Prehistoric Cave Art in Europe
Year of lecture: Unknown
Abstract:
"What do we mean by Palaeolithic Cave Painting? It is an art which has been revealed to modern man during the past hundred years or so by archaeologists. In 1834 some engravings of animals in bone were found in a cave near Vienne in the Rhome Valley. As the years passed other engravings on bone and ivory were discovered in other caves in Southern France. Then in 1879 a Spanish archaeologist, Saultuola, revisited the cave of Altamira in northern Spain which he had discovered 5 years before, and saw for the first time a great medley of paintings upon the low roof of the cave which he had not noticed on his first visit. Sautuola himself was convinced of the great antiquity of the paintings and claimed that they were prehistoric, but the world of scholarship remained sceptical. One French archaeologist, Eduoard Harlé, claimed that they were painted between 1875 and 1879, that is between Sautuola’s first and second visit."
