Culture and creativity

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What would this engraving of a horse have meant to you 12,000 years ago?

The drawing of this horse on a bone fragment from Robin Hood Cave reminds us that the hunters of the Last Ice Age were also artists. Although there are few works to show their creativity in Britain, many are known from France, Spain, central Europe, Russia, Ukraine and Siberia. Sculptures, engraved drawings, paintings, and jewellery are often found with tools and weapons made by full modern humans after about 35,000 years ago. Explore culture and creativity using the links below:

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Materials and subjects

Stone slabs, antler and ivory, as well as pieces of bone were decorated. Where there were caves the artists sometimes made drawings and paintings on the walls. The artists used a variety of materials to depict animals, abstract designs and symbols and, just occasionally, people.
Engraving of a man on a rib bone from Pin Hole, Creswell Crags
Sculpted reindeer from Montastruc, France
Horse engraving on a rib bone from Robin Hood Cave, Creswell Crags
Reindeer antler from La Madeleine, France showing a horse and a fish.
Reindeer antler baton from La Madeleine, France engraved with horses walking in a line.
Drawing of a bison engraved on a stone with red ochre from Montastruc, France.
Young male reindeer following another. Drawings engraved on a reindeer bone. From La Madeleine, France.
Drawing of a dead bison with a spear in its side, engraved on a stone from Montastruc, France.
Drawings of horses and reindeer engraved on a limestone slab from Montastruc, France.
Creative Lives

Imagine sitting in a cave, flickering firelight dancing with shadows on the cave walls, someone telling a story as another person sings softly accompanied by the rhythmic sounds of bones being tapped together or, the bird like music of a bone whistle. Sharing food, remembering ancestors. Here is a life less ordinary and peculiarly human
Rare Creswell art and jewellery

Why are works of art like the Robin Hood Cave horse so rare in England?
It is likely that Stone Age people did not settle at Creswell Crags for long periods of time but visited for a short season. People on the move, nomadic hunters, may not have wanted to carry anything but essential equipment around with them and may have avoided producing valuable items while they were here.
They may also have practised art in forms which do not survive today. For example, they might have painted their bodies and braided their hair with shells and feathers. They may have sewn patterns into their clothes using different colour furs and skins. Shell and bone was also made into jewellery. The notched bone from Church Hole has been interpreted as a possible pendant although it is unlikely.
Cave art in Britain

Until recently it was believed that people visiting and using caves in Britian during the Ice Age were not decorating the caves with pictures of animals and other markings. This was despite having all the necessary tools and materials, ochre, manganese and charcoal.
However, a team of archaeologists made a remarkable discovery at Creswell Crags in April 2003. They found the first and only example of rock art from the Ice Age. All of the pictures found were engraved into the rock and as far as is known colour was not applied to the figures. The pictures range from complete figures of animals to geometric shapes and individual vertical lines.
Close to the entrance in Church Hole, on a flat surface of rock, is this engraving of an ibex, a goat-like animal. Beneath the figure Ice Age hunters have engraved a series of vertical lines. Deeper within Church Hole more engraved figures were found and are believed to be birds with long necks.
This engraving of a bison lies on the same rock surface as the ibex. The artist appears to have used the natural shape of the rock to emphasise the head. Engravings of triangle shapes were also discovered close to the entrance in Church Hole.
Tools for drawing

Stone tools such as burins (shown below) are excellent for engraving outlines, modelling and sculpturing bone and antler. The burin was used and held like a modern pencil. The narrow working edge at the top left of the example shown cut into the bone drawing out the line.
Other information on art

Many web sites can be found searching on this category ranging from site details, American university course material and publications to new age and avant garde items. Here are some of the better sites which I enjoyed:
www.culture.fr follow the instructions above and search on Pech Merle, Lascaux, Chauvet or Cosquer to reach links to various sites including the following:
www.quercy.net/pechmerle/actu.html : a good site about the painted cave of Pech Merle which is still open to the public. It includes a map showing the different painted galleries and allows you to explore them. With sections on the latest information and dating, as well as tourist information, this is user friendly site with a lot of fascinating material.
www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/ : information about the oldest known painted cave of Chauvet, discovered in 1991. Excellent pictures of some magnificent paintings, as well as news of the ongoing research.
www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/ : moving the mouse across the black opening screen gives you a torch light view along one of the painted galleries of this great cave. Virtual tours allow you to explore some of the friezes panel by panel offering explanations to the scenes, outlining features it may be difficult to see and highlighting words with a glossary tag. Text panels provide background information. A good introduction to the cave which fails to do its magnificence justice.
www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/cosquer : a goodguide to a painted cave which can now only be entered underwater from the sea. The birds and animals shown in the paintings reflect the situation of the site on the Mediterranean coast.
www.subtlemoon.com/palaeo: an American site offering pictures of miniature or portable art objects and basic information about Palaeolithic art.
www.humanities-interactive.org/ancient : an American site offering pictures of miniature art objects and female figurines and some basic information about Palaeolithic art. Click or search on ice age for another section about life in the Ice Ages.