Primitive images. How and with what people painted from primitive times to the Middle Ages. Rock art of Kakadu

Rock paintings of ancient people

Ancient civilizations were not very developed in terms of their knowledge of chemistry and physics. Perhaps because of this, many mystical theories appeared, the deification of natural phenomena; great importance was attached to the death of a person, his departure to another world. Cave paintings of ancient people can tell us about much of what happened in their lives. On the walls they depicted agricultural activities, military rituals, gods, and priests. In a word, everything that their world consisted of and depended on.

IN Ancient Egypt The tombs and pyramids are full of rock paintings. In the tombs of the pharaohs, for example, it was customary to depict their entire life path from birth to death. With all the details, the rock paintings describe the funeral celebrations, etc.

The most primitive drawings They say that from the very beginning a person was drawn to art; he wanted to forever remember some moments of life. On the hunt primitive people saw a special beauty, they sought to depict the grace and strength of animals.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome also left a lot of rock evidence reminding us of their existence. The thing is that they already had a developed written language - their drawings are much more interesting, from the point of view of studying everyday life, than ancient graffiti.

The Greeks loved to write down wise sayings, or cases that seemed instructive or funny to them. The Romans noted in rock paintings the valor of soldiers and the beauty of women, despite the fact that Roman civilization was practically a copy of Greek, Roman graffiti is not distinguished by either the sharpness of thought or the dexterity of its transmission.

With the development of society, wall art also developed, moving from civilization to civilization, and giving it a unique flavor. Each society and civilization leaves its mark in history, similar to the one that leaves an inscription on a clean wall.

Prehistoric rock art is the most abundant evidence available of humanity's first steps in the fields of art, knowledge and culture. It is found in most countries of the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, and in a wide variety of places - from deep caves to mountain heights.

Several tens of millions of rock paintings have already been discovered and artistic motives, and every year more and more of them are discovered. This solid, enduring, cumulative monument of the past is clear evidence that our distant ancestors developed complex social systems.

Some common false claims about the origins of art had to be rejected at their very beginning. Art, as such, did not arise suddenly; it developed gradually with the enrichment of human experience. By the time the famous cave art appeared in France and Spain, artistic traditions are believed to have already been fairly developed, at least in South Africa, Lebanon, Eastern Europe, India and Australia, and, no doubt, in many other regions that are still should be investigated accordingly.

When did people first decide to generalize reality? This is an interesting question for art historians and archaeologists, but it also has broad interest given that the idea of ​​cultural primacy has an influence on the formation of ideas about racial, ethnic and national value, even on fantasy. For example, the claim that art originated in the caves of Western Europe encourages the creation of myths about European cultural superiority. Secondly, the origins of art should be considered closely related to the emergence of other purely human qualities: the ability to create abstract ideas and symbols, to communicate in top level, develop self-image. Apart from prehistoric art, we have no real evidence from which to conclude the existence of such abilities.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ART

Artistic creativity was considered an example of “impractical” behavior, that is, behavior that seemed to have no practical purpose. The oldest clear archaeological evidence of this is the use of ocher or red iron ore (hematite), a red mineral dye removed and used by people several hundred thousand years ago. These ancient people also collected crystals and patterned fossils, colorful and unusual shape gravel. They began to distinguish between ordinary, everyday objects and unusual, exotic ones. Apparently they developed ideas about a world in which objects could be distributed into different classes. Evidence first appears in South Africa, then in Asia and finally in Europe.

The oldest known cave painting was made in India two or three hundred thousand years ago. It consists of cup-shaped depressions and a sinuous line, chiseled into the sandstone of the cave. Around the same time, on various kinds of portable objects (bone, teeth, tusks and stones) found at sites primitive man, simple linear signs were made. Sets of clustered carved lines first appear in the central and Eastern Europe, they acquire a certain improvement, which makes it possible to recognize individual motifs: scribbles, crosses, arcs and sets of parallel lines.

This period, which archaeologists call the Middle Paleolithic (somewhere between 35,000 and 150,000 years ago), was decisive for the development of human mental and cognitive abilities. This was also the time when people acquired seafaring skills and groups of colonists could make journeys of up to 180 km. Regular sea navigation obviously required improvement of the communication system, that is, language.

People of this era also mined ocher and flint in several world regions. They began to build large communal houses from the bones and put stone walls inside the caves. And most importantly, they created art. In Australia, some examples of rock art were born 60,000 years ago, that is, during the era of human settlement of the continent. In hundreds of places there are objects believed to be of older origin than the art of Western Europe. But during this era, rock art also appeared in Europe. The oldest example of it that is known to us is a system of nineteen cup-like signs in a cave in France, carved on a stone slab, covering the site of a child’s burial.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this era is the cultural unanimity that reigned in the world at that time in all regions of settlement. Despite the differences in tools, undoubtedly due to differences in environment, cultural behavior was surprisingly resilient. The use of ocher and an expressively monotonous set of geometric marks indicate the existence of a universal artistic language between archaic homo sapiens, including European Neanderthals and others that we know about from fossil remains.

Figured images (sculptures) arranged in a circle first appeared in Israel (about 250-300 thousand years ago), in the form of modified natural forms, then in Siberia and central Europe (about 30-35 thousand years ago), and only then in Western Europe. Around 30,000 years ago, rock art became richer in intricate finger marks made into the soft surfaces of caves in Australia and Europe, and stenciled images of palms in France. Two-dimensional images of objects began to appear. The oldest examples, created approximately 32,000 years ago, come from France, followed by South African paintings (Namibia).

About 20,000 years ago (very recently in terms of human history) significant differences begin to form between cultures. Late Paleolithic people in Western Europe began fine traditions in both the sculptural and graphic arts of ritual and decorative consumption. Somewhere around 15,000 years ago, this tradition led to the appearance of such famous masterpieces, such as painting in the caves of Altamira (Spain) and Lescaut (France), as well as the appearance of thousands of elaborately carved figurines from stone, tusks, bone, clay and other materials. This was the time of the finest multicolored works of cave art, drawn or embossed by a certain hand of master craftsmen. However, the development of graphic traditions in other regions was not easy.

In Asia, forms of geometric art, developing, formed very perfect systems, some reminiscent of official records, others - mnemonic emblems, original texts designed to refresh the memory.

Beginning around the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, rock art gradually expanded beyond the caves. This was not dictated by the search for new best places, as (there is almost no doubt here) the survival of rock art through selection. Rock art is well preserved in the permanent conditions of deep limestone caves, but not on rock surfaces, which are more open to destruction. Thus, the unquestioned spread of rock art at the end of the Ice Age does not indicate an increase in artistic production, but rather the crossing of the threshold of what ensured good preservation.

On every continent beyond Antarctica, rock art now shows diversity artistic styles and cultures, the progressive growth of the ethnic diversity of humanity on all continents, as well as the development of major religions. Even the last historical stage in the development of mass migrations, colonization and religious expansion is thoroughly reflected in rock art.

DATING

There are two main forms of rock art, petroglyphs (carving) and pictors (painting). Petroglyphic motifs were created by carving, gouging, chasing or grinding rock surfaces. In pictographs, additional substances, usually paint, were applied to the rock surface. This difference is very important; it determines approaches to dating.

The methodology for scientific dating of rock art has only been developed within the last fifteen years. Therefore, it is still in its “infancy” stage, and the dating of almost all of the world’s rock art remains in poor condition. This, however, does not mean that we have no idea about his age: there are often all kinds of landmarks that allow us to determine the approximate or at least probable age. Sometimes you are lucky enough to determine the age of a rock painting quite accurately, especially when the paint contains organic substances or microscopic inclusions that allow dating due to the radioactive carbon isotope present in them. Careful evaluation of the results of such an analysis can determine the date quite accurately. On the other hand, dating petroglyphs remains extremely difficult.

Modern methods are based on determining the age of mineral deposits that could have been deposited on rock paintings. But they only allow you to determine the minimum age. One way is to analyze microscopic organic matter, interspersed with such mineral layers; laser technology can be successfully used here. Today, only one method is suitable for determining the age of the petroglyphs themselves. It is based on the fact that the mineral crystals, chipped when gouging out petroglyphs, initially had sharp edges, which became blunt and rounded over time. By determining the rate of such processes on nearby surfaces whose age is known, the age of the petroglyphs can be calculated.

Several archaeological methods can also help the dating matter a little. If, for example, the rock surface is covered with archaeological layers of mud whose age can be determined, they can be used to determine the minimum age of petroglyphs. Often resort to comparison of style manners to determine chronological framework rock art, although not very successfully.

Much more reliable are the methods of studying rock art, which often resemble the methods of forensic science. For example, the components of paint can tell how it was made, what tools and admixtures were used, where the dyes were taken from, and the like. Human blood, used as a bonding agent during the Ice Age, has been found in Australian rock art. Australian researchers also discovered up to forty layers of paint superimposed on each other in different places, indicating constant redrawing of the same surface over a long period of time. Like the pages of a book, these layers convey to us the history of the use of surfaces by artists of many generations. The study of such layers is just beginning and can lead to a real revolution in views.

Pollen found on brush fibers in the paint of cave paintings indicates what crops were grown by the ancient artists' contemporaries. In some French caves, characteristic paint recipes were determined from their chemical composition. Using charcoal dyes, often used for drawings, even the type of wood burned into charcoal was determined.

The study of rock art has become a separate scientific discipline, and is already used by many other disciplines, from geology to semiotics, from ethnology to cybernetics. His methodology involves expressiveness using electronic images of colors of very damaged, almost completely faded drawings; a wide range of specialized description methods; microscopic studies of traces left by tools and scanty sediments.

VULNERABLE MONUMENTS

Methods for preserving prehistoric monuments are also being developed and increasingly used. Copies of rock art are made (fragments of an object or even the entire object) to prevent damage to the originals. Yet many of the world's prehistoric sites are in constant danger. Acid rain dissolves the protective mineral layers that cover many petroglyphs. All turbulent streams tourists, urban sprawl, industrial and mining development, even unskilled research contribute to the dirty work of shortening the age of invaluable artistic treasures.

The discovery of cave art galleries raised a number of questions for archaeologists: what did the primitive artist paint with, how did he paint, where did he place the drawings, what did he paint and, finally, why did he do it? The study of caves allows us to answer them with varying degrees of certainty.

The palette of primitive man was poor: it had four main colors - black, white, red and yellow. To obtain white images, chalk and chalk-like limestones were used; black - charcoal and manganese oxides; red and yellow - minerals hematite (Fe2O3), pyrolusite (MnO2) and natural dyes - ocher, which is a mixture of iron hydroxides (limonite, Fe2O3.H2O), manganese (psilomelane, m.MnO.MnO2.nH2O) and clay particles. In caves and grottoes of France, stone slabs were found on which ocher was ground, as well as pieces of dark red manganese dioxide. Judging by the painting technique, pieces of paint were ground and mixed with bone marrow, animal fat or blood. Chemical and X-ray structural analysis of paints from the Lascaux cave showed that not only natural dyes were used, mixtures of which give different shades of primary colors, but also quite complex compounds obtained by firing them and adding other components (kaolinite and aluminum oxides).

Serious study of cave dyes is just beginning. And questions immediately arise: why were only inorganic paints used? The primitive man-gatherer distinguished more than 200 different plants, among which were dyeing plants. Why are the drawings in some caves made in different tones of the same color, and in others - in two colors of the same tone? Why does it take so long to enter early painting colors of the green-blue-blue part of the spectrum? In the Paleolithic they are almost absent; in Egypt they appear 3.5 thousand years ago, and in Greece only in the 4th century. BC e. Archaeologist A. Formozov believes that our distant ancestors did not immediately understand the bright plumage of the “magic bird” - the Earth. The most ancient colors, red and black, reflect the harsh flavor of life at that time: the sun's disk on the horizon and the flame of a fire, the darkness of the night full of dangers and the darkness of the caves bringing relative peace. Red and black were associated with opposites ancient world: red - warmth, light, life with hot scarlet blood; black - cold, darkness, death... This symbolism is universal. It was a long way from the cave artist, who had only 4 colors in his palette, to the Egyptians and Sumerians, who added two more (blue and green) to them. But even further from them is the 20th century cosmonaut who took a set of 120 colored pencils on his first flights around the Earth.

The second group of questions that arise when studying cave painting concerns the technology of drawing. The problem can be formulated as follows: did the animals depicted in the drawings of Paleolithic man “come out” of the wall or “go into” it?

In 1923, N. Casteret discovered a Late Paleolithic clay figure of a bear lying on the ground in the Montespan cave. It was covered with indentations - traces of dart strikes, and numerous prints of bare feet were found on the floor. A thought arose: this is a “model” that incorporates hunting pantomimes around the carcass of a dead bear, established over tens of thousands of years. Then the following series can be traced, confirmed by finds in other caves: a model of a bear, made in life size, dressed in his skin and decorated with a real skull, is replaced by his clay likeness; the animal gradually “gets to its feet” - it is leaned against the wall for stability (this is already a step towards creating a bas-relief); then the animal gradually “retracts” into it, leaving a drawn and then a pictorial outline... This is how archaeologist A. Solar imagines the emergence of Paleolithic painting.

Another way is no less likely. According to Leonardo da Vinci, the first drawing is the shadow of an object illuminated by a fire. Primitive begins to draw, mastering the “outlining” technique. The caves have preserved dozens of such examples. On the walls of the Gargas cave (France) 130 “ghost hands” are visible - human handprints on the wall. It is interesting that in some cases they are depicted with a line, in others - by filling in the external or internal contours (positive or negative stencil), then drawings appear, “torn off” from the object, which is no longer depicted in life-size, in profile or frontally. Sometimes objects are drawn as if in different projections (face and legs - profile, chest and shoulders - frontally). Skill gradually increases. The drawing acquires clarity and confidence of the stroke. By best drawings biologists confidently determine not only the genus, but also the species, and sometimes the subspecies of an animal.

The Magdalenian artists take the next step: through painting they convey dynamics and perspective. Color helps a lot with this. Full of life the horses of the Grand Ben cave seem to be running in front of us, gradually decreasing in size... Later this technique was forgotten, and similar drawings are not found in rock paintings either in the Mesolithic or Neolithic. The last step is the transition from a perspective image to a three-dimensional one. This is how sculptures appear, “emerging” from the walls of the cave.

Which of the above points of view is correct? A comparison of the absolute dating of figurines made of bones and stone indicates that they are approximately the same age: 30-15 thousand years BC. e. Maybe the cave artist took different paths in different places?

Another of the mysteries of cave painting is the lack of background and frame. Figures of horses, bulls, and mammoths are scattered freely along the rock wall. The drawings seem to hang in the air; not even a symbolic line of ground is drawn under them. On the uneven vaults of caves, animals are placed in the most unexpected positions: upside down or sideways. No in drawings of primitive man and a hint of the landscape background. Only in the 17th century. n. e. in Holland the landscape is designed into a special genre.

The study of Paleolithic painting provides specialists with abundant material for searching for the origins various styles and trends in contemporary art. For example, a prehistoric master, 12 thousand years before the advent of pointillist artists, depicted animals on the wall of the Marsoula cave (France) using tiny colored dots. The number of similar examples can be multiplied, but something else is more important: the images on the walls of caves are a fusion of the reality of existence and its reflection in the brain of Paleolithic man. Thus, Paleolithic painting carries information about the level of thinking of a person of that time, about the problems that he lived with and that worried him. Primitive art, discovered more than 100 years ago, remains a real Eldorado for all sorts of hypotheses on this matter.

Dublyansky V.N., popular science book

All over the world, speleologists in deep caves are finding confirmation of the existence of ancient people. Rock paintings have been perfectly preserved for many millennia. There are several types of masterpieces - pictograms, petroglyphs, geoglyphs. Important monuments history of mankind are regularly included in the World Heritage Register.

Usually on the walls of caves there are common subjects, such as hunting, battle, images of the sun, animals, human hands. People in ancient times gave paintings sacred meaning, they believed they were helping themselves in the future.

Images were applied various methods and materials. For artistic creativity animal blood, ocher, chalk and even bat guano were used. Special view paintings - hewn paintings, they were knocked out in stone using a special chisel.

Many caves have not been sufficiently studied and are limited in visiting, while others, on the contrary, are open to tourists. However most of Precious cultural heritage disappears unattended, unable to find its researchers.

Below is a short excursion into the world of the most most interesting caves with prehistoric rock paintings.

Ancient rock paintings.

Bulgaria is famous not only for the hospitality of its residents and the indescribable flavor of its resorts, but also for its caves. One of them, with the sonorous name Magura, is located north of Sofia, near the town of Belogradchik. The total length of the cave galleries is more than two kilometers. The halls of the cave are colossal in size, each of them is about 50 meters wide and 20 meters high. The pearl of the cave is a rock painting made directly on the surface covered with bat guano. The paintings are multi-layered; here are a number of paintings from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age. The drawings of ancient homo sapiens depict figures of dancing villagers, hunters, many strange animals, and constellations. The sun, plants, and tools are also represented. Here begins the story of the festivities ancient era and about the solar calendar, scientists assure.

The cave with the poetic name Cueva de las Manos (from Spanish - “Cave of Many Hands”) is located in the province of Santa Cruz, exactly one hundred miles from the nearest settlement- the city of Perito Moreno. The rock painting art in the hall, 24 meters long and 10 meters high, dates back to the 13th to 9th millennia BC. Amazing picture on limestone it is a three-dimensional canvas decorated with traces of hands. Scientists have built a theory about how the amazingly clear and clear handprints turned out. Prehistoric people they took a special composition, then put it into the mouth, and blew it forcefully through a tube onto a hand attached to the wall. In addition, there are stylized images of humans, rheas, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, the process of hunting and observations of the sun.

Enchanting India offers tourists not only the delights of oriental palaces and charming dances. In north central India there are huge rock formations of weathered sandstone with many caves. Ancient people once lived in natural shelters. About 500 dwellings with traces of human habitation remain in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Indians named the rock dwellings Bhimbetka (after the hero of the Mahabharata epic). The art of the ancients here dates back to the Mesolithic era. Some of the paintings are insignificant, and some of the hundreds of images are very typical and striking. 15 rock masterpieces are available for contemplation by those who wish. Mainly, patterned ornaments and battle scenes are depicted here.

Both rare animals and venerable scientists find shelter in the Serra da Capivara National Park. And 50 thousand years ago, our distant ancestors found shelter here in caves. Presumably, this is the oldest hominid community in South America. The park is located near the town of San Raimondo Nonato, in the central part of the state of Piaui. Experts have counted more than 300 archaeological sites here. The main surviving images date back to 25-22 millennium BC. The most amazing thing is that extinct bears and other paleofauna are painted on the rocks.

The Republic of Somaliland recently separated from Somalia in Africa. Archaeologists in this area are interested in the Laas Gaal cave complex. Here you can see rock paintings from the 8th-9th and 3rd millennium BC. Scenes of life and everyday life are depicted on the granite walls of majestic natural shelters nomadic people Africa: the process of grazing livestock, ceremonies, playing with dogs. The local population does not attach importance to the drawings of their ancestors, and uses the caves, as in the old days, for shelter during the rain. Many of the studies have not been properly studied. In particular, problems arise with the chronological reference of masterpieces of Arab-Ethiopian ancient rock paintings.

Not far from Somalia, in Libya, there are also rock paintings. They are much earlier, dating back almost to the 12th millennium BC. The last of them were applied after the birth of Christ, in the first century. It is interesting to observe, following the drawings, how the fauna and flora changed in this area of ​​the Sahara. First we see elephants, rhinoceroses and fauna typical of a rather humid climate. Also interesting is the clearly visible change in the lifestyle of the population - from hunting to sedentary cattle breeding, then to nomadism. To get to Tadrart Akakus, you need to cross the desert east of the city of Ghat.

In 1994, while walking, by chance, Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the cave that later became famous. She was named after the speleologist. In the Chauvet cave, in addition to traces of the life activity of ancient people, hundreds of wonderful frescoes were discovered. The most amazing and beautiful of them depict mammoths. In 1995, the cave became a state monument, and in 1997, 24-hour surveillance was introduced here to prevent damage to the magnificent heritage. Today, in order to take a look at the incomparable rock art of the Cro-Magnons, you need to obtain special permission. In addition to mammoths, there is something to admire; here on the walls there are handprints and fingerprints of representatives of the Aurignacian culture (34-32 thousand years BC)

In fact, the famous Cockatoo parrot is the name of the Australian national park it does not matter. The Europeans simply mispronounced the name of the Gaagudju tribe. This nation is now extinct, and there is no one to correct the ignorant. The park is home to Aboriginal people who have not changed their way of life since the Stone Age. For thousands of years, Indigenous Australians have been involved in rock painting. Pictures were painted here already 40 thousand years ago. In addition to religious scenes and hunting, there are stylized stories in drawings about useful skills (educational) and magic (entertaining). Among the animals depicted are the extinct marsupial tigers, catfish, and barramundi. All the wonders of the Arnhem Land plateau, Colpignac and the southern hills are located 171 km from the city of Darwin.

It turns out that the first homo sapiens reached Spain in the 35th millennium BC, this was the early Paleolithic. They left strange rock paintings in the Altamira cave. Artistic artifacts on the walls of the huge cave date back to both the 18th and 13th millennia. IN last period Interesting are the polychrome figures, the unique combination of engraving and painting, and the acquisition of realistic details. The famous bison, deer and horses, or rather, their beautiful images on the walls of Altamira, often end up in textbooks for middle school students. The Altamira Cave is located in the Cantabria region.

Lascaux is not just a cave, but a whole complex of small and large cave halls located in the south of France. Not far from the caves is the legendary village of Montignac. The paintings on the cave walls were painted 17 thousand years ago. And to this day they amaze with their amazing forms, akin to contemporary art graffiti. Scholars especially value the Hall of the Bulls and the Palace Hall of the Cats. It’s easy to guess what prehistoric creators left there. In 1998, the rock masterpieces were almost destroyed by mold caused by an improperly installed air conditioning system. And in 2008, Lascaux was closed to preserve more than 2,000 unique drawings.

PhotoTravelGuide

For many years, modern civilization had no idea about any objects ancient painting, however, in 1879, the Spanish amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, together with his 9-year-old daughter, during a walk, accidentally stumbled upon the Altamira cave, the vaults of which were decorated with many drawings of ancient people - an unprecedented find extremely shocked the researcher and motivated him to study it closely.

1. White Shaman's Rock

This 4,000-year-old ancient rock art is located in the lower Peco River in Texas. The giant image (3.5 m) shows central figure surrounded by other people performing some rituals. It is assumed that the figure of a shaman is depicted in the center, and the picture itself depicts the cult of some forgotten ancient religion.

2. Kakadu Park

Kakadu National Park is one of the most... beautiful places for tourists in Australia. It is especially valued by its rich cultural heritage— the park contains an impressive collection of local Aboriginal art. Some of the rock paintings at Kakadu (which were included in the fund world heritage UNESCO) is almost 20,000 years old.

3. Chauvet Cave

Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the south of France. More than 1000 different images can be found in the Chauvet Cave, most of them are animals and anthropomorphic figures. These are some of the most ancient images known to man: their age dates back to 30,000 - 32,000 years. About 20,000 years ago, the cave was filled with stones and has remained in excellent condition to this day.

4. Cueva de El Castillo

In Spain, the “Castle Cave” or Cueva de El Castillo was recently discovered, on the walls of which the oldest cave paintings in Europe were found, their age is 4,000 years older than all the rock paintings that were previously found in the Old World. Most images contain handprints and simple geometric figures, although there are also images of strange animals. One of the drawings, a simple red disk, was made 40,800 years ago. It is assumed that these paintings were made by Neanderthals.

5. Laas Gaal

Some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings on the African continent can be found in Somalia, at the Laas Gaal (Camel Well) cave complex. Despite the fact that their age is “only” 5,000 - 12,000 years, these rock paintings are perfectly preserved. They depict mainly animals and people in ceremonial clothing and various decorations. Unfortunately this one is wonderful cultural site cannot receive World Heritage status because it is located in an area constantly at war.

6. Bhimbetka Cliff Dwellings

The cliff dwellings at Bhimbetka represent some of the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. In natural rock shelters on the walls there are drawings that are about 30,000 years old. These paintings represent the period of development of civilization from the Mesolithic to the end of prehistoric times. The drawings depict animals and people doing daily activities such as hunting, religious ceremonies and, interestingly, dancing.

7. Magura

In Bulgaria, the rock paintings found in the Magura cave are not very old - they are between 4,000 and 8,000 years old. They are interesting because of the material that was used to apply the images - guano (droppings) bat. In addition, the cave itself was formed millions of years ago and other archaeological artifacts have been found in it, such as the bones of extinct animals (for example, the cave bear).

8. Cueva de las Manos

The "Cave of Hands" in Argentina is famous for its extensive collection of prints and images of human hands. This rock painting dates back to 9,000 - 13,000 years. The cave itself (more precisely, the cave system) was used by ancient people 1,500 years ago. Also in Cueva de las Manos you can find various geometric shapes and images of hunting.

9. Altamira Cave

Paintings found in the Altamira cave in Spain are considered a masterpiece ancient culture. The stone painting from the Upper Paleolithic period (14,000 - 20,000 years old) is in exceptional condition. As in Chauvet Cave, a landslide sealed the entrance to this cave about 13,000 years ago, so the images remained intact. In fact, these drawings are so well preserved that when they were first discovered in the 19th century, scientists thought they were fakes. It took a long time until technology made it possible to confirm the authenticity of rock art. Since then, the cave has proved so popular among tourists that it had to be closed in the late 1970s because a large number of Carbon dioxide from the breath of visitors began to lead to the destruction of the painting.

10. Lascaux Cave

It is by far the best known and most significant collection of rock art in the world. Some of the most beautiful 17,000-year-old paintings in the world can be found in this cave system in France. They are very complex, very carefully made and at the same time perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, the cave was closed more than 50 years ago due to the fact that, under the influence of carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors, the unique images began to collapse. In 1983, a reproduction of part of the cave called Lascaux 2 was discovered.