Paleolithic studies is one of the more fascinating aspects of archaeology. These people are the founders of the human race, and tracing back their steps is absolutely fascinating. I have heard that we humans today are classified as homo sapiens sapiens, while those at Chauvet who clashed with the Neanderthals were homo sapiens, so they are our first ancestors. As the documentary said, it dates back more than three thousand years ago, making our existence during civilization appear insignificant to the amount of time they spent as nomadic hunter-gatherers. And yet, the gap in time seems to make no difference to us because they left behind works of art that are fantastic even in today’s terms. It’s eerie that their paintings still affect us today, but it is so powerful that it is awesome.
What I found most intriguing, besides the hung-over tone of the narrator, was when he mentioned that these paintings were not merely paintings but a part of a 3D motion picture. The curves and indentations of the walls were made so that the paintings would pop out at the audience, and the animals had duplicate sets of legs sometimes to demonstrate movement. This painted a vivid picture for me. I could imagine walking into the cave, with the light from a fire flickering, and witnessing a legitimate movie. In the area called “The Panel of Horses” the humans that created it purposely painted the scene around a water spout, possibly to mimic the sound of the stampede or to make the picture seem come to life. It must have been an unreal experience especially for a people that did not have anywhere near the amount of media exposure we have today.
This must indicate a profound appreciation and reverence to their surroundings. Their fascination with the natural world and fauna surely mean that they felt a deep connection to some sort of spirit that governed the rule of nature. Whether they discovered natural law at that time remains to be seen, but while they were painting these scenes, they must have known that they were not like other animals. No other animal made hunting tools, or painted in caves, or made caricatures of themselves. This gives scientists and archaeologists a nice theme or historical question to consider: Who did these people see themselves as? These paintings are obvious indications that humans were dealing with complex thoughts at the time. They were addressing existential emotions or thoughts beyond the present moment. The answer is not going to be easy to find, but it would be an excellent one to address.
I found all of the painting techniques used within the Chauvet were interesting, but just like you I found it fascinating to learn that some of the paintings were made to mimic movement in torchlight. I had no idea that their painting skills were so advanced. I had never seen cave paintings so precise and refined. It was really cool learning about the many different techniques shown in Chauvet alone. They not only had the more advanced, multi-legged drawings, but they also had the more primitive hand print paintings throughout the entire cave.
Just branching from the hand prints alone we can learn so much. The hand prints were shown to have a bent finger allowing us to match them to multiple prints done by the same person within the cave. The prints also allowed us to see how tall the person was. Not only were the prints informative but so were the paintings near the entrance for the water.
Like you said, the painters must have put a lot of thought into the paintings to put them where they did. One major question comes up to me when I see the painting, where the painting it from a past experience or was it simply a work of art? Maybe the reason for the painting was to inform those of the pure terror of a stampede or maybe the painting was for entertainment purposes, or possibly even both.
Discoveries like Chauvet constantly bring to light the fact that we honestly have barely scratched the surface on the history of our ancestors.