. In Denmark, the Neolithic dates back to the 18th century. BC, and among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori - the Neolithic existed back in the 18th century. AD: Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori used polished stone axes. Some peoples of America and Oceania have still not completely transitioned from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
The Neolithic, like other periods of the primitive era, is not certain chronological period in the history of mankind as a whole, but characterizes only the cultural characteristics of certain peoples.
Achievements and activities
1.
New features public life of people:
- The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
- At the end of the era in some places (Anterior Asia, Egypt, India) a new formation emerged class society, that is, social stratification began, the transition from a tribal-communal system to a class society.
- At this time, cities begin to be built. Jericho is considered one of the most ancient cities.
- Some cities were well fortified, which indicates the existence of organized wars at that time.
- Armies and professional warriors began to appear.
- We can quite say that the beginning of the formation of ancient civilizations is associated with the Neolithic era.
2.
The division of labor and the formation of technologies began:
- The main thing is that simple gathering and hunting as the main sources of food are gradually being replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding.
The Neolithic is called the “age of polished stone.” In this era, stone tools were not just chipped, but already sawed, ground, drilled, and sharpened.
- Among the most important tools in the Neolithic is the ax, previously unknown.
spinning and weaving developed.
Images of animals begin to appear in the design of household utensils.
Ax in the shape of a moose head. Polished stone. Neolithic. Historical Museum. Stockholm.
A wooden ladle from the Gorbunovsky peat bog near Nizhny Tagil. Neolithic. State Historical Museum.
For the Neolithic forest zone, fishing became one of the leading types of economy. Active fishing contributed to the creation of certain reserves, which, combined with hunting animals, made it possible to live in one place all year round.
The transition to a sedentary lifestyle led to the appearance of ceramics.
The appearance of ceramics is one of the main signs of the Neolithic era.
The village of Catal Huyuk (Eastern Turkey) is one of the places where the most ancient examples of ceramics were found.
Cup from Ledce (Czech Republic). Clay. Bell Beaker culture. Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone Age).
Monuments of Neolithic painting and petroglyphs are extremely numerous and scattered over vast territories.
Clusters of them are found almost everywhere in Africa, eastern Spain, in the territory former USSR- in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, on Lake Onega, near the White Sea and in Siberia.
Neolithic rock art is similar to Mesolithic, but the subject matter becomes more varied.
"Hunters". Rock painting. Neolithic (?). Southern Rhodesia.
For approximately three hundred years, the attention of scientists has been captivated by a rock known as the Tomsk Pisanitsa.
“Pisanitsa” are images painted with mineral paint or carved on the smooth surface of walls in Siberia.
Back in 1675, one of the brave Russian travelers, whose name, unfortunately, remained unknown, wrote down:
“Before reaching the fortress (Verkhnetomsk fortress), on the edges of the Tom River there lies a large and high stone, and on it are written animals, and cattle, and birds, and all sorts of similar things...”
Real scientific interest to this monument arose already in the 18th century, when, by decree of Peter I, an expedition was sent to Siberia to study its history and geography. The result of the expedition was the first images of Tomsk writing published in Europe by the Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the trip. These images were not an exact copy of the Tomsk writing, but conveyed only the most general outlines of the rocks and the placement of drawings on it, but their value lies in the fact that on them you can see drawings that have not survived to this day.
Images of Tomsk writing made by the Swedish boy K. Shulman, who traveled with Stralenberg across Siberia.
For hunters, the main source of subsistence was deer and elk. Gradually, these animals began to acquire mythical features - the elk was the “master of the taiga” along with the bear.
The image of a moose belongs to the Tomsk Pisanitsa the main role: Shapes are repeated many times.
The proportions and shapes of the animal’s body are absolutely faithfully conveyed: its long massive body, a hump on the back, a heavy large head, a characteristic protrusion on the forehead, a swollen upper lip, bulging nostrils, thin legs with cloven hooves.
Some drawings show transverse stripes on the neck and body of moose.
On the border between the Sahara and Fezzan, in Algeria, in mountainous area, called Tassili-Ajer, bare rocks rise in rows. Nowadays this region is dried up by the desert wind, scorched by the sun and almost nothing grows in it. However, the Sahara used to have green meadows...
- Sharpness and precision of drawing, grace and elegance.
- Harmonious combination of shapes and tones, the beauty of people and animals depicted with a good knowledge of anatomy.
- Swiftness of gestures and movements.
The small plastic arts of the Neolithic, like painting, acquire new subjects.
"The Man Playing the Lute." Marble (from Keros, Cyclades, Greece). Neolithic. National Archaeological Museum. Athens.
The schematism inherent in Neolithic painting, which replaced Paleolithic realism, also penetrated into small plastic art.
Schematic image of a woman. Cave relief. Neolithic. Croisard. Department of the Marne. France.
Relief with a symbolic image from Castelluccio (Sicily). Limestone. OK. 1800-1400 BC National Archaeological Museum. Syracuse.
conclusions
Mesolithic and Neolithic rock paintingsIt is not always possible to draw a precise line between them.
But this art is very different from typically Paleolithic:
- Realism, accurately capturing the image of the beast as a target, as cherished goal, is replaced by a broader view of the world, the image of multi-figure compositions.
- There appears a desire for harmonious generalization, stylization and, most importantly, for the transmission of movement, for dynamism.
- In the Paleolithic there was monumentality and inviolability of the image. Here there is liveliness, free imagination.
- In human images, a desire for grace appears (for example, if you compare the Paleolithic “Venuses” and the Mesolithic image of a woman collecting honey, or Neolithic Bushman dancers).
Small plastic:
- New stories appear.
- Greater skill execution and mastery of craft and material.
Achievements
Paleolithic- Lower Paleolithic
> > taming fire, stone tools
- Middle Paleolithic
>> exit from Africa
- Upper Paleolithic
> > sling
Mesolithic
- microliths, bow, canoe
Neolithic
- Early Neolithic
> > Agriculture, cattle breeding
- Late Neolithic
>> ceramics
Chalcolithic (Copper Age)
- metallurgy, horse, wheel
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with improved processing of metals such as copper and tin obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them.The Bronze Age replaced the Copper Age and preceded the Iron Age. Generally, chronological framework Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but they differ among different cultures.
Art is becoming more diverse and spreading geographically.
Bronze was much easier to process than stone; it could be cast into molds and polished. Therefore, in the Bronze Age, all kinds of household items were made, richly decorated with ornaments and of high artistic value. Ornamental decorations consisted for the most part from circles, spirals, wavy lines and similar motifs. Particular attention was paid to decorations - they were large in size and immediately caught the eye.
Megalithic architecture
In 3 - 2 thousand BC. unique, huge structures made of stone blocks appeared. This ancient architecture called megalithic.The term “megalith” comes from the Greek words “megas” - “large”; and "lithos" - "stone".
Megalithic architecture owes its appearance to primitive beliefs. Megalithic architecture is usually divided into several types:
1.
Menhir – single vertically standing stone, more than two meters high.
On the Brittany Peninsula in France, the so-called fields stretch for kilometers. menhirov. In the language of the Celts, the later inhabitants of the peninsula, the name of these stone pillars several meters high means “long stone”.
2.
Trilith is a structure consisting of two vertically placed stones and covered with a third.
3.
A dolmen is a structure whose walls are made of huge stone slabs and covered with a roof made of the same monolithic stone block.
Initially, dolmens served for burials.
Trilith can be called the simplest dolmen.
Numerous menhirs, trilithons and dolmens were located in places that were considered sacred.
4.
Cromlech is a group of menhirs and trilithes.
Stone grave. South of Ukraine. Anthropomorphic menhirs. Bronze Age.
Stonehenge. Cromlech. England. Bronze Age. 3 – 2 thousand BC Its diameter is 90 m, it consists of stone blocks, each of which weighs approx. 25 tons. It is curious that the mountains from where these stones were delivered are located 280 km from Stonehenge.
It consists of trilithons arranged in a circle, inside a horseshoe of trilithons, in the middle there are blue stones, and in the very center there is a heel stone (on the day of the summer solstice the luminary is exactly above it). It is assumed that Stonehenge was a temple dedicated to the sun.
Age of Iron (Iron Age)
1 thousand BCIn the steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, pastoral tribes created the so-called animal style at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age.
"Deer" plaque. 6th century BC Gold. Hermitage Museum. 35.1x22.5 cm. From the mound in the Kuban region. The relief plate was found attached to a round iron shield in the chief's burial. An example of zoomorphic art ("animal style"). The deer's hooves are made in the form of a "big-beaked bird."
There is nothing accidental or superfluous - a complete, thoughtful composition. Everything in the figure is conditional and extremely truthful and realistic.
The feeling of monumentality is achieved not by size, but by the generality of the form.
Panther. Badge, decoration of a shield. From a mound near the village of Kelermesskaya. Gold. Hermitage Museum.
Age of Iron.
Served as a decoration for the shield. The tail and paws are decorated with figures of curled up predators.
Iron Age
Age of Iron. The balance between realism and stylization is broken in favor of stylization.
Cultural ties with Ancient Greece, the countries of the ancient East and China contributed to the emergence of new stories, images and visual arts in the artistic culture of the tribes of southern Eurasia.
Scenes of a battle between barbarians and Greeks are depicted. Found in the Chertomlyk mound, near Nikopol.
Zaporozhye region Hermitage Museum.
conclusions
Scythian art – “animal style”. Amazing sharpness and intensity of images. Generalization, monumentality. Stylization and realism.Traditionally, rock paintings are called petroglyphs, this is the name given to all images on stone from ancient times (Paleolithic) up to the Middle Ages, both primitive cave hewn paintings and later ones, for example, on specially installed stones, megaliths or “wild” rocks.
Such monuments are not concentrated somewhere in one place, but are widely scattered across the face of our planet. They were found in Kazakhstan (Tamgaly), in Karelia, in Spain (Altamira cave), in France (Fond-de-Gaume, Montespan caves, etc.), in Siberia, on the Don (Kostenki), in Italy, England, Germany, in Algeria, where gigantic multicolor paintings of the Tassilin-Ajjer mountain plateau in the Sahara, among the desert sands, were recently discovered and created a sensation throughout the world.
Despite the fact that cave paintings have been studied for about 200 years, they still remain a mystery.
Rock paintings of the Hopi Indians in Arizona, USA, depicting certain kachina creatures. The Indians considered them their heavenly teachers.
According to the generally accepted theory of evolution, primitive man remained a primitive hunter-gatherer for many tens of thousands of years. And then he suddenly had a real insight, and he began to draw and carve mysterious symbols and images on the walls of his caves, rocks and mountain crevices.
Famous Onega petroglyphs.
Oswald O. Tobisch, a man of generous and varied talents, spent 30 years studying more than 6,000 cave paintings, trying to reconstruct some logical system that unites them. When you get acquainted with the conclusions of his research and numerous comparative tables, it literally takes your breath away. Tobish traces the similarities of a variety of rock paintings, so that it seems as if in ancient times there was a single proto-culture and universal knowledge associated with it.
Spain. Rock art. 11th century BC
Of course, millions and millions of cave paintings did not appear at the same time; very often (but not always) they are separated by many millennia. In other cases, drawings were created on the same rocks over several millennia.
Africa. Rock painting. VIII - IV centuries BC
And yet amazing fact that many rock paintings in various parts of the world arose almost simultaneously. Everywhere, be it Toro Muerto (Peru), where tens of thousands of rock paintings were found, Val Carmonica (Italy), the vicinity of the Karakoram Highway (Pakistan), the Colorado Plateau (USA), the Paraibo region (Brazil) or southern Japan, almost identical symbols and figures. Of course, I cannot help but note that in every separate place there are their own, strictly localized types of images that cannot be found anywhere else, but this in no way clears up the mystery of the striking similarity of the remaining drawings.
Australia. XII - IV century BC
If you consider all these images with all their attributes and symbols, you get the amazing impression that the sound of the same trumpet suddenly rang out across all continents: “Remember: the gods are those who are surrounded by rays!” These “gods” are in most cases depicted as much larger than other little men. Their heads are almost always surrounded or crowned with a halo or halo, as if shining rays are emanating from them. Besides, ordinary people always depicted at a respectful distance from the “gods”; they kneel before them, prostrate themselves on the ground, or raise their hands to them.
Italy. Rock painting. XIII - VIII centuries BC
Oswald Tobisch, a rock art specialist who has traveled all over the world, with his tireless efforts, has come even closer to solving this problem. ancient secret: “Perhaps this striking similarity in the images of deities is explained by “internationalism”, incredible by our standards today, and humanity of that era, quite possibly, was still in the powerful force field of the “primordial revelation” of the one and omnipotent Creator?”
Dogu's space suit. The world's oldest depiction of a spacesuit.
Death Valley, USA.
Peru. Rock painting. XII - IV century BC
Rock paintings of the Hopi Indians in Arizona, USA
Australia
Rock paintings near Lake Onega. Incomprehensible images that some philosophers interpret as flying machines.
Australia
Petroglyphs from the vicinity of the village of Karakol, Ongudai district
Hunting scenes, where anthropomorphic creatures (people or spirits?) with bows, spears and sticks hunt animals, and dogs (or wolves?) help them, appear 5-6 thousand years ago - that’s when this petroglyph was created.
on a rock in Japan 7 thousand years ago
Algerian Sahara, Tassili massif (tinted rock paintings). The era of round heads. Reach 8 meters. Stone Age drawings
Similar examples of the creativity of ancient peoples can be found all over the world. In Altai there are rock portraits of humanoid creatures in spacesuits, created 4 - 5 thousand years ago. In Central America - launching “spaceships”. They are depicted on some Mayan tombs dating back about 1,300 years. In Japan, bronze figurines from the 4th century BC are found dressed in helmets and overalls. In the mountains of Tibet are “flying saucers” drawn 3000 years ago. Entire galleries of monsters with antennas on their heads, tentacles instead of arms and mysterious weapons are “exhibited” for us, our descendants, to see in caves, on plateaus and in the mountains in Peru, the Sahara, Zimbabwe, Australia, France, Italy.
Huge figures and there are little people nearby.
The history textbook says that primitive man wanted to somehow express himself and realize his primitive creativity with what was at hand. This is how rock paintings appeared on rocks in deep caves.
But just how primitive were our ancestors? And was everything really as simple a few thousand years ago as we imagine? The drawings from primitive art collected in this article may make you think about something.
Speleologists around the world are finding cave drawings of ancient people in all corners globe. The rock paintings have been perfectly preserved to this day, although they were drawn many thousands of years ago. There are several types of such art, which are periodically included in the World Heritage List.
Usually, ancient man painted the walls of caves with the same type of scenes - he depicted hunting, human hands, various battles, the sun and animals. Our ancestors gave these drawings special meaning and put sacred meaning into them.
These paintings were created using various methods and materials. Ocher, animal blood and chalk were used for drawing. And hewn pictures were created on stone using a special cutter.
We invite you to take a mini-tour to mysterious world caves with rock paintings created by ancient man BC.
Magura Cave, Bulgaria
Prehistoric pictures were found in the Bulgarian Magura cave, near Sofia, which amazes with its uniqueness and length. The underground kingdom stretches for two kilometers, and the halls of the cave are enormous: its width is 50 m and its height is 20 m.
The discovered rock painting was created using bat guano. The pictures were painted in many layers over several periods: Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. The drawings depict figures of ancient people and animals.
Here you can also find a painted sun and various tools.
Cueva de las Manos cave, Argentina
There is another one in Argentina ancient cave With big amount rock paintings. Translated, it sounds like “Cave of Many Hands,” since it is dominated by the handprints of our ancestors. The rock painting is located in a large hall 24 m wide and 10 m long. The approximate date of painting is 13-9 millennium BC.
Numerous hand marks are imprinted on the voluminous limestone canvas. Scientists have put forward their own version of the appearance of such clear prints - ancient people put a special composition in their mouths, and then blew through a tube onto their hand, which they placed against the wall of the cave.
There are also images of people, animals and geometric shapes.
Bhimbetka cliff dwellings, India
Many caves with rock art have been discovered in India. One of them is located in north-central India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Local residents gave this name to the cave in honor of the hero of the epic Mahabharata. The paintings of the ancient Indians date back to the Mesolithic era.
Here you can see both worn out, dim images and very colorful and interesting drawings. Basically, various battles and ornaments are depicted here. 
Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil
In the Brazilian Serra da Capivara National Park there is a cave of ancient people, the walls of which have preserved drawings that were drawn 50 thousand years ago.
Scientists have discovered about 300 different works of art and architectural monuments here. The cave is dominated by drawings of animals and other representatives of the Paleolithic era. 
Laas Gaal cave complex, Somaliland
In the African republic of Somaliland, archaeologists discovered the Laas Gaal cave complex, on the walls of which pictures from the 8th-9th and 3rd millennium BC were preserved. Ancient settlers depicted here a variety of everyday and life scenes: grazing, various rituals and games.
Contemporaries who live here are not particularly interested in this rock art. And in caves, as a rule, they only provide shelter from the rain. A large number of drawings have not yet been studied and archaeologists continue to study them. 
Rock art of Tadrart-Akakus, Libya
There is a hall of Oxen and a palace hall of Cats. Unfortunately, in 1998, these masterpieces of painting were almost ruined by mold. Therefore, to avoid this, the cave was closed in 2008. 
Rock paintings and engravings began tens of thousands of years before the birth of civilizations such as Greece and Mesopotamia. Although most of these works remain a mystery, they provide modern scholars with insight into daily life prehistoric people, understand their religious beliefs and culture. It is truly a miracle that these ancient drawings survived for such a long time in the face of natural erosion, wars and destructive human activities.
1. El Castillo
Spain
Some of the oldest known cave paintings in the world, depicting horses, bison and warriors, are located in the El Castillo cave, in Cantabria in northern Spain. There is a hole leading into the cave, so narrow that you have to crawl through it. In the cave itself you can find many drawings that are aged at least, 40,800 years.
They were made shortly after people began migrating from Africa to Europe, where they met Neanderthals. In fact, the age of the cave paintings suggests the possibility that they were made by Neanderthals, who lived in this region, although the evidence for this is not at all convincing.
2.Sulawesi
Indonesia
For a long time, El Castillo Cave was believed to contain the oldest known cave paintings. But in 2014, archaeologists made a stunning discovery. In seven caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, handprints and primitive drawings of local pigs were found on the walls.
These images were already known to local residents, but no one even knew how old they were. Scientists estimate the age of the rock paintings at 40,000 years. Such a discovery cast doubt on the long-held belief that human art first appeared in Europe.
3. Arnhem Land Plateau
Australia
Recent research has shown that some places in Australia may rival the world's oldest art in age. Rock art dating back 28,000 years was found at the Nawarla Gabarnmang rock shelter in the north of the country. However, scientists believe that some of the drawings may be much older, as one of them depicts a giant bird that went extinct about 40,000 years ago.
Therefore, either the rock art is older than expected, or the bird lived longer than modern science suggests. In Nawarla Gabarnmang you can also find drawings of fish, crocodiles, wallabies, lizards, turtles and other animals made tens of thousands of years ago.
4. Apollo 11
Namibia
This cave has received so much unusual name, because it was discovered by a German archaeologist in 1969, when the first spaceship(Apollo 11) landed on the moon. Drawings made with charcoal, ocher and white paint were found on the stone slabs of a cave in southwestern Namibia.
The images of creatures that resemble cats, zebras, ostriches and giraffes are between 26,000 and 28,000 years old and are the oldest fine arts, found in Africa.
5. Pech Merle Cave
France
Scientists believed that the 25,000-year-old paintings of two spotted horses on the walls of the Pech-Merle cave in south-central France were a figment of imagination. ancient artist. But latest research DNA showed that similar spotted horses actually existed in the region at that time. Also in the cave you can find 5,000-year-old images of bison, mammoths, horses and other animals, painted with black manganese oxide and red ocher.
6. Tadrart-Akakus
Libya
Deep in the Sahara Desert in southwestern Libya, in the Tadrart-Akakus mountain range, thousands of paintings and rock carvings have been found that show that these arid lands once contained water and lush vegetation. Also on the territory of what is now the Sahara lived giraffes, rhinoceroses, and crocodiles. The oldest drawing here was made 12,000 years ago. But, after Tadrart-Akakus began to be swallowed up by the desert, people finally left this place around 100 AD.
7. Bhimbetka
India
There are about 600 caves and rock dwellings in Madhya Pradesh that contain rock paintings made between 1,000 and 12,000 years ago.
These prehistoric images are painted with red and white paint. In the paintings you can find scenes of hunting buffaloes, tigers, giraffes, moose, lions, leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses. Other drawings show the collection of fruits and honey and the domestication of animals. You can also find images of animals that have long been extinct in India.
8. Laas Gaal
Somalia
A complex of eight caves in Somaliland contains some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings in Africa. They are estimated to be between 5,000 and 11,000 years old and are painted in red, orange and cream colors of cows, people, dogs and giraffes. Almost nothing is known about the people who lived here at that time, but many local residents The caves are still considered sacred.
9. Cueva de las Manos
Argentina
This unusual cave in Patagonia is overflowing with 9,000-year-old red and black handprints on the walls. Since there are mainly images of the left hands of teenage boys, scientists have suggested that drawing an image of one’s hand was part of the initiation rite for young men. In addition, scenes of hunting guanacos and flightless birds rhea.
10. Cave of Swimmers
Egypt
In 1933, a cave with Neolithic rock paintings was found in the Libyan Desert. The images of people swimming (from which the cave gets its name), as well as the handprints that adorn the walls, were made between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago.
