CHARACTERISTIC:
Like Siberia, with brutally cold winters that eventually lasted through spring and summer. Freezing temperatures prevailed with very little respite. For years endless snow and ice simply accumulated and deepened, covering Europe with glaciers, forcing many humans to flee, die out, and, thankfully for us, some to adapt. About 20,000 BCE the landscape was glacier-dominated, enshrouding Scandanavia and most of northern Europe was a mile-high polar ice cap. Elsewhere harsh conditions favored grassland that provided fodder for large grazing mammals such as mammoth, bison, aurochs, horses, and reindeer.They may well be our first recorded stories. They reveal realistic portraits of the magnificent animals our early ancestors lived alongside, perhaps preyed on, and in some cases most certainly were the prey of.
THIS ART UNIQUE:
- Some were perhaps created to show how animals were tracked, or to describe herd movements that not only aided hunting, but might also have predicted climate change.
- Others may have been created for reasons of sympathetic magic.
- In Chauvet Cave (southern France) dangerous animals such as cave bears, rhinoceroses, lions and even a spotted leopard are depicted.
- Scholars feel that these may well have been selected for their symbolic power.
- Cave images have been found, such as in the Lascaux caves in southwestern France.
MEANING IN THIS ARTWORK:
That appear to have pockmarks made by pointed spears, possibly thrown in a ritual to "wound" the animal and so ensure future hunting success.
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