Cave Art Found: Was It A Prehistoric Preschool?
Children love art. And it appears that prehistoric children who lived 13,000 years ago were no different! The caves of France and Spain are full of striking images of animals such as mammoths, bison, horses, rhinos, hyenas and more. In the famous 5-mile cave complex in Rouffignac, France known as the "Cave of a Hundred Mammoths", there are some interesting patterns mixed with the animal figures.
Archeologists Leslie Van Gilder and Kevin Sharpe found what looked like prehistoric finger painting -- someone had dragged their three middle fingers in a pattern on the wet clay walls. Known as finger fluting, the patterns consist of crisscrossing lines, zigzags and swirls. Some of these lines appeared to be the outlines of animals, and human faces that looked more comical than realistic.
As young as three!
Now, by measuring the space between the lines and matching them up against modern children, archeologists can tell the child's age. Similarly, by the shape of the top edges of the fingers, they can guess whether the individual was female or male, as well as identify marks made by the same child.
Using these techniques, Van Gilder and her team found that four children between the ages of three and seven had created the most works of art. The most prolific among them appears to have been a five-year-old girl whose doodles are everywhere in the huge cave complex!
There is much more that archeologists have gleaned from this discovery. For one, art seems to have been a family affair! The patterns made by children are mixed in with the more complex animal patterns drawn by adults. Some fluting patterns are on cave ceilings, indicating that an adult might have carried the child on their shoulders. To her delight, Van Gilder found an area of the cave that was dedicated completely to finger art by children. Perhaps this was a preschool playroom where the walls were left for children to draw as they wished, or a corner where they were taught the art of cave painting!
Who were these artists?
They were our ancestors -- stone-age hunter gatherers who roamed the plains of Europe in the late Paleolithic Age. The late Paleolithic Age which lasted between 40,000 and 9,000 years ago, was a period when glaciers were retreating from much of Europe and Asia after the Ice Age. As the land became ice-free, new cave complexes opened up, and early humans sought shelter in them from the weather and wild animals.
Nearly 350 caves with elaborate works of art have been found in France and Spain alone, and many more in Australia, New Guinea, Africa, India, Argentina and other countries. The earliest cave art found in France's Chauvet Cave date back 33,000 years and were mostly black and white -- figures drawn from charcoal embers. However, with passing time, the paintings came to life with colors as the early artists mixed natural pigments from Earth such as iron, manganese and ochre, with animal fat to create their palette.
Spain's Altamira caves and France's Lascaux Caves are like an ancient Sistine Chapel! The ceilings and walls are covered with frescoes of animals, and scenes depicting man versus beast. What was the purpose of these paintings? Were they a way our ancestors spent their idle time, or an ancient ritual? We may never know.
learning about cave art is fun
HUH?
WEIRD.
those paintings totally rock!
amazing!
This is so amazing!!!
what school was that at
In art class we are learning about the cave so it's so cool seeing it on here.
I recently just learned about cave art in art. We learned that these paintings were found somewhere in France:)
did u here that some kids dog fell in a hole and found the cave
those paintings are soooo cool‼‼‼‼‼♥
Some people of the prehistoric must have had life as artist!
COOL!
Love this picture in art class we learned about the cave and i think that this web site thought of everthing i enjoy. I personally like the beatiful illastrations
This is so remarkable that 13000 years ago people and children painted. Its also amazing that children as young as 3 painted as well!
This was a remarkable discovery made by Leslie Van Glider and Kevin Sharpe.These were three year olds!Just to think that three year olds back then do the same things that three year olds do now is pretty awesome.It is also pretty amazing that they can tell if it is a three year old in the first place!If this was a prehistoric preschool that could prove how much schooling they had in B.C.
That is so cool.☺:)In class we did some cave painting. It wasn't as good as the ones in the art at the top but it was still fun!!!!
It looks cool how they make the art on the caves.It also is cool that they know if it is a girl or boy that did the painting. The cave art was very creative and it looked like a real animal. It looks hard to do cave art on the cave.
That's so interesting!!!!! I learned that some of the paintings seem to have been done by a five-year-old girl who made doodles everywhere in the huge cave.
Things like these are so amazing!!!!!!!
That piece was very interesting to me. I learned that children back then even knew how to be creative!! It even might have been a preistoric preschool!!! That's amazing!! Cave art should be shown around the world!!!!!
It is so wierd that a 6 year old girl or boy can learn to draw better than a 11 year old.They are very cool.
i believe , that that the people who were the artist there,were awesome at it!
I think it was a preschool so they could teach kids about the animals, hunting, and many other important stuff. There painting are very cool ,and beautiful!
No wonder kids love art, it's so fun! I've made cave art, so why wouldn't they.
This is so amazing! How did this 5-year old girl draw better than me. I believe that archeologists knew how to tell if it was a girl or a boy. They knew by the width and length. Also it's incredible how they knew how old they were.
I believe that this is really awesome how they can tell that is it was a boy or girl. It is really cool that archeologists Leslie Gilder ,and Kevin Shape found something that looked like prehistoric cave painting. That is so cool that they found that. I believe that there might have been actually been a prehistoric preschool.
That is so beautiful!I love it! they are so artistic.
That's neat. I learned that they can find out what age the people or kids were when they painted them.I aslo learned that the caves of France and Spain are full of striking images of animals such as mammoths, bison, horses, rhinos, hyenas and more.
I like social studies and we talked about this a lot. The cave paintings are awesome and they are good. I can't believe that people actually found this.
I think that it probaly was a preschool. So that the kids could learn to hunt & color. If it wasn't a preschool then It could have been a museum.
How magnificent that we discovered such ancient and beautiful paintings! I would be glad if I had discovered a scene of ancient art! A magnificent discovery I tell you!
Don't citizens love art? I know I do, people found paintings in prehistoric caves. People from all over the world love this art too!
There is many interesting facts about cave paintings.I believe it's interesting that scientists can find out if it was a child or a adult painting in the caves.It is also interesting they can find out if it's a girl or a boy. I learned that most cave painting are in France and Spain.The cave paintings are mostly of hunting animals.I've heard a lot about the Lascoux cave and I've seen on many books or articles that it's the most famous cave painting.
They must have been the ones who invented some of the most important things in their lives. They are neat as well because they might have had schools which is amazing.
prehistoric children who lived 13,000 years ago were no different then us from today. they made cave paintings in zigzags and all lot of other was to.
I loved that story so much. I got a little confused in the middle but then i caught on. I think that it would be hard to figure out if the paintings would be a finger or a stick. I dont know if the people back then had other utensils. They probably had a feather and ink. Now we have pens. I am so happy we have pens. I wonder if it took longer for them to use feathers and ink? Im sure it did take longer because, you would have had to keep on taking the pen in and out to get more ink. I love finger painting. It is cool.
They must be really good artists. How fascinating!
it was good
i wish that i could draw that good and how they drew that picture
How do they do that!
That is amazing how they could conserve that old art for so long!
Cool
isn't it.
Hello my fellow classmate
hello dylan. did you actually read about the caves. it turns out the oldest cave art in europe was 33,000 years ago.
i think that is a great article because its so cool how people could tell how old you were by your fingers and the art was cool i liked it
This is an awesome article I love the cave paintings that early humans made!!
This is fascinating, and helpful for my study on the early human's prehistorical life. Have they found a mysterious drawing or things in this caves?
Wow! people so long ago... how could they be so advanced in their culture? I love art and I think it is really cool that kids back then did it too.
That was their Facebook 'wall'.
It's weird to think that these children are thousands of years old now...
Cool! How interesting! Now scientists can know more about the past.