An Introduction To Ancient Rock Art

Ancient art ranging from paintings to stone carvings reveal a little about the culture, behaviors, and inclinations of societies that have long disappeared. In the Stone Age, for instance, home may be a simple cave, but the artwork is no less captivating and compelling.

Image source: ListVerse.com

Rock paintings, as well as engravings, are some of the oldest continuously practiced art forms in the world, and they are as wide-ranging as the cultures and civilizations that are creating them. The themes can be wildly diverse, too, such as human figures, animals, intricate geometric patterns, and even weird combinations of human and animal features. They typically represent the mundane and every day in ancient people’s lives, a representation of their common realities.

Spain’s El Castillo has walls with painted dots and hand stencils. In this underground cave, there are 40,800-year-old reddish creations that emerge as the oldest-known cave art. In India’s rural village of Charama, on the other hand, locals are very well familiar with cave paintings that are 10,000 years old, with images showing lithe creatures dressed like those from outer space and orange in appearance.

Since 1963, authorities had protected the Lascaux caves in France when green algae along with mosses started to cover the 15,000 to 17,000-year-old murals of creatures like bulls and horses. The spread of fungus and the general deterioration was also blamed on chemical reactions produced with guests’ breath.

Whether regal or rare, sophisticated or unusual, rock art formations, paintings, and carvings will always be an integral part of the ancient art. They are everywhere, from Britain to South Africa to as far as Afghanistan, and the hope is to preserve them for as long as possible and with very little human intervention in their nature and composition.

Image source: LiveScience.com

Sadigh Gallery provides affordable ancient artworks and coins for collectors of every level. It has appeared in several newspapers and magazines such as NY NewsDay, Celator, Coin World Magazine, Ornament Magazine, and Medical Device and Diagnostics Magazine. Read more on this page.

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