Prehistoric cave-drawings

[Kyriakos]

What do you think of (prehistoric) cave art?

I find that some of it carries an impressive dynamic. I have read that many paleontologists view it as the monument of those early peoples' animistic beliefs, part of which was that they *might* have regarded the drawing of a successful hunt as something which would enable a future such hunt to be successful as well.

Of course, like any art, even if that was a major reason for it, it still would carry other connotations too. For one it is quite impressive to see how prehistoric man created symbols of animals and of himself, in the forms of drawings, distancing the actual objects from the lines which referred to them (subconsciously or consciously).

 

[Perfection]

Prehistoric cave art is cool but what is with all the flying saucers?

 

[Berzerker]

a theory says the bull in one of those caves in france may represent taurus - black dots on the image resemble the stars of the constellation.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Prehistoric cave art is cool but what is with all the flying saucers?

There are animals (both adults and calves) and humans with bows and arrows. No flying saucers.

 

[Kennigit]

There are animals (both adults and calves) and humans with bows and arrows. No flying saucers.

well someone doesn't watch the HISTORY channel now do they?

seriously so many flying saucers in cave paintings and egypt and mesopotamia and yucatan and Europe, the history channel said so

 

[Kyriakos]

^Hm... If you mean this one:

I should note that to me it looks more like a boa constrictor digesting an elephant giant turtle

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It's a snail on pebbles.

A knotted log on sand.

A man with an erection on the beach.

A pregnant woman with a demon baby inside on a bed of coals.

A hat on a dry stream bed.

A map of a mountain with two game trails at its foot.

It's a birds beak and colored speckles on the neck - but the composer realized his composition sucked so he quit.

It's a diagram of a primitive butterfly net with instructions for use.

A game of connect the dots that someone cheated at.

It's an ancient calculus formula.

It's a chemical diagram of alcohol molecules.

It's a launch code sequence for a nuclear tipped atlatl.

An octopus guarding its eggs.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

well someone doesn't watch the HISTORY channel now do they?

seriously so many flying saucers in cave paintings and egypt and mesopotamia and yucatan and Europe, the history channel said so

The only situation like you describe that I recall is the Anasazi drawings. And the Canadian History channel carries different programming than the American one... at the time when I watched it regularly, it didn't have pseudoscience masquerading as reality. The presenters on the shows I watched were objective.

 

[Borachio]

^Hm... If you mean this one:

I should note that to me it looks more like a boa constrictor digesting an elephant giant turtle

Hah! You Little Prince, you!

http://www3.sympatico.ca/gaston.ringuelet/lepetitprince/chapitre01.html

J'ai montré mon chef d'œuvre aux grandes personnes et je leur ai demandé si mon dessin leur faisait peur.

Elles m'ont répondu: "Pourquoi un chapeau ferait-il peur?"

Mon dessin ne représentait pas un chapeau. Il représentait un serpent boa qui digérait un éléphant.

It's an Australian hat. With all those corks hanging on very thin strings.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Clearly it's a puck on an air hockey table floating on a layer of air.

 

[Kyriakos]

Il représentait un serpent boa qui digérait un éléphant.

Sounds even better in the original French I loved that book when i was in the middle of elementary school.

 

[Gucumatz]

Consider yourself lucky then that you don't get the US history channel programming. Like 90% the shows you'll run into are nothing but aliens, garage sales, or hillbillies gone wild

 

[Leonel]

I think just the idea that people drew these before there were roads and civilization is enough to amaze me. It'd be like if I spray painted "This Guy Sucks!" on a rock face then 50,000 years later alien tourists from the Andromeda galaxy find it and make an archeological discovery and wrack their brains on what it means.

 

[CavLancer]

I'm done with my hunt and get home and feast with the family but after dinner, what then?

Can't go have a beer with the guys, or discuss stuff on the internet, or watch the game on TV. There's a real lack of entertainment options for cavemen fresh from the hunt. So, I go draw a picture in my man cave.

 

[Borachio]

I'd be prepared to bet that fermented stuff was available to Cro-Magnon man (and woman) in some form or other.

Then there's all those psychotropic thingies about.

I don't think they were short of entertainment. But I'm not old enough to remember it all clearly.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

^Hm... If you mean this one:

The first thing I thought when I looked at that was the rain cloud symbol.

 

[Kyriakos]

the first thing i thought when i looked at that was the rain cloud symbol.

+1

 

[~Corsair#01~]

With the explosion in recorded information that has happened (at an ever accelerating speed) over the past several thousand years, it is easy to forget just how long our ancestors have been living on the planet and the fact that their mental faculties were equal to ours.

One of the most informative experiences of my life was reading Titus Livius(Livy)'s account of the 2nd Punic War between Rome and Carthage and being astounded at just how much it reminded me of the modern day history books which I read.

To ignore our history is like ignoring the contemporary world outside of your home town. You're missing out on more than you could imagine.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm done with my hunt and get home and feast with the family but after dinner, what then?

Can't go have a beer with the guys, or discuss stuff on the internet, or watch the game on TV. There's a real lack of entertainment options for cavemen fresh from the hunt. So, I go draw a picture in my man cave.

Ancient peoples didn't lack for entertainment. It's just that what they found fun and interesting likely wouldn't mesh with what we do. Or they might, but it's merely a matter of technology.

And that picture reminds me of a sombrero with the little pompoms dangling below.

 

[CavLancer]

Its an exponential increase in communication and information. The next generation will look back on this one as living in a practically ancient era. Nice thing about being the caveman art guy must have been showing it to his grandkids and not have them snicker at how ancient and uncool it is. That level of sophistication lasted for how long? Hundreds of thousands of years? Thousands of generations? Take the galley, much more modern, as another example. 3000 years, something like that. A hundred generations. Guys who built galleys showed their kids the most modern ways, not the other way around. When I was born airlines still flew from place to place with rather small propeller planes. When I die, maybe space planes across the Pacific in an hour? The moon landings were incredible before they became passe in a decade. An author, a woman, wrote that 1890 was "The year people changed". I have no idea what she meant or what the change was that she was talking about. If she were to suddenly pop back into existence now she would thing she was on an alien world. If the cave art guy did the same he might think that this world is just way too much to paint when he gets home.