Drawing on the theme of ancient people. Draw an ancient man, how to draw an ancient man in stages with a pencil for beginners. Ancient cave paintings

Traditionally, cave paintings are called petroglyphs, this is the name for all images on a stone from ancient times (Paleolithic) up to the Middle Ages, both primitive cave rock carvings, and later ones, for example, on specially installed stones, megaliths or "wild" rocks.

Such monuments are not concentrated anywhere in one place, but are widely scattered across the face of our planet. They were found in Kazakhstan (Tamgaly), in Karelia, in Spain (Altamira cave), in France (Font de Gome, Montespan, etc.), in Siberia, on the Don (Kostenki), in Italy, England, Germany, in Algeria, where the giant multicolored paintings of the Tassilin-Ajer mountain plateau in the Sahara, among the desert sands, were recently discovered and made a sensation around the world.

Despite the fact that cave paintings have been studied for about 200 years, they still remain a mystery.

Hopi rock paintings in the state of Arizona, USA, depicting some Kachina creatures. The Indians considered them to be their heavenly teachers.

According to the generally accepted theory of evolution, primitive for many tens of thousands of years remained a primitive hunter and gatherer. And then he was suddenly struck by a real insight, and he began to draw and carve mysterious symbols and images on the walls of his caves, rocks and mountain crevices.

The famous Onega petroglyphs.

Oswald O. Tobisch, a man of generous and diverse talents, spent 30 years researching more than 6,000 cave paintings, trying to restore some kind of logical system that unites them. It's literally breathtaking when you look at the findings of his research and numerous comparison tables. Tobisch traces the features of similarity of various rock paintings, so that it seems that in ancient times there was a single praculture and universal knowledge associated with it.

Spain. Rock painting. XI century BC

Of course, millions and millions of cave paintings did not appear at the same time; very often (but not always) they are separated by many millennia. In other cases, the drawings on the same rocks were created over several millennia.

Africa. Rock painting. VIII - IV century BC

And yet it is an amazing fact that many cave paintings in different parts of the world appeared almost simultaneously. Everywhere, be it Toro Muerto (Peru), where tens of thousands of rock paintings have been found, Val Carmonica (Italy), the vicinity of the Karakoram Highway (Pakistan), the Colorado Plateau (USA), the Paraibo region (Brazil) or southern Japan, almost identical symbols and shapes. Of course, I cannot help but note that each separate place has its own, strictly localized types of images that cannot be found anywhere else, but this does not in any way clarify the mystery of the striking similarity of the other drawings.

Australia. XII - IV century BC

If we consider all these images with all their attributes and symbols, there is an amazing impression that the sound of the same calling trumpet suddenly rang out across all continents: “Remember: the gods are those who are surrounded by rays!” These "gods" in most cases are portrayed as much larger than other men. Their heads are almost always surrounded or crowned with a halo or halo, as if shining rays emanate from them. Moreover, ordinary people are always depicted at a respectful distance from the "gods"; they kneel before them, prostrate themselves on the ground, or raise their hands to them.

Italy. Rock painting. XIII - VIII century BC

Oswald Tobisch, an expert on rock paintings, who traveled all over the world, with his tireless efforts came even closer to solving this ancient mystery: perhaps he was still in the powerful force field of the "primordial revelation" of the one and all-powerful Creator? "

Dogu's spacesuit. The world's oldest image of a spacesuit.
Death Valley, USA.
Peru. Rock painting. XII - IV century BC

Hopi rock carvings in Arizona, USA

Australia

Rock carvings near Lake Onega. Incomprehensible images that some philosophers interpret as flying machines.

Australia
Petroglyphs from the vicinity of the village of Karakol, Ongudai region
Hunting scenes, where anthropomorphic creatures (people or spirits?) With bows, spears and sticks hunt the beast, and dogs (or wolves?) Help them, appear 5-6 thousand years ago - it was then that this petroglyph was created.
on a rock in japan 7 thousand years ago
Algerian sahara, Tassili massif (painted rock paintings). The era of round heads. Reach 8 meters. Stone Age Drawings

Similar examples of the creativity of ancient peoples can be found all over the world. In Altai - rock portraits of humanoid creatures in spacesuits, created 4 - 5 thousand years ago. In Central America, there are launching "spaceships". They are depicted on some Mayan tombs around 1300 years old. In Japan, bronze figurines of the 4th century BC are found dressed in helmets and overalls. In the mountains of Tibet there are “flying saucers” painted 3000 years ago. Whole galleries of monsters with antennae on their heads, tentacles instead of hands and mysterious weapons are "exposed" for all to see to us, descendants, in caves, on plateaus and in the mountains in Peru, Sahara, Zimbabwe, Australia, France, Italy.
Huge figures and little people nearby.

The history textbook says that primitive man wanted to somehow manifest himself and realize his primitive creativity with what was at hand. This is how cave paintings appeared on the rocks in deep caves.

But how primitive were our ancestors? And was it really that simple a few thousand years ago, as we imagine it? The drawings from primitive art collected in this article may make you think about something.

Primitive (or, in other words, primitive) art territorially covers all continents, except for Antarctica, and in time - the entire epoch of human existence, having survived among some peoples living in remote corners of the planet to the present day.

Most of the oldest paintings are found in Europe (from Spain to the Urals).

It was well preserved on the walls of the caves - the entrances turned out to be completely heaped up thousands of years ago, the same temperature and humidity were maintained there.

Not only wall paintings have survived, but also other evidence of human activity - clear traces of the bare feet of adults and children on the damp floor of some caves.

The reasons for the origin of creative activity and the functions of primitive art Human need for beauty and creativity.

Beliefs of the time. The man portrayed those whom he honored. People of that time believed in magic: they believed that with the help of paintings and other images, one could influence nature or the outcome of the hunt. It was believed, for example, that you need to hit a painted animal with an arrow or a spear to ensure the success of a real hunt.

Periodization

Now science is changing its mind about the age of the earth and the time frame is changing, but we will study by the generally accepted names of the periods.
1. Stone Age
1.1 Ancient Stone Age - Paleolithic. ... up to 10 thousand BC
1.2 Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic. 10 - 6 thousand BC
1.3 New Stone Age - Neolithic. From 6th to 2,000 BC
2. The Bronze Age. 2 millennium BC
3. The era of iron. 1 millennium BC

Paleolithic

The tools were made of stone; hence the name of the era - the Stone Age.
1. Ancient or Lower Paleolithic. up to 150 thousand BC
2. Middle Paleolithic. 150 - 35 thousand BC
3. Upper or late Paleolithic. 35 - 10 thousand BC
3.1 Aurignac-Solutrean period. 35 - 20 thousand BC
3.2. Madeleine period. 20 - 10 thousand BC The period received this name from the name of the La Madeleine cave, where murals related to this time were found.

The earliest works of primitive art date back to the late Paleolithic. 35 - 10 thousand BC
Scientists are inclined to believe that naturalistic art and the depiction of schematic signs and geometric figures arose at the same time.
Pasta drawings. Imprints of a human hand and a disordered interweaving of wavy lines, pressed in wet clay by the fingers of the same hand.

The first drawings of the Paleolithic period (ancient Stone Age, 35-10 thousand BC) were discovered at the end of the 19th century. Spanish amateur archaeologist Count Marcelino de Sautuola, three kilometers from his family estate, in the Altamira cave.

It happened like this:
“The archaeologist decided to explore a cave in Spain and took his little daughter with him. Suddenly she shouted: "Bulls, bulls!" My father laughed, but when he raised his head, he saw on the ceiling of the cave huge painted figures of bison. Some of the buffalo were depicted standing still, others rushing with bent horns at the enemy. At first, scientists did not believe that primitive people could create such works of art. Only 20 years later, numerous works of primitive art were discovered in other places and the authenticity of the cave painting was recognized. "

Paleolithic painting

Altamira cave. Spain.
Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era 20 - 10 thousand years BC).
On the vault of the Altamira cave chamber, a whole herd of large, closely spaced bison is depicted.


Bison panel. Located on the ceiling of the cave. Wonderful polychrome images contain black and all shades of ocher, rich colors, superimposed somewhere densely and monotonously, and somewhere with halftones and transitions from one color to another. A thick paint layer up to several cm. In total, 23 figures are depicted on the vault, if you do not take into account those of which only the contours have survived.

Fragment. Buffalo. Altamira cave. Spain. Late Paleolithic. The caves were illuminated with lamps and reproduced from memory. Not primitivism, but the highest degree of stylization. When the cave was opened, it was believed that this was an imitation of hunting - the magical meaning of the image. But today there are versions that the goal was art. The beast was necessary for man, but he was terrible and elusive.

Fragment. Bull. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Beautifully brown shades. The tense stop of the beast. They used the natural relief of the stone, depicted on the bulge of the wall.

Fragment. Bison. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Transition to polychrome art, darker outline.

Font de Gaume cave. France

Late Paleolithic.
Characterized by silhouette images, deliberate distortion, exaggeration of proportions. On the walls and vaults of the small halls of the Font de Gaume cave, there are at least about 80 drawings, mostly bison, two indisputable figures of mammoths and even a wolf.

Deer grazing. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
Perspective view of the horns. Deer at this time (end of the Madeleine era) drove out other animals.

Fragment. Buffalo. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
The hump and crest on the head are emphasized. Overlapping one image with another is a polypsest. Detailed study. Decorative tail solution. The image of the houses.

Wolf. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.

Nio's cave. France

Late Paleolithic.
Round hall with drawings. There are no images of mammoths and other animals of the glacial fauna in the cave.

Horse. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Depicted already with 4 legs. The silhouette is outlined in black, the inside is retouched in yellow. Pony type horse character.

Stone ram. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic. Partially contour image, with a skin drawn on top.

Deer. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.

Buffalo. Nio. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Most of the images are bison. Some of them are shown wounded, arrows in black and red.

Buffalo. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.

Lasko cave

It so happened that it was the children, and quite by accident, who found the most interesting cave paintings in Europe:
“In September 1940, near the town of Montignac, in the South-West of France, four high school students set off on an archaeological expedition they had conceived. In place of a tree that had long been uprooted, a hole gaped in the ground that aroused their curiosity. It was rumored that this was the entrance to a dungeon leading to a nearby medieval castle.
Inside was even a smaller hole. One of the guys threw a stone at it and, from the sound of the fall, concluded that the depth was decent. He widened the hole, crawled inside, nearly fell, lit a flashlight, gasped, and called out to others. From the walls of the cave in which they found themselves, some huge animals were looking at them, breathing with such confident power, at times it seemed ready to go into a rage that they felt creepy. And at the same time, the power of these animal images was so majestic and convincing that it seemed to them that they were in some kind of magic kingdom. "

Lasko cave. France.
Late Paleolithic (Madeleine epoch, 18 - 15 thousand years BC).
Called primitive Sistine Chapel... Consists of several large rooms: rotunda; main gallery; passage; apse.
Colorful images on the limestone white surface of the cave.
Proportions are greatly exaggerated: large necks and bellies.
Contour and silhouette drawings. Crisp images without layers. A large number of male and female signs (rectangle and many dots).

Hunting scene. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.
Genre image. A bull killed by a spear butted a man with a bird's head. Nearby on a stick is a bird - maybe his soul.

Buffalo. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.

Horse. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.

Mammoths and horses. Kapova cave. Ural.
Late Paleolithic.

KAPOVA CAVE - to the South. m Ural, on the river. White. Formed in limestone and dolomite. Corridors and grottoes are located on two floors. The total length is over 2 km. On the walls - Late Paleolithic pictorial images of mammoths, rhinos

Paleolithic sculpture

Small-scale art or mobile art (small plastic)
An integral part of the art of the Paleolithic era are objects that are commonly called "small plastic".
These are three types of objects:
1. Figurines and other volumetric items carved from soft stone or other materials (horn, mammoth tusk).
2. Flattened objects with engravings and paintings.
3. Reliefs in caves, grottoes and under natural awnings.
The relief was knocked out with a deep contour or the background around the image was cut off.

Relief

One of the first finds, called small plastic, was a bone plate from the Shaffaut grotto with images of two fallow deer or deer:
Deer swimming across the river. Fragment. Bone carving. France. Late Paleolithic (Madeleine period).

Everyone knows the wonderful French writer Prosper Mérimée, author of the fascinating novel Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX, Carmen and other romantic novellas, but few people know that he served as an inspector for the protection of historical monuments. It was he who donated this disc in 1833 to the Cluny Historical Museum, which was just being organized in the center of Paris. Now it is kept in the Museum of National Antiquities (Saint-Germain en Laye).
Later, an Upper Paleolithic cultural layer was discovered in the Shaffaut grotto. But then, just as it was with the painting of the Altamira cave, and with other pictorial monuments of the Paleolithic era, no one could believe that this art is older than the ancient Egyptian. Therefore, such engravings were considered examples of Celtic art (V-IV centuries BC). Only at the end of the 19th century, again, like cave painting, they were recognized as the oldest after they were found in the Paleolithic cultural layer.

The statuettes of women are very interesting. Most of these figurines are small in size: from 4 to 17 cm. They were made of stone or mammoth tusks. Their most noticeable hallmark is exaggerated "stoutness", they depict women with overweight figures.

"Venus with a goblet". Bas-relief. France. Upper (late) Paleolithic.
Goddess of the Ice Age. The canon of the image - the figure is inscribed in a rhombus, and the stomach and chest - in a circle.

Sculpture - mobile art.
Almost everyone who has studied the Paleolithic female figurines, with various differences in details, explains them as cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., reflecting the idea of \u200b\u200bmotherhood and fertility.

"Willendorf Venus". Limestone. Willendorf, Lower Austria. Late Paleolithic.
Compact composition, no facial features.

"The Lady in the Hood from Brassempui." France. Late Paleolithic. Mammoth bone.
Facial features and hairstyle were worked out.

In Siberia, in the Baikal region, a whole series of original figurines of a completely different stylistic appearance was found. Along with the same, as in Europe, overweight figures of naked women, here there are statuettes of slender, elongated proportions and, unlike in Europe, they are depicted dressed in deaf, most likely fur clothes, similar to "overalls".
These are finds at the Buret sites on the Angara and Malta rivers.

conclusions
Rock painting. Peculiarities of the Paleolithic art are realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm.
Small plastic.
In the depiction of animals - the same features as in painting (realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm).
Paleolithic female figurines are cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., they reflect the idea of \u200b\u200bmotherhood and fertility.

Mesolithic

(Middle Stone Age) 10 - 6 thousand BC

After the glaciers melted, the usual fauna disappeared. Nature is becoming more malleable to humans. People are becoming nomads.
With a change in lifestyle, a person's view of the world becomes broader. He is not interested in a single animal or an accidental finding of cereals, but in the vigorous activity of people, thanks to which they find whole herds of animals, and fields or forests rich in fruits.
This is how the art of multi-figured composition was born in the Mesolithic, in which it was no longer an animal, but a person who plays the leading role.
A change in the arts:
the main characters of the image are not a separate beast, but people in some action.
The task is not in a believable, accurate depiction of individual figures, but in the transfer of action, movement.
Multi-figure hunts are often depicted, scenes of collecting honey, cult dances appear.
The character of the image changes - instead of being realistic and polychrome, it becomes schematic and silhouette. Local colors are used - red or black.

A hive honey picker surrounded by a swarm of bees. Spain. Mesolithic.

Almost everywhere, where planar or volumetric images of the Upper Paleolithic era were found, there seems to be a pause in the artistic activities of people of the subsequent Mesolithic era. Maybe this period is still poorly understood, maybe the images taken not in caves, but in the open air, were washed away over time by rains and snow. Perhaps, among the petroglyphs, which are very difficult to accurately date, there are those related to this time, but we do not know how to recognize them yet. It is significant that objects of small plasticity are extremely rare during excavations of Mesolithic settlements.

Of the Mesolithic monuments, literally a few can be named: Stone Tomb in Ukraine, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zaraut-Sai in Uzbekistan, Shakhty in Tajikistan and Bhimpetka in India.

In addition to rock paintings, petroglyphs appear in the Mesolithic era.
Petroglyphs are carved, carved or scratched rock paintings.
When carving a picture, ancient artists knocked down the upper, darker part of the rock with a sharp tool, and therefore the images stand out noticeably against the background of the rock.

In the south of Ukraine, in the steppe, there is a rocky hill made of sandstone rocks. As a result of strong weathering, several grottoes and sheds have formed on its slopes. Numerous carved and scratched images have been known for a long time in these grottoes and on other surfaces of the hill. In most cases, they are difficult to read. Sometimes the images of animals - bulls, goats - are guessed. Scientists attribute these images of bulls to the Mesolithic era.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. General view and petroglyphs. Mesolithic.

To the south of Baku, between the southeastern slope of the Greater Caucasus Range and the Caspian coast, there is a small plain of Gobustan (a country of ravines) with elevations in the form of mesas composed of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. There are many petroglyphs of different times on the rocks of these mountains. Most of them were opened in 1939. The greatest interest and large (more than 1 m) images of female and male figures made with deep carved lines became famous.
There are many images of animals: bulls, predators and even reptiles and insects.

Kobystan (Gobustan). Azerbaijan (territory of the former USSR). Mesolithic.

Grotto Zaraut-Kamar
In the mountains of Uzbekistan, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, there is a monument widely known not only among archaeological specialists - the Zaraut-Kamar grotto. Painted images were discovered in 1939 by a local hunter I.F.Lamaev.
The painting in the grotto is made with ocher of various shades (from red-brown to lilac) and consists of four groups of images, in which anthropomorphic figures and bulls participate.

Here is the group that most researchers see bull hunting. Among the anthropomorphic figures that surrounded the bull, i.e. There are two types of "hunters": figures in clothes expanding from top to bottom, without bows, and "tailed" figures with raised and drawn bows. This scene can be interpreted as a real hunt for disguised hunters, and as a kind of myth.

The painting in the grotto of Shakhty is probably the oldest in Central Asia.
"What does the word Shakhty mean," writes V.A.Ranov, "I do not know. Perhaps it comes from the Pamir word" shakhty ", which means rock."

In the northern part of Central India, huge rocks with many caves, grottoes and awnings stretch along the river valleys. In these natural shelters, a lot of rock paintings have been preserved. Among them, the location of Bhimbetka (Bhimpetka) stands out. Apparently, these picturesque images belong to the Mesolithic. True, one should not forget about the uneven development of cultures in different regions. The Mesolithic of India may be 2-3 millennia older than in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Some scenes of driven hunts with archers in the paintings of the Spanish and African cycles are, as it were, the embodiment of the movement itself, brought to the limit, concentrated in a stormy whirlwind.

Neolithic

(New Stone Age) from 6 to 2 thousand BC

Neolithic - the New Stone Age, the last stage of the Stone Age.
Periodization... The entry into the Neolithic period coincides with the transition of culture from appropriating (hunters and gatherers) to producing (agriculture and / or cattle breeding) type of economy. This transition is called the Neolithic Revolution. The end of the Neolithic period dates back to the time when metal tools and weapons appeared, that is, the beginning of the Copper, Bronze or Iron Age.
Different cultures entered this period of development at different times. In the Middle East, the Neolithic began about 9.5 thousand years ago. BC e. In Denmark, the Neolithic dates back to the 18th century. BC, and among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori - the Neolithic existed as early as the 18th century. AD: Before the arrival of Europeans, the Maori used polished stone axes. Some peoples of America and Oceania have not yet fully passed from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

The Neolithic, like other periods of the primitive era, is not a specific chronological period in the history of mankind as a whole, but characterizes only the cultural characteristics of certain peoples.

Achievements and activities
1. New features of people's social life:
- The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
- At the end of the era, in some places (Western Asia, Egypt, India) a new formation of class society took shape, that is, social stratification began, the transition from a tribal-communal system to a class society.
- At this time, cities begin to be built. Jericho is considered one of the most ancient cities.
- Some cities were well fortified, which indicates the existence of organized wars at that time.
- Armies and professional soldiers began to appear.
- It can be said that the beginning of the formation of ancient civilizations is connected with the Neolithic era.

2. The division of labor began, the formation of technologies:
- The main thing is simple gathering and hunting as the main sources of food are gradually replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding.
The Neolithic is called the "Age of Polished Stone". In this era, stone tools were not only chipped off, but already sawn out, polished, drilled, sharpened.
- Among the most important tools in the Neolithic is the ax, previously unknown.
spinning and weaving are developing.

Images of animals begin to appear in the design of household utensils.

Ax in the form of a moose head. Polished stone. Neolithic. Historical Museum. Stockholm.

Wooden bucket from the Gorbunovsky peat bog near Nizhny Tagil. Neolithic. State Historical Museum.

For the Neolithic forest zone, fishing becomes one of the leading types of economy. Active fishing contributed to the creation of certain reserves, which, in combination with hunting for animals, made it possible to live in one place all year round.
The transition to a sedentary lifestyle led to the emergence of ceramics.
The emergence of pottery is one of the main features of the Neolithic era.

The village of Chatal-Guyuk (Eastern Turkey) is one of the places where the most ancient samples of ceramics were found.

Cup from Ledce (Czech Republic). Clay. Bell goblet culture. Eneolithic (Copper-Stone Age).

Monuments of Neolithic painting and petroglyphs are extremely numerous and scattered over vast territories.
Their accumulations are found almost everywhere in Africa, eastern Spain, in the territory the former USSR - in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, on Lake Onega, near the White Sea and in Siberia.
Rock painting of the Neolithic is similar to the Mesolithic, but the plot becomes more diverse.

"Hunters". Rock painting. Neolithic (?). Southern Rhodesia.

For about three hundred years, the attention of scientists was drawn to the rock known as the "Tomsk Pisanitsa".
"Scribes" are images painted with mineral paint or carved on a smooth surface of a wall in Siberia.
Back in 1675, one of the brave Russian travelers, whose name, unfortunately, remained unknown, wrote:
"Not reached the prison (Verkhnetomsky prison) on the edge of Tom lies a large and tall stone, and on it are written animals, and cattle, and birds, and all sorts of similarities ..."
Real scientific interest in this monument arose already in the 18th century, when, by decree of Peter I, an expedition was sent to Siberia to study its history and geography. The result of the expedition was the first images of the Tomsk scribble published in Europe by the Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the trip. These images were not an exact copy of the Tomsk scribble, but conveyed only the most general outlines of the rocks and the placement of drawings on it, but their value lies in the fact that you can see drawings on them that have not survived to this day.

Images of the Tomsk scribble made by the Swedish boy K. Shulman, who traveled with Stralenberg in Siberia.

For hunters, the main source of livelihood was deer and elk. Gradually, these animals began to acquire mythical features - the elk was the "master of the taiga" along with the bear.
The image of the elk belongs to the main role in the Tomsk Pisanitsa: the figures are repeated many times.
The proportions and shapes of the animal's body are absolutely true: its long massive body, hump on the back, heavy large head, characteristic protrusion on the forehead, swollen upper lip, protruding nostrils, thin legs with cloven hooves.
Some of the drawings show transverse stripes on the neck and torso of elk.

On the border between the Sahara and Fezzan, on the territory of Algeria, in a mountainous area called Tassili-Ajer, there are rows of bare rocks. Now this land is dried up by the wind of the desert, scorched by the sun and almost nothing grows in it. However, earlier in the Sahara meadows were green ...

- The sharpness and accuracy of the pattern, grace and grace.
- Harmonious combination of shapes and tones, the beauty of people and animals, depicted with a good knowledge of anatomy.
- The swiftness of gestures, movements.

Small plastic arts of the Neolithic, as well as painting, acquire new subjects.

"The Man Playing the Lute." Marble (from Keros, Cyclades, Greece). Neolithic. National Archaeological Museum. Athens.

The schematism inherent in Neolithic painting, which replaced Paleolithic realism, penetrated into small plasticity.

Sketchy image of a woman. Cave relief. Neolithic. Croisard. Department of the Marne. France.

Relief with a symbolic image from Castelluccio (Sicily). Limestone. OK. 1800-1400 BC National Archaeological Museum. Syracuse.

conclusions

Rock painting of the Mesolithic and Neolithic
It is not always possible to draw an exact line between them.
But this art is very different from the typical Paleolithic:
- Realism, which accurately captures the image of the beast as a target, as a cherished goal, is replaced by a broader view of the world, the image of multi-figured compositions.
- There is a striving for harmonious generalization, stylization and, most importantly, for the transmission of movement, for dynamism.
- In the Paleolithic there was a monumentality and inviolability of the image. Here - liveliness, free fantasy.
- A striving for grace appears in the images of a person (for example, if we compare the Paleolithic "Venus" and the Mesolithic image of a woman collecting honey, or the Neolithic Bushman dancers).

Small plastic:
- New plots appear.
- Greater craftsmanship and mastery of craft, material.

Achievements

Paleolithic
- Lower Paleolithic
\u003e\u003e taming fire, stone tools
- Middle Paleolithic
\u003e\u003e exit from Africa
- Upper Paleolithic
\u003e\u003e sling

Mesolithic
- microliths, onions, canoes

Neolithic
- Early Neolithic
\u003e\u003e agriculture, cattle breeding
- Late Neolithic
\u003e\u003e ceramics

Eneolithic (Copper Age)
- metallurgy, horse, wheel

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with the improvement in the processing of metals such as copper and tin, obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them.
The Bronze Age succeeded the Copper Age and preceded the Iron Age. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but in different cultures they differ.
Art becomes more diversified, spreads geographically.

Bronze was much easier to work with than stone, and could be molded and polished. Therefore, in the Bronze Age, all kinds of household items were made, richly decorated with ornaments and of high artistic value. Ornamental decorations consisted mostly of circles, spirals, wavy lines and similar motifs. Particular attention was paid to jewelry - they were large and immediately striking.

Megalithic architecture

In the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. original, huge structures of stone blocks appeared. This ancient architecture is called megalithic.

The term "megalith" comes from the Greek words "megas" - "large"; and "lithos" - "stone".

Megalithic architecture owes its appearance to primitive beliefs. Megalithic architecture is usually divided into several types:
1. Menhir is a single upright stone, more than two meters high.
On the Brittany peninsula in France, the fields of the so-called. menhirs. In the language of the Celts, the later inhabitants of the peninsula, the name of these stone pillars a few meters high means "long stone".
2. Trilith is a structure consisting of two vertically placed stones and covered with a third.
3. Dolmen is a structure, the walls of which are made up of huge stone slabs and covered with a roof of the same monolithic stone block.
Initially, dolmens were used for burials.
Trilite can be called the simplest dolmen.
Numerous menhirs, triliths and dolmens were located in places that were considered sacred.
4. Cromlech is a group of menhirs and triliths.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. Anthropomorphic menhirs. Bronze Age.

Stonehenge. Cromlech. England. The Bronze Age. 3 - 2 thousand BC Its diameter is 90 m, it consists of boulders, each of which weighs approx. 25 t. It is curious that the mountains from where these stones were delivered are located 280 km from Stonehenge.
It consists of triliths arranged in a circle, inside a horseshoe of triliths, in the middle - blue stones, and in the very center - a heel stone (on the day of the summer solstice, the star is exactly above it). It is assumed that Stonehenge was a temple dedicated to the sun.

Age of Iron (Iron Age)

1 millennium BC

In the steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, cattle-breeding tribes created the so-called animal style in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages.

Plaque "Deer". 6th century BC Gold. Hermitage. 35.1x22.5 cm. From the mound in the Kuban region. A relief plate was found attached to a round iron shield in the chief's burial. An example of zoomorphic art ("animal style"). Deer hooves are made in the form of a "big-billed bird".
There is nothing accidental, unnecessary - a complete, thoughtful composition. Everything in the figure is conditional and extremely truthful, realistic.
The sense of monumentality is achieved not by size, but by the generalization of the form.

Panther. Badge, shield decoration. From a burial mound near the village of Kelermesskaya. Gold. Hermitage.
The age of iron.
Served as decoration for the shield. The tail and legs are decorated with the figures of curled predators.

Age of iron

The age of iron. The balance between realism and stylization is broken in favor of stylization.

Cultural ties with Ancient Greece, the countries of the ancient East and China contributed to the emergence of new plots, images and visual means in the artistic culture of the tribes of southern Eurasia.

The scenes of the battle between the barbarians and the Greeks are depicted. Found in the Chertomlyk mound, near Nikopol.

Zaporozhye region Hermitage.

conclusions

Scythian art - "animal style". Striking sharpness and intensity of images. Generalization, monumentality. Stylization and realism.

Vintage cave paintings of primitive people were very amazing images, mostly they were all drawn on stone walls.

There is an opinion that the cave paintings of ancient people are various animals that were hunted at that time. Then these drawings played a major role in magical rites, hunters wanted to attract real animals during their hunt.

Pictures and rock paintings of primitive people very often resemble a two-dimensional image. Rock paintings are very rich in drawings of bison, rhinoceros, deer, mammoths. Also in many pictures you can find hunting scenes or people with spears and arrows.

What did the first people draw?

Cave paintings of ancient people - this is one of the manifestations of their emotional state and imaginative thinking. Not everyone was able to create a vivid image of an animal or a hunt; only those people who, in their subconscious mind, could create such an image, could do this.

There is also an assumption that ancient people used rock paintings to convey their visions and life experiencesso they expressed themselves.

Where did primitive people draw?

The hard-to-find cave sites are some of the best places for drawing. This explains the significance of the rock paintings. Painting was a certain ritual, the artists worked by the light of stone lamps.

On December 18, 1994, the famous French speleologist Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the cave galleryc ancient images of animals. The find was named after its discoverer — Chauvet cave. We decided to tell you about the most beautiful caves with rock paintings.

Chauvet cave

The discovery of the Chauvet cave in the south of France near the town of Pont d'Arc became a scientific sensation that forced to reconsider the existing idea of \u200b\u200bthe art of ancient people: it was previously believed that primitive painting developed in stages. At first, the images were very primitive, and it took more than one thousand years for the drawings on the walls of the caves to reach their perfection. Chauvet's find suggests the opposite: the age of some of the images is 30-33 thousand years old, which means that our ancestors learned to draw even before they moved to Europe. The found rock paintings represent one of the oldest examples of cave art in the world, in particular, the drawing of black rhinos from Chauvet is still considered the oldest. The south of France is rich in such caves, but none of them can be compared with the Chauvet cave either in size, or in safety and skill in the execution of drawings. Basically, animals are depicted on the walls of the cave: panthers, horses, deer, as well as woolly rhinoceros, tarpan, cave lion and other animals of the Ice Age. Images found in the cave 13 different types animals.
Now the cave is closed to tourists, as changes in air humidity can damage the images. Archaeologists can only work in a cave for a few hours a day. Today the Chauvet cave is a national treasure of France.

Nerja caves

The Nerja Caves is an amazingly beautiful series of huge caves near the city of Nerja in Andalusia, Spain. Received the nickname "Prehistoric Cathedral". They were discovered by accident in 1959. They are one of the main attractions in Spain. Some of their galleries are open to the public, and one of them, which forms a natural amphitheater and has excellent acoustics, even hosts concerts. In addition to the world's largest stalagmite, several mysterious drawings have been discovered in the cave. Experts believe that seals or fur seals are depicted on the walls. Fragments of charcoal were found near the drawings, radiocarbon dating between 43,500 and 42,300 years old. If experts prove that the images were made with this coal, the seals of the Nerja Cave will be significantly older than the rock paintings from the Chauvet Cave. This will once again confirm the assumption that Neanderthals had the ability to creative imagination no less than Homo sapiens.

Kapova cave (Shulgan-Tash)

This karst cave was found in Bashkiria, on the Belaya River, in the area of \u200b\u200bwhich the Shulgan-Tash reserve is now located. This is one of the longest caves in the Urals. Rock carvings of ancient people of the late Paleolithic era, similar to which can be found only in very limited places in Europe, were discovered in Kapova Cave in 1959. Images of mammoths, horses and other animals are made mainly with ocher, a natural pigment based on animal fat, their age is about 18 thousand years. There are several charcoal drawings. In addition to animals, there are images of triangles, stairs, oblique lines. The oldest drawings, dating from the Early Paleolithic, are in the upper tier. The lower tier of the Kapova Cave contains later images of the Ice Age. The drawings are also notable for the fact that human figures are shown without the realism inherent in the depicted animals. Researchers suggest that the images were made in order to appease the "gods of the hunt." In addition, cave paintings are designed to be perceived not from one specific point, but from several angles. To preserve the drawings, the cave was closed to the public in 2012, but an interactive kiosk was installed in the museum on the territory of the reserve for everyone who wants to look at the drawings virtually.

Cueva de las Manos cave

The Cueva de las Manos ("The Cave of Many Hands") is located in Argentina, in the province of Santa Cruz. The world fame of Cueva de las Manos in 1964 was brought by the research of the professor of archeology Carlos Gradina, who discovered in the cave many wall paintings and human handprints, the oldest of which date back to the 9th millennium BC. e. Over 800 prints superimposed on each other form a multi-colored mosaic. Until scientists came to consensus about the meaning of the images of the hands, from which the cave got its name. Mainly left hands are captured: out of 829 prints, only 36 are right. Moreover, according to some researchers, the hands belong to teenage boys. Most likely, drawing an image of one's hand was part of the initiation rite. In addition, scientists have built a theory about how such clear and clear handprints were obtained: apparently, a special composition was typed into the mouth, and through a tube it was blown with force onto the hand applied to the wall. In addition to handprints, the walls of the cave depict people, nandu ostriches, guanacos, cats, geometric figures with ornaments, hunting processes (the pictures show the use of bolas, a traditional throwing weapon of South American Indians) and observing the sun. In 1999, the cave was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Interesting and picturesque messages from the past - drawings on the walls of caves, which are up to 40 thousand years old - fascinate modern people with their laconicism.

What were they for people of antiquity? If they served only to decorate the walls, then why were they performed in remote corners of caves, in places where, most likely, they did not live?

The oldest drawings found were made about 40 thousand years ago, others are younger by several tens of thousands of years. It is interesting that in different parts of the world the images on the walls of the caves are very similar - at that time people depicted mainly ungulates and other animals that were common in their area.

The image of hands was also popular: members of the community put their palms on the wall and outlined them. Such paintings are really inspiring: by pressing a palm to such an image, a person can feel as if he has formed a bridge between modern civilization and antiquity!

Below we bring to your attention interesting images made by ancient people from different parts of the world on the walls of caves.

Pettakere limestone cave, Indonesia

Pettakere cave 12 kilometers from the town of Maros. At the entrance to the cave, there are white and red hand outlines on the ceiling - 26 images in total. The drawings are about 35 thousand years old. Photo: Cahyo Ramadhani / wikipedia.org

Chauvet cave, south of France

The images, which are about 32-34 thousand years old, are placed on the walls of a limestone cave near the town of Valon-pont-d'Arc. In total, in the cave, which was opened only in 1994, there are 300 drawings that are striking in their picturesqueness.

One of the most famous images from the Chauvet cave. Photo: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP / Getty Images

Photo: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP / Getty Images

Photo: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP / Getty Images

Photo: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP / Getty Images

Photo: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP / Getty Images

El Castillo cave, Spain

El Castillo contains some of the oldest examples of cave painting in the world. The images are at least 40 800 years old.

Photo: cuevas.culturadecantabria.com

Covalanas cave, Spain

The unique Kovalanas cave was inhabited by people less than 45 thousand years ago!

Photo: cuevas.culturadecantabria.com

Photo: cuevas.culturadecantabria.com

The walls of the caves near Covalanas and El Castillo are also decorated with numerous drawings made by people thousands of years ago. However, these caves are not that famous. Among them are Las Monedas, El Pendo, Chufin, Ornos de la Pena, Culalvera.

Lascaux cave, France

The Lascaux caves complex in southwestern France was accidentally discovered in 1940 local, An 18 year old guy named Marcel Ravid. A huge number of paintings on the walls, which are surprisingly well preserved, give this complex of caves the right to claim the title of one of the largest galleries of the ancient world. The images are about 17.3 thousand years old.