The Ice Age cave art in Southwestern Europe is one of the great wonders of the world–true world heritage art incredible in its realism and artistic quality. It was first brought to the attention of archaeologists in 1879 when the young Maria Sautuola entered a cave now known as Altamira on her father’s property in northern Spain. No one had ever seen mammoths, rhinoceroses, bison, reindeer, or lions before. These only existed in Europe over 12,000 years earlier during the Ice Ages. At first, people could not believe that these paintings could be so old, but gradually more examples were found and they were accepted as genuine. And so began a long line of attempts to try to understand what motivated people to create this art so long ago (32,000 to 12,000 years ago) and what role it might have played in their societies. Continue reading “Why Did People Make Cave Art in the Paleolithic?”
Author