It’s hard to write about something that we don’t know or understand. While this seems obvious, we try to do it all the time. We, as a society or community, try to explain things that we don’t understand, to rationalize it in a way that makes sense to us. Of course this leads to us making assumptions about others that could be entirely false depending on the topic. I wanted to focus my first post on a specific type of art that has almost no information about it besides where it is and how it came to be. I’m talking about ancient cave paintings, more specifically I will be focusing on the “Hall Of Bulls” and “Disemboweled Bison & Bird-Headed Human Figure” in Lascaux, France.
“I Want To Help!”
For most people, there is an urge to help others. It’s been ingrained into our brains since elementary school that helping others is important and the right thing to do. With some of the ancient caves in France, it has been speculated that the drawings were made as warnings to others, or used something along the lines of animal identification. The “Hall Of Running Bulls” displays dozens of drawings of bulls, as well as other animals, across the walls and ceiling of the cave. I think it’s very probable that these paintings were used for that reason. I also like the idea of using art to help yourself, as in stress-relief or memory recall.
“It Doesn’t Have A Purpose, I Just Like Looking At It.”
A topic we’ve discussed in class that comes up quite frequently is the idea of art for pleasure. It’s not super known what prehistoric humans (or whatever term they’ve been given) would do besides hunt and reproduce. The idea of ancient art pieces being used as decoration wasn’t that popular due to the fact that art historians thought everything needed a survival purpose. They’ve found weapons, tools, and other things that were key to the survival of these beings, but when presented with something that isn’t blaringly obvious as to how it kept these prehistoric humans alive, they’re stumped.
Switching the perspective for a little bit to the social work side, being mentally sound is seen as a key to survival in the modern world we live in, so why do we think it wasn’t the same for them? What makes them so different from us, besides the fact that we have more advanced technology? The idea of using the art to relieve stress isn’t so crazy when you think of as to why we make art.
One thing that one of the readings, written by Mary Beth Looney, brought up was that the drawings seemed to be a serious thing for them, and it even suggested that it could be ritualistic. “…It seems that the pure process of drawing and repetitive re-drawing held serious (perhaps ritual) significance for the makers” (Looney). She also discussed Henri Brevil’s theory about “hunting magic”, which claimed that they would draw animals to “overpower” them and have a successful hunt.
If I could add a theory into the mix, I would say that it was used as a way of storytelling. Depicted above is the “Disemboweled Bison And Bird-Headed Human Figure” which has stumped historians as to why it was made. Going back to the topic of stress-relief, most people would consider hanging out with friends one of their biggest stress-relievers. I could imagine a family or group of ancient humans gathering to discuss their day or even brag about what they caught during a hunt. Maybe these pictures were just made to help tell a story to others.
Main Takeaway
Not everything needs a serious purpose. Some things from the ancient world could just be used for fun, and it doesn’t need a serious purpose. Ancient humans aren’t as different from us as they make it seem, and they also need some time off from their stressful lives.
Source
Looney, M. Lascaux. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-prehistory-ap/paleolithic-mesolithic-neolithic-apah/a/lascaux
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