46o 



NATURE 



[June 9, 192 1 



Prehistoric Art in Caves and Rock -shelters. 

 By M. C. BuRKiTT. 



PREHISTORIC art is a branch of prehistoric 

 archseology or prehistory, and, as a study, is 

 comparatively new. Although the discovery of 

 the Altamira paintings was made many years 

 ago, their palaeolithic age was not accepted until 

 after Riviere's discoveries at La Mouthe (Dor- 

 dogne). Riviere, in the course of digging out 

 the Magdalenian deposits of this cave, discovered 

 an entrance leading to a long passage behind. 

 The entrance had been completely obstructed by 

 undisturbed layers of the deposit. Man could 

 only have entered the inner cave previous 

 to the deposition of these datable layers. In the 

 cave behind were found a number of engravings, 

 many of them quite primitive, and a few paint- 

 ings. Once the palaeolithic age of these drawings 

 was accepted, M. Piette recalled the then almost 

 forgotten paintings of Altamira. The fact that 

 animals like the bison were found painted there 

 (t.e. animals long ago extinct in Spain) further 

 vindicated their palaeolithic age, and any stray 

 sceptic was finally won over by M. Cartailhac, 

 when he published his famous retractation. 



Since the beginning of the present century a 

 very great deal of work has been done and further 

 discoveries have been made in this fascinating 

 study of early art. Not only do all the recognised 

 text-books on prehistory devote considerable space 

 to this early art, but also a number of books deal- 

 ing specially with the art itself have app>eared. 

 These profess to cover the whole development of 

 the art from its first appearance until early his- 

 torical or even later times. The specialist, how- 

 ever, generally finds that there is a certain lack 

 of balance in books of this type, which is by no 

 means the fault of their authors, but simply due 

 to the fact that a very large amount of material, 

 especially of Neolithic or Eneolithic age, has 

 not yet been published. Practically all the 

 work on prehistoric rock drawings or paint- 

 ings has been due to the Abb6 Breuil (pro- 

 fessor at the Institute of Human Palaeonto- 

 logy, Paris). All the drawings that we see in 

 the popular books are reproductions from his 

 tracings of the originals. But besides these there 

 are a great number which he has not yet had 

 time to prepare for publication. The present writer, 

 who is a pupil of Prof. Breuil, and has travelled 

 with him in Spain and elsewhere, has neither 

 the space here nor the right to anticipate his 

 future publications, but perhaps a general survey 

 of the rock drawings and paintings from 

 Palaeolithic to Bronze-age times may not be 

 out of place, as well as a brief account of some 

 of the more important recently published dis- 

 coveries that have been made. 



The prehistoric art in Western Europe that is 

 to be found emblazoning the walls of caves and 

 rock shelters, etc., can be divided into six 

 groups : — 



NO. 2693, 'V'OL. 107] 



1. The ordinary Upper Palaeolithic cave paint- 

 ings and engravings. 



2. The Eastern Spanish style, rock shelter 

 paintings of Upper Palaeolithic age. 



3. The Spanish third group rock shelter paint- 

 ings of Neolithic and Eneolithic age. 



4. The Western Scandinavian rock carvings and 

 paintings of Late Neolithic and Eneolithic age. 



5. The South Swedish Bronze-age group of 

 rock carvings, with an outlier on the shores of 

 Lake Ongga, North Russia. 



6. The group of rock carvings, probably of 

 Bronze age, that occurs high up on the flanks of 

 Monte Bego, etc., in the Maritime Alps. 



It may be well to discuss briefly each of these 

 groups. 



Group I. The distribution of the ordinary Upper 

 Palaeolithic cave art depends first of all on the 

 presence of suitable natural caves. This in turn 

 demands the presence of limestone formations 

 in the district. Secondly, it depends on whether 

 the prehistoric tribes of the region employed this 

 particular form of magic ritual to ensure a good 

 success in hunting. These suitable conditions are 

 found : — 



(i) In Dordogne (France), especially concen- 

 trated round the little village Les Eyzies, on the 

 River Vezfere, some miles above where it falls 

 into the River Dordogne. 



(ii) In the Pyrenees, especially concentrated, so 

 far as it is at present known, in the Arifege and 

 adjacent departments. 



(iii) In Cantabria and Asturias, North Spain, 

 i.e. north of the Cordillera Cantabrica, that chain 

 of mountains which forms a continuation of the 

 Pyrenees along the north coast of Spain. Geo- 

 graphically, this region is South France rather 

 than North Spain. The cave art here is specially 

 concentrated near the town of Santander, which 

 forms a good centre for visiting the caves. 



(iv) A small series found in caves in South 

 Spain. There is no doubt of the similarity of the 

 art of this series and of the rest, but the apparent 

 absence of the U^pper Palaeolithic cultures over the 

 intervening Iberian Peninsula makes the actual 

 connection rather obscure. 



(v) In a single cave in the extreme south of 

 Italy. 



A proof of the age of this group has already 

 been adduced, and there are others into which 

 we need not go here. They would seem to have 

 been executed for magical purposes, and this is 

 shown from the following considerations : — 



(a) The animals are often painted or engraved 

 one on the top of another haphazard, which would 

 not be the case if they were made for decoration. 



(b) They are found in deep caves and often in 

 obscure spots, difficult of access. At Niaux 

 (Ari^ge) they are not found until the explorer 



