The Chauvet cave was a bear cave. In it are bear bones, their claw scratch marks on the walls, and indented spaces on the red/orange floors where the bears hibernated. Only during the summer was it safe for humans to enter and not confront a dangerous, 1000+ pound bear. Ironically, the dark and mysterious underground cavern also became a place where the Aurignacians created another aspect of their lives, the spiritual, something entirely new in human history. The rock was the artists’ (both men and women artists) medium for expressing meaning of their lives and they did it with over 1,000 wall drawings, engravings, geometric shapes, signs, as well as sculpted objects and bone collections.
The images of the animals seem to come alive in the darkness once light (latter-day torches and today's flashlights) is cast upon them. They seep out of the cracks and curvatures of the rock and seem to become animated. What is present in the cave are the living, the dead, and the spirits says Paleolithic art historian Diana McDonald of Boston University. In the minds of the Aurignacians, the drawings were equivalent to creating life.
The animals on the walls were "power animals" from whom the people derived sustenance both for food and for the guidance of their lives in their communities. The horses move reverently together in unison (above photo) and the lions are focused on the hunt.
The feeling evoked from the paintings is that one is on a journey to another world, another time, and another reality, McDonald continues. Coming upon the animals painted on the rock walls, one can begin to understand that for the Aurignacians the animals were intercessors to the Spirit World captured in the outlines of their bodies on the walls. By drawing the figures, the artists were trying to create a bond with them. The animals served as the mediators for help with daily life, curing illnesses, and communicating with the dead. The images on the cave walls were their religious texts that told stories about their culture and survival.
The
Aurignacians lived near these dark and silent caves, not in them. Researchers believe that the cave art contains
both these ancient peoples' imaginations and sacred myths.
Plants were not included in this menagerie of
drawings. However, what is unique to Grotte
Chauvet from other Paleolithic caves are the depictions of carnivorous
animals who once roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. Most other
cave paintings in western Europe feature sedentary animals.
Before entering the cave, communicants fell into a trance (through hunger, pain, alcohol, psychodrugs, or rhythmic dancing)
in order to see the spirits on the walls and through cracks and bulges
in the rock. As they looked at the paintings, which held a profound
power, they felt a sense of belonging to a numinous presence. Myths
developed from the drawings--and the act of drawing gave the artists
spiritual meaning and purpose.
Paleolithic archeologists and anthropologists believe the artists were shamans invoking fertility and hunting rituals, initiation rituals and/or contact with the spirit world. Prayers and rituals entailed gratitude for survival and sustenance and the appeasement of the spirits. The Aurignacian hunter-gatherers had an animistic worldview, which is “the belief that a soul or spirit exists in every object, both animate and inanimate. In other words, everything is alive. In a future state, this soul or spirit would exist as part of an immaterial soul. The spirit, therefore, was thought to be universal” (Science and Philosophy). Thus, the Aurignacians paid intense attention to and had empathy for the animals they lived among beyond their dinner plate. They readily recognized their disadvantage between themselves and the ferocious beings they lived among, but couldn’t help but “admire the large mammals that dominate[d] them.” So they saw their drawings of the animals as “spirits of creation.”
Anthropologists also believe that such artwork is the first time in human history that “the symbolic [and the spiritual] permeates the entire culture.” Consequently, the Aurignacians’ clothes, objects, tools, and art reflect this symbolism. As French anthropologist Philippe Descola explains in his book, Beyond Nature and Culture, spirits are everywhere in everything and everyone (man, animal, rock, landscape). All are connected. The hunter not only captures the animal for sustenance, he captures the animal’s life as an exchange of lives.
Social anthropologists suggest other signs of the spiritual nature of Paleolithic societies 35,000 years ago:
· - The living and the non-living were not separated nor were humans and animals;
· - All sensitive beings had spirits;
· - The art illustrates a closeness between humans and herbivorous and carnivorous mammals;
· - The artists were hunters who risked their lives for the survival of their group and who intimately knew the habits of the animals;
· - The artists regarded the animals as food but also as spiritual partners who could nourish their imaginations.
A bear skull set on top of a rock was deliberately placed on an altar.
The Spiritual Power of the Cave
The
power of the cave still seems to affect various researchers, journalists,
and artists who visit it. They report that not
only is the cave "fresh and untouched" as if the paintings were made the day before, but that the cave has an
unmistakable spiritual quality to it.
Stephen Alvarez, a photographer of National Geographic magazine, had the privilege of shooting Grotte Chauvet and writing the article: "Shooting Chauvet: Photographing the World's Oldest Cave Art." As a visual artist, he was deeply moved by the pictures of the animals on the cave walls, as he writes below.
“The connection with the ancient artists is visceral. It is a magic that no other form of communication can manage. Entering Chauvet is like entering a time machine.”
“Some of the power of the paintings is derived from where they are, deep inside the cave, surrounded by darkness.”
“It wasn’t until the second and third trips that I felt I was able to make photographs that said something about the relation of the art and the cave.”
“And although the artists’ message is lost, it clearly was something profound enough to take tremendous risks to say. That is the beauty of visual art. It is durable. It transcends time in a way that language cannot. How many of us can understand Sanskrit? Sumerian? On the timeline of human history those languages were spoken practically yesterday, yet they are lost to all but a few scholars. Visual art survives the gulf of time. As a photographer, that knowledge thrills me.”
One researcher said he had to take some time off from his work in the cave because he was so moved by the experience of the cave that he was having powerful nightmares about the lions of the cave.
And seeing the replicated artwork in Grotte Chauvet 2 gave me an emotionally-charged response by realizing that images of living beings had been meticulously created by living beings of a time past. Just as the first speleologists of the cave declared "They were here," my response to the art was: "They are still alive."
What we can learn from Paleolithic art is that survival
and reproduction are always important and not very far from our minds.
For these early humans, the animals were their biggest threat and such
fear and quest for survival has been imprinted on us in our modern
times. Also imprinted on us today is the concept of dominance: predators
over prey; the large over the small. Such status or rank became
associated with the leadership of kings, who are often seen with fierce animals. To survive in
such a world, the Aurignacians also offered supplication and appeasement
by drawing the animals. To survive and overcome inherent weaknesses in our world, we have built armies, technology, and cities.
For a simulated experience of the cave, click on to the 27-minute film, The Final Passage. It was created from 3-D surveys of the cave to show the wonders of the underground's rock formations as it combines with the artwork of the Aurignacians.
Sources:
https://www.missingmatter.info/tara-expo
Shooting Chauvet : Photographing the World's Oldest Cave Art
