Everyone has heard of it atleast once in school, but have your teachers really gone in depth about it?
Do we know what cave art is? yes and no. We will never know its true meanings,exact stories behind it,or why it was even made, but we can use context clues from just looking at it. Like some art containing humans hunting animals like buffalo, bison, or reindeer, we can tell its a story about humans out on a hunt and what animals they see. Cave art mainly contained humans hunting animals, but also showing handprints, maybe showing their differences, or they saw doing this different in their eyes, like a religious reason, but thats just my theory. Rarely the paintings would be more abstract. They drew them with yellow and red ochre, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal. This form of art dates back all the way to 65,000 years ago during the neanderthals era. Most cave art has been discovered in Spain and France, but has also been found in Germany, Portugal, Italy, Romania, England, Russia, and Indonesia. There are five types of cave art, Hand prints/finger marks, abstract signs,figurative painting,engraving and sculpture. They would paint on the floors, ceilings, and walls of the caves.
It was believed to have religious meanings, to practice rituals with, and to communicate with other cave peoples. A great example of cave art believed to have religious or ritualistic meanings is hand print art. Cave art shows us history, how our ancestors lived thousands of years ago. What they used to hunt, what objects they would use in daily life, what animals they saw. We may never know what its true meaning is,but it made an impact on the development of us, who we are today.