It revealed the way of life of our ancestors, as they often depicted images of their daily activities or significant events in the society, such drawings can be insightful into their society back then. The location of the cave paintings can be used to tell us where our ancestors resided and where societies are located.

The most common subjects in cave paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns, called finger flutings.

They suggest that the fingers were bent or painted over as a form of symbolic communication. And Dale Guthrie of the University of Chicago reckons it was kids mucking about

What do cave paintings reveal about the relationship between early humans and animals? O Early humans worshipped animals as gods. O Animals were not important to early humans. O Hunting animals held great importance for early humans

Hunting was critical to early humans’ survival, and animal art in caves has often been interpreted as an attempt to influence the success of the hunt, exert power over animals that were simultaneously dangerous to early humans and vital to their existence, or to increase the fertility of herds in the wild

: the art of Paleolithic humans represented by drawings and paintings on the walls of caves.

No one knows why the Chauvet Cave paintings were created. The purpose behind the Chauvet Cave paintings is a mystery, but some characteristics of the artwork may offer clues.

Paintings were made deep within caves, not near the entrances where people lived. Flickering lamps would have created the illusion that the animals were alive. Artists used the natural curves and shape of the caves in their paintings. This large animal scene was painted high in the cave, near the roof.

The floor of the cave is littered with archaeological and palaeontological remains, including the skulls and bones of cave bears, which hibernated there, along with the skulls of an ibex and two wolves. The cave bears also left innumerable scratches on the walls and footprints on the ground.

France

between 30,000 and 32,000 years old

The oldest known cave art in Europe is the Chauvet Cave in France. It is a rather recent discovery (1994) in comparison with the well known Lascaux Cave (1940). Lascaux is, with paintings up to 17,000 years old, much younger than Chauvet. Time between today and Lascaux is about as much as between Lascaux and Chauvet

Here are some of the world’s oldest cave art!

• Nawarla Gabarnmung. Age: 24,000 years old.
• Coliboaia Cave. Age: 35,000 years old.
• Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave. Age: 37,000 years old.
• Timpuseng Cave. Age: 40,000 years old.
• Cueva de El Castillo. Age: 40,800 years old.
• Diepkloof Rock Shelter. Age: 60,000 years old.
• Blombos Cave.

They often used the rear portions of the cave as middens, depositing their garbage there. In the Upper Paleolithic (the latest part of the Paleolithic), caves ceased to act as houses. Instead, they likely became places for early people to gather for ritual and religious purposes.

20,000 years old

The stable temperature and humidity in caves, a lack of human contact, and long-lasting painting materials have combined to allow many ancient cave paintings to survive in nearly pristine condition

Marcel Ravidat

archaeologist are scientists who learn about early people. how they live or survive in earlier times. From cave paintings archaeologists learned how people used to live in olden times