Famous Prehistoric Rock Arts

Prehistoric rock art made by hunter-gatherer peoples, dating from many millennia ago until recent times, occurs world-wide. Rock paintings in natural earth pigments are the best known, but petroglyphs (rock carvings) are a significant component of world rock arts. These arts are studied in order to understand the flowering of human consciousness and creativity and as unique cultural and historical ‘documents’. They inspire modern artists and play a political role in relation to indigenous peoples’ rights. Some of the most celebrated rock arts, each with its own distinctive style, are found in France, Australia, southern Africa and the Sahara Desert.

The oldest art

Though various items have controversially been claimed as the oldest art, the oldest known figurative imagery comes from Europe. Images in Chauvet Cave (France) are over 30 000 years old. The artists’ skill in depicting various species of Ice Age animals challenges the idea that our human ancestors were ‘primitive’. Though considerably younger, at about 16 000 years old, the art in the French Cave of Lascaux is world famous for its almost two thousand individual images. Amongst them are big cats, bears, horses, deer and cattle, including extinct species. For unknown reasons, human beings were very rarely depicted. Hand stencils (negative images of hands), along with hand prints, feature in some European sites. Carved images are interspersed with paintings.

Australian rock art

Indigenous Australians have painted on rock for millennia, and into the present. today. It cannot be assumed that beliefs have not changed over this time. Nevertheless, many paintings clearly related to beliefs about ancestors and spirits. Images such as the Rainbow Serpent and limbless, mouth less, human-like beings known as Wandjina figures are linked to rain and the creation of the landscape in the mythical past. Australian rock art includes a highly distinctive mode of depiction known as the X-ray style. Beeswax was an unusual material used for some images.

African rock arts

The oldest date for African rock painting comes from a Namibian cave, where excavations uncovered painted slabs depicting animal and human figures, dated to over 26 000 years ago. Parietal art (on cave walls, rather than portable rocks) in southern Africa is at least 3 600 years, and was made by the ancestors of the San-speaking peoples (Bushmen).

San artists were still working in some areas in the later nineteenth century. Their art is known for remarkably skilled, carefully shaded paintings of eland, the largest antelope, which had great religious significance. As well as numerous animal species, especially antelope, subjects include dances, rain-making, hunting and ritual occasions, probably including female initiation. Soldiers and colonists are imaged in the most recent art.

The art of the Sahara desert (featured in the film The English Patient) began at least seven and perhaps ten thousand years ago, changing through time as new ways of living were adopted. An early phase includes predominantly wild animals. Images of cattle, of ritual as well as economic significance, abound in a subsequent stage. Chariots and camels appear after about 3 000 years ago.

Interpreting rock arts is often difficult and mired in controversy (for example, the claim that many depict shamanic visions, linked to medicinal practices). Many, especially petroglyphs, are very hard to date and the subjects are often enigmatic. Nevertheless, most rock arts are thought to relate to myth and ritual, rather than being decorative. Often very beautiful, they are perhaps the most evocative relics of the past.

References:

Paul Bahn, P.G. 1998. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jean-Loic Le Quellec. 2004. Rock Art in Africa: Mythology and Legend. Paris, Flammarion.