THE ART OF THE CAVE MAN 



By Clark U'i.s.slcr 



ONE of the oldest art galleries in the world is the cavern of Altamira, 

 Spain. It is so old that when we look backward to it from the 

 present, the time since Egypt, Greece and Rome flourished, 

 seems but as a century or two. The artists whose work has thus come 

 down to us could not have known the use of pottery or metals, but though 

 not even clay work had yet been invented, these primitive Europeans did 

 invent pictorial art. It is the anthropological conception that even pictorial 

 representation is a true invention whose underlying processes are not 

 essentially different from those involved in the in\ention of the steam 

 engine or the electric light. This is one aspect of the cultural conception, 

 a theory which holds about the same place in anthropology as does evolution 

 in the biological sciences. 



But to return to our subject, everyone is sure to ask how old are these 

 first preserved paintings. As to this we can but guess. Some would have 

 it that they are less than 25,000 years old, others more than 200,000 years. 

 Perhaps somewhere between these extremes is the true date. They were 

 made by a people living in the Aurignacian culture stage. Geologists have 

 a way of scaling out the history of the earth by considering the period in 

 which we still live as the Recent and the one immediately preceding it as 

 the Quaternary or Pleistocene Period. There are many others extending 

 backward beyond the reach of the imagination, but they are irrelevant 



flAMr-lALS CONTEM 

 PORARY WITH MAN 

 AT MIS SUCCESSIVE 

 STAOES OF 



ADVANCEMENT 



N4MES OF 

 THE &EOL0G 

 ICAL PERIODS 

 AT THESE 

 STAGES 



NAMES AND GRAPHICAL REPRESENTA- 

 TION OF THE DEPOSITS, OH STRATA. 

 FORMED AT THESE TIMES. IN WHICH IM- 

 PLEMENTS AND FOSSIL BONES HAVE 

 BEEN FOUND 



NAMES OF THE 

 CULTURE LEVELS 



WHICH INDICATE MAN'S 

 CONDITION BY THE CHAR- 

 ACTER OF MIS STONE AND 

 OTHER IMPLEMENTS. 



NAMES OF THE PE- 

 RIODS OR STAGES 

 IN MAN'S ADVANCE 

 MENT IN CULTURE 

 AND SKILL 



AGE OF THE 

 LATEST.On PLEIS 

 TOCENE PERIOD 

 OF THE EARTH: 

 ACCORDING TO 

 PROF A.PENCh 



MAMMOTM 

 HORSE OF THE 

 CAVE PERIOD 

 REINDEER 

 CAVE BEAR. 

 SPOTTED HYENA. 

 WOOLLY RHI- 

 NOCEROS. 



Upper 

 Quaternar/ 



Brick tartK — 

 Ergerorv 



Eollantwinal De- 

 posits ' 



Middle 

 Quaternary 



Gray Ogyy — -| 

 Laminated Clay- 



Ora/ Clay 



Potters' Earth 



Fluvial Sands 



Fluvial Sands- 

 Flinty Layer 



Lower 

 Quaternary 



Sand and 

 Potter's' Earth 

 Flinty Layer . 



PRIMITIVE ELEPMAMT 



Tertiarx 



LOWER HA6DALENIAN 



AURIGNACIAN 

 MOUSTERIAN. 



UPPER ACHEULIAN 



LOWER ACHEULIAN 



CAVE MAN 



/lb/no aungnace/>i/i 

 NEANDERTHAL MAN 



and rcUtives. Kripi. 



^^a af\d Spy. 



LOWER PALf OUTHIC : 

 orA^eof Oude Stone 

 iTipiemeiNts of t^e 



rive:r man. 



MODERN AND 



NEOLITHIC. 



8.000 Yzars 



16,000 Years 



100.000 Years 



400.000 Years 



STREPYAN. 



MESVINIAN 

 SESS^SSiiESSi MAFFLEAN 



EOLITHIC PERIOD 



/fomo ffexlt/bergeniis 



Pit/iecantAropus 

 erectus 



750.000 Years. 



289 



