There is an amazing wealth of 'Stone Age' art available in cave paintings around the world that most people are unaware of.
Stone Age cave art can be found in Central India, South East Asia, the American and African continents, Australia and Europe.
It is a global phenomenon that was first dismissed as a hoax in the 1800s.
Cave painting were first discovered by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter in Altamira, Spain.
Unfortunately Sautuola's landmark discovery brought him bitter controversy, painful accusations, and public humiliation.
It was not until the 1900s, over a decade after he had died, when numerous other cave paintings were discovered and authenticated that the prehistoric art of Altamira was accepted as genuine.
The problem the academic community had with the cave art of Altamira was that it did not fit into their idea of what 'Stone Age' man was supposedly capable of.
According to their evolutionary time scale, man had not yet reached the capacity for this kind of artistic expression.
Thus, they chose to discredit the discovery instead of adjusting their theory in light of the evidence.
In a way, cave paintings are still being disregarded as the Stone Age myth continues to be taught in schools.
The basic premise of Stone Age man is that they used stone tools.
Man supposedly evolved from an apelike being to the more intelligent modern man with a bigger brain capacity.
As humans got smarter we gradually learned the use of metals like in the Iron Age or Bronze Age.
Most of the artifacts found during mankind's prehistoric era are made of stone.
This is not surprising since metals oxidize and disappear sooner than stone.
So how would we know if they used metals at all? The way to discover what mankind of the Stone Age was capable of is to study what they actually did leave behind and understand what they needed to know to do them.
'Stone Age' man was a prolific artist, archaeologists have authenticated over 350 caves in just France and Spain.
These are not rough etchings on a wall.
Many are masterpieces that would not be out of place in the great museums and galleries of the modern world.
Lascaux cave in France has seven chambers filled with over 2000 extraordinary paintings of very high artistic quality.
Cave paintings are often over ten feet tall and decorate walls and vast cavern ceilings.
The artists responsible for the paintings had knowledge of both abstract and realism in art.
They show the use of perspective (which modern man had just discovered), shading techniques, foreshortening, pointilism, stencils, and many other styles.
The Lascaux caves alone reveal over a dozen painting styles.
These artists knew how to make preliminary sketches or etchings before the application of paints.
These shows forethought and planning.
Archaeologists have also found that they used paint brushes made from both animal and plant based fibers, pigment crayons, and even sprayed on paint with the use of bones and reeds.
This does not seem like a society that is merely beginning to learn about art.
A lot of prehistoric settlements show signs of heavy traveling to hematite (iron oxide) mines many miles away.
Somehow primitive man possessed the knowledge that pigments made from iron oxide would not fade as fast as those made from other organic sources.
And yes, they did dig mines...
The paint used on cave painting reveal that these 'Stone Agers' actually knew about and used iron! Cave painters didn't just slap mud on the wall for browns or pound charcoal for blacks, they actually show a great deal of understanding in chemistry.
Study of the paints reveal that after grinding the pigments (hematite, clay ochre, manganese dioxide, etc.
) into fine powder they mixed them with water high in calcium carbonate, oils and other natural liquids.
They also used quartz, feldspar, biotite and calcium phosphate as extenders to make their paints go further.
Even if we disregard their scientific know-how in paint production, the way they get the massive amounts of raw materials, minerals, and chemicals needed worldwide opens up a whole new can of worms.
An issue of contention regarding the Cave paintings was their exceptional state of conservation.
The colors were so bright and fresh that they were initially regarded as newly painted forgeries.
We now know that aside from their incredibly stable mixture of pigments, the Stone Age cave painters protected their art with a thin transparent layer of a calcite mixture which prevents fading! How did they paint in pitch black caves deep in the bowels of the earth? Artists and spelunkers would agree that the idea of using candle light is ridiculous.
It is almost impossible to paint any large scale image with almost no visibility.
If they used fire, they would have needed huge bonfires that would have covered up their paintings with smoke and choked artists.
Many caves had ceilings covered in beautifully detailed paintings.
Could they have had technology that could illuminate caves that we know nothing of? As if the problem of lighting wasn't a challenge enough, 'Stone Age' man pushed the limit further by painting high above his reach.
He would have needed to know how to build complex sturdy scaffolding within the sometimes impassable caves.
This would have been difficult for a prehistoric man who supposedly lived in caves because he had yet to learn to construct a home.
Maybe we need to reconsider our assumptions on history that is currently accepted as truths.
Look at the hard evidences of what our predecessors have actually left behind.
Let us objectively allow the evidence to tell us the story of the truth of our past.
Only when mankind honestly understands where we came from can we move forward to become who we truly are.
Stone Age cave art can be found in Central India, South East Asia, the American and African continents, Australia and Europe.
It is a global phenomenon that was first dismissed as a hoax in the 1800s.
Cave painting were first discovered by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter in Altamira, Spain.
Unfortunately Sautuola's landmark discovery brought him bitter controversy, painful accusations, and public humiliation.
It was not until the 1900s, over a decade after he had died, when numerous other cave paintings were discovered and authenticated that the prehistoric art of Altamira was accepted as genuine.
The problem the academic community had with the cave art of Altamira was that it did not fit into their idea of what 'Stone Age' man was supposedly capable of.
According to their evolutionary time scale, man had not yet reached the capacity for this kind of artistic expression.
Thus, they chose to discredit the discovery instead of adjusting their theory in light of the evidence.
In a way, cave paintings are still being disregarded as the Stone Age myth continues to be taught in schools.
The basic premise of Stone Age man is that they used stone tools.
Man supposedly evolved from an apelike being to the more intelligent modern man with a bigger brain capacity.
As humans got smarter we gradually learned the use of metals like in the Iron Age or Bronze Age.
Most of the artifacts found during mankind's prehistoric era are made of stone.
This is not surprising since metals oxidize and disappear sooner than stone.
So how would we know if they used metals at all? The way to discover what mankind of the Stone Age was capable of is to study what they actually did leave behind and understand what they needed to know to do them.
'Stone Age' man was a prolific artist, archaeologists have authenticated over 350 caves in just France and Spain.
These are not rough etchings on a wall.
Many are masterpieces that would not be out of place in the great museums and galleries of the modern world.
Lascaux cave in France has seven chambers filled with over 2000 extraordinary paintings of very high artistic quality.
Cave paintings are often over ten feet tall and decorate walls and vast cavern ceilings.
The artists responsible for the paintings had knowledge of both abstract and realism in art.
They show the use of perspective (which modern man had just discovered), shading techniques, foreshortening, pointilism, stencils, and many other styles.
The Lascaux caves alone reveal over a dozen painting styles.
These artists knew how to make preliminary sketches or etchings before the application of paints.
These shows forethought and planning.
Archaeologists have also found that they used paint brushes made from both animal and plant based fibers, pigment crayons, and even sprayed on paint with the use of bones and reeds.
This does not seem like a society that is merely beginning to learn about art.
A lot of prehistoric settlements show signs of heavy traveling to hematite (iron oxide) mines many miles away.
Somehow primitive man possessed the knowledge that pigments made from iron oxide would not fade as fast as those made from other organic sources.
And yes, they did dig mines...
The paint used on cave painting reveal that these 'Stone Agers' actually knew about and used iron! Cave painters didn't just slap mud on the wall for browns or pound charcoal for blacks, they actually show a great deal of understanding in chemistry.
Study of the paints reveal that after grinding the pigments (hematite, clay ochre, manganese dioxide, etc.
) into fine powder they mixed them with water high in calcium carbonate, oils and other natural liquids.
They also used quartz, feldspar, biotite and calcium phosphate as extenders to make their paints go further.
Even if we disregard their scientific know-how in paint production, the way they get the massive amounts of raw materials, minerals, and chemicals needed worldwide opens up a whole new can of worms.
An issue of contention regarding the Cave paintings was their exceptional state of conservation.
The colors were so bright and fresh that they were initially regarded as newly painted forgeries.
We now know that aside from their incredibly stable mixture of pigments, the Stone Age cave painters protected their art with a thin transparent layer of a calcite mixture which prevents fading! How did they paint in pitch black caves deep in the bowels of the earth? Artists and spelunkers would agree that the idea of using candle light is ridiculous.
It is almost impossible to paint any large scale image with almost no visibility.
If they used fire, they would have needed huge bonfires that would have covered up their paintings with smoke and choked artists.
Many caves had ceilings covered in beautifully detailed paintings.
Could they have had technology that could illuminate caves that we know nothing of? As if the problem of lighting wasn't a challenge enough, 'Stone Age' man pushed the limit further by painting high above his reach.
He would have needed to know how to build complex sturdy scaffolding within the sometimes impassable caves.
This would have been difficult for a prehistoric man who supposedly lived in caves because he had yet to learn to construct a home.
Maybe we need to reconsider our assumptions on history that is currently accepted as truths.
Look at the hard evidences of what our predecessors have actually left behind.
Let us objectively allow the evidence to tell us the story of the truth of our past.
Only when mankind honestly understands where we came from can we move forward to become who we truly are.
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