The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists

If, like myself, you are a neophyte at thinking about prehistory, then I have a proposition for you: Try to imagine 30,000 years of human history. And not abstractly, not by simply saying, "Thirty thousand years. Wow. That's a long time," but by really considering the march of 30,000 years. <br /><br />In relation to the span of a single human life, a few decades ago seems like a long time. For the more historically-minded, a few centuries or even a millennium might constitute "a long time". The geologist or astronomer, of course, trumps everybody by paying attention to non-human processes that occur over the course of millions and billions of years. But for most of us, the single human life constitutes the basic unit of our reference to time. Given our relatively short life spans, we don't have to imagine very far back and we're already sighing, "That was a long time ago." Think of some commonly referenced "ancient" cultures. Roman civilization developed a little more than 2,500 years ago. The Greek cultures, beginning with the Minoans, arose almost 5,000 years ago; the Egyptians about 500 to 1,000 years before that. The Sumerians sprang up over 7,000 years ago, and while they are commonly attributed with developing the technology of the written word, they did not do so until around 5,500 years ago. <br /><br />So think about the fact that humans have only been writing and leaving written records for around 6,000 years. Those written records have allowed us to compile a history of what we call civilization -- of human struggle, development, failure, and achievement over millennia. But our reliance on the written record has also allowed us to popularly conceive of people who lived before the development of writing as a bunch of cave-dwelling, stone-throwing, big brow-having brutes…cavemen, right? Writing so constructs our paradigm that even the adjective we use to describe these people, "prehistoric," means "before the written record". But, in fact, our prehistoric ancestors were not Neanderthal-ish brutes. (Side note: Even Neanderthals were not Neanderthal-ish brutes.) Homo sapiens, as in upright-walking, big brain-having, tool-making yous and mes, date to 200,000 years ago according to DNA evidence. So what, precisely, were we doing for all of those 194,000 years that we weren't writing? <br /><br />Gregory Curtis explores a partial answer to this mammoth question in The Cave Painters. From 40,000 to around 10,000 years ago in southern France and parts of Spain, at least one group of successive generations of humans painted (and engraved) in caves. It is universally observed by those in a position to make the observation, that these paintings are works of great beauty, subtlety and accomplishment, that they were created by highly skilled abstract thinkers, and that they belong to a single tradition. For 30,000 years, a continuous culture found merit and purpose, perhaps even joy, in decorating remote caves in which they did not live. 30,000 years! One culture. Rome, Egypt and China start to look like small potatoes when we think prehistorically. <br /><br />That's the amazing news. The sad news? Scholars don't know why these folks painted, what purpose the paintings served, or how the artists thought about them. For the layperson, it is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of The Cave Painters to realize that the subject of meaning carries little intellectual weight with scholars of these paintings. They cannot know the meaning of the paintings, and so they prefer to not even ask the question. I suppose pondering meaning in such a situation is as self-indulgent and masturbatory as asking you to imagine 30,000 years, or of pondering the march of human history, or of simply marveling at the length of our stay here on earth. These considerations do not bring us closer to answering anything. <br /><br />One of my favorite professors would remark that, just as some food tastes good, some thoughts think good. I cannot vouch for the practical utility of wondering why the cave painters painted or of growing overawed at the length of human (pre)history. But holy cow these thoughts think good. And what they lack in practical value, they make up for in psychological and spiritual worth or even in productive value. It does something humbling and yet invigorating to a person to consider how long we've been around and how little we know about ourselves. It provokes thoughts of some distant future where scholars busy themselves studying our cities, now in hopeless ruin, but never ask why we built them. And I can't help but think that considering our evanescence inspires the same kind of drive to memorialize existence that, in some measure, contributes to everything man has ever created, including cave paintings, including cities, including the written word. <br />

This the most well-written (non-fiction) history book I've read in a long time! The author brought tens of thousands of years of prehistory and its accompanying archaeological research to life, and the stories he told were moving and profound. I can't really find the words to describe this book. It's incredible to read about the people who made those paintings between 32,000-18,000 years ago. Without these paintings, it's likely that we would have assumed their culture was "primitive" compared to our own. The beauty, complexity, and technical skill of the artworks that remain exposes that argument as being pretty flimsy. What were the stories and meaning behind it all? How did their culture last for tens of thousands of years? It is just extraordinary.<br /><br />I would recommend this book to anyone - it is so well-written, passionate, and compelling. It makes you aware of the huge stretch of deep time that precedes us, and how much mystery remains in our world. 10/10

The subject matter is fascinating to me so right off the bat the book was going to get 3 stars minimum. I do have some critiques but in this case I'm not entirely sure my critiques are fair, so by all means take my review with a grain of salt. <br /><br />First off, based on the cover the title and the synopsis, this book seems like it was written about the people who were painting in caves some 40 thousand years ago. Problem is, that's not at all what the book is about, the book was about the discovery and the academic study of these works of art found around Europe and mostly France through the last 100 years. The book details the theories about the significance of the works and the meaning behind them from the many different people who have studied and attempted to make sense of the cave paintings. Now this is a wildly interesting story and filled with people vehemently defending their positions and ideas, the issue is this book is not at all about the cave painters, its about the study of the cave painters. A more accurate title would be "The Cave Painters, the Quest for Understanding and Meaning in Ancient Art." I hope this doesn't seem like a semantic criticism, I honestly believe I signed up for an entirely different book based on its marketing. <br /><br />Secondly, and perhaps more importantly the book at times seems to be a recounting of specific artworks and without pictures of each painting such breakdowns and analysis only lead the reader to put the book down and start searching for a good image of the work being talked about. Overall I did enjoy the book and definitely recommend it to other readers, I guess my issue with it stem from the way it was organized and marketed.

Really fascinating, I immediately want to read another book to learn more (one with more pictures!) Includes a lot of history of science which focuses on the archaeologists and the different flawed interpretations and theories that have come and gone over the past 150 or so years since the cave paintings were discovered and first recognized for what they are. I was less interested in the scientists, but his context helped make clear why interpretation and analogy can be dangerous, and just how little we know about prehistoric people. The whole subject is mind blowing to me. People 30,000 years ago made paintings and engravings that are still extremely beautiful and moving to modern humans! Crazy!

Mağara resimleri üzerinden 40.000 yıl önce dünya üzerinde bulunan Cro-Magnon dünyası üzerine teoriler, çözümlemeler ve fikirler ile dolu bir kitap...<br /><br /> Kitap Mağara resimleri üzerine sanatın, dinin, verimliliğin, av ritüellerinin, kabile mitolojisinin kullanımına yönelik farklı teorileri, tezleri anlatıyor. Mağara resimlerinin keşfedildiği o nefes kesici anları, sonrasında yaşanan süreçleri, çözümlemeleri, farklı teorileri okuyarak hem cro magnon dünyasına, hem de resimlerin keşfediliği an'a tanık oluyorsunuz.<br /><br />Resimlerin sanatsal-estetik zarafetleri, yapılma amaçları, hayvan ve insan figürleri üzerinden o dönemin toplumsal çözümlemesi, inanç dünyalarının çözümlemelerine yönelik fikirleri ve teorileri ele alan kitap, Cro magnon 'ların dünyalarının içinde sizi kısa bir gezintiye çıkarıyor. <br /><br />Kitap bütün bu tezler ve çözümlemelerden sonra; Yunan Sanatçıları doğadaki formları nasıl mükemmelleştirmeye çalıştıysa, aynı şeyin mağara ressamları için de geçerli olduğunu savunuyor. Onların doğada bulunan hayvan formlarını mükemmelleştirmeye dayalı güzel ve yinelenen sanatının ilk büyük sanat olmanın yanı sıra, ilk büyük felsefe olduğunu, dünyanın kaosuna anlamlı bir düzen getirmeye yönelik bildiğimiz ilk girişim olduğunu belirtiyor. Cro Magnon insanının çalkantılı fakat verimli ve aydınlık dünyayı bırakıp, kayaların içindeki karanlık mağaralara kapanarak onların kutsal kabul ettikleri hayvanların ruhlarını çağırdıklarını savunuyor. Kendi çabalarıyla özgür kalan dünyanın altındaki başka bir dünyada, kandil ışıkları içinde yarattıkları bu ruhlar dünyasını seyre daldıklarını, ibadet halinde olduklarını savunuyor.

What a fantastic book that appeased my curiosity for the enigmatic history we come from. The experience of fumbling upon cave art made 20,000 years ago must have been profound and could not help but feel jealous of all the discoverers. The book offers many theories on what these cave paintings could mean, but even today, we keep searching for that was in the mind of those cave painters as they went deep into the sub-terranean to create their beautiful art.

Completely engaging. Beautifully written. Mind-blowing.

I wish this book had more pictures of the art that was described in the book. Other than that, it was very good and engaging.

A mixture of history, mystery, and speculation, The Cave Painters is a fascinating and engrossing journey through the history of the study of Europe’s Paleolithic cave art. It begins with an introduction for context, which lays out what we know about the history of humans, focusing on the Paleolithic era. Most of the book deals with the past 100 years or so of study and discovery, since it took us some time to realize that these cave paintings were from the Stone Age in the first place! The idea was first put forth in 1880 and, as so often happens with new ideas in archaeology and elsewhere, met with ridicule. As technology and archaeological techniques evolved, we learned more about the paintings, the people who made them, and were able to formulate different theories about their creation, composition, and meaning.<br /><br />This is much more than a dry history of cave art’s study. For one, the author beautifully interweaves stories and personalities of the scientists with the work they did to learn more about the cave art. Cultural context, professional competition, and personal eccentricities are of course always an influence on any scientist’s work, and it is truly entertaining to learn about the colorful characters and their interactions with one another.<br /><br />Another endearing feature of the book is the author’s voice. There is no doubt he is passionate about art; his sense of awe and wonder about these prehistoric masterpieces comes through on every page. In one chapter, Curtis describes visiting the cave Les Trois-Freres with the prehistorian Robert Begouen; his wonder, admiration, and curiosity leaps from the page in his descriptions and curiosity. I have always dreamed of visiting a cave such as this, so I enjoyed very much reading about the author’s experience and feelings, which I believe would be similar to my own.<br /><br />In addition, I found Curtis’s speculation and personal anecdotes humble, often lighthearted, and thought-provoking. For instance, consider the span of years from Chauvet (32,000 years ago) to Lascaux (18,000 years ago), yet the remarkable similarity of their art. Lascaux is almost as far removed from Chauvet as it is to us today! It’s truly amazing to think a tradition could last 14,000 years, when today’s trends in women’s fashion change every season. He points out that they must have had a very stable, successful society and a strong, classical artistic tradition, like ancient Greece or Egypt (my addition), where their art changed little over long spans of time. He also shares his frustration with the forever serious nature of the art’s interpretation; some of the art could have meant to be rather funny or comical if you allow yourself to see it that way. He presents his ideas in a “what if” and “why not” way; after all, will we ever really know for sure?<br /><br />I always find frustration lurking in the background with the subject of prehistory, for it’s incredibly fascinating to me yet despite our advancing technology, will always be mysterious and at some level, speculation. Barring invention of a time machine, we will never know the whole picture of who these people were, why they created the art, and what it meant in the context of their culture. In our modern civilization, it’s so difficult to imagine their world, where animals dominated the vast land and humans were only a sparse sprinkling across the landscape. Yet were those humans so different than we are today? They seemed to have the desire to understand their world and preserve their ideas and traditions for future generations in art 32,000 years ago, just as we still do today. Their art was so beautiful and sensitive, I must agree with Picasso when, after touring Lascaux, he said, “We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years.” Later dating showed some of the paintings in that cave to be even older than previously thought. As Curtis says, “It turns out we have learned nothing in 18,600 years.”

I wasn’t sure how to rate this book!! In the end, I enjoyed it. The author tours us through the history of Paleolithic science, explaining how different schools of thought came to be. He is great at story-telling, and I loved how each chapter was titled in an intriguing way: e.g., “a stormy drama among bison; the golden section.”<br /><br />How can we interpret and analyze ancient art? This is a tough question. The author often weighs in, deeming certain theories believable and others not worthy of our consideration. Sometimes his opinion was refreshing; other times I felt frustrated. I wanted to know the state of research, not his summary judgment.<br /><br />Oddly, a lot has been discovered since the us book was written. Jarringly, he writes that Neanderthals left no trace of DNA in us (they did), had little sophisticated art or culture (they made cave art, flutes, etc), and were not human the same way we are (all evidence suggests that they were). That’s not his fault of course, but it is telling that he confidently injects his own opinion on Neanderthals, but was wrong - making me doubt the other places where he confidently injected his own opinion and may be equally wrong.<br /><br />Sometimes I don’t agree with established opinion on what a particular work of art depicts. Chauvet cave has “a human woman’s legs and hips” tapering to narrow legs, attached to the head and body of a buffalo. Why is it not just a female buffalo viewed from behind...? Right next to her is a male Buffalo-man kind of thing. The “women’s” legs depicted here and there in Chauvet and other caves are impossible wide and taper to impossibly narrow ankles.... just like a buffalo. And elsewhere humans are very rarely depicted and usually as stick figures. Why would they draw only the legs and in such a stylized way that so much resembles bovids? Anyway, that is my OWN injection of my OWN unjustified opinion into interpreting cave art.<br /><br />I am still looking for an AMAZING book on cave art. Seeing Pech-mèrle and Grotte du Font-Dame years ago remains one of my all time lifelong favorite memories. <br /><br />Maybe one day we will know more about what this art all means.<br /><br /><br />